Nurse practitioner or do

Lastly, I don't like how a lot of doctors seem to have an ego. For instance, there was a post in a forum about the DNP where this resident talked about it not being a real degree and about how the number of clinical hours was nothing compared to his residency.

There will always be *******s in the world, that is how it is.

Only you can make the decision of DO or NP. If you want to go to nursing school and then apply to DO school, you can do that, you'd just have to take extra undergrad classes to do that.

I initially was pre-med when I started school but then gained a huge respect for nurses when I started volunteering in a hospital and worked side by side with them. I eventually changed to nursing for many reasons; the length of time in school, the opportunity to advance (and be an NP or CRNA etc.), the lifestyle I want to live (I love traveling), the many options that are available to you and the relative ease of changing specialties, but most importantly, I felt like my heart belonged in nursing. Not all doctors have an ego, some are nice and some are ****s and the same can be said about nurses or pretty much any healthcare professional. That being said, if I wanted to be more of a provider, it seems like I would be a lot more restricted in your state. In CA, NPs have a lot more autonomy, they can prescribe many medications, even vicodin, but I think they are restricted from prescribing some narcotics. I believe they can even start their own practice as long as they have an MD review their charts but they don't need to be directly under an MDs supervision. (someone correct me if I'm wrong) Good luck with your decision!

There may be a couple bad apples, but that doesn't make the rest of the batch bad. If you want to get Pre-Med support, try going to a Pre-med forum.

I would recommend you shadow all the potential options you have. You can learn a lot just by watching and listening.

Personally, skip nursing school...go be a doc. You won't be satisfied knowing that the grass is always greener in doing something else.

I think you'll find your own answer through nursing school. The exposure will be great, and you'll really get to see the different scopes of practice and the types of interactions with patients. No matter what people like to think, they are not equivalents. NPs don't have as many clincal hours....Physicians Assistants generally have way more clincal hours than NPs.

You'll also are better where you stand academically - nursing school can be a huge grade dropper for previously good students. If you come out with a 4.0 it'll look fantastic. 2.0, not so much.

Being under a doctor's authority doesn't necessarily have to be a bad thing. It doesn't mean a physician is literally following you around signing off every move you make. I don't think it would even be an issue unless you planned on opening up your own practice, but once again, it's way too early in the game to know where you career is heading!

Anyway, those are just my thoughts. It's hard to dealt give an opinion because it very much requires knowing you.