Nursing to Med School

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Has anyone actually considered this path? If so, currently where are you now?

Are you in Nursing school still in hopes to continue on with the education?

What is your opinion on it?

Eh, I don't agree with getting a DNP just to be called doctor. However, for the ones who work hard enough for a doctorate in any degree/path deserve to be called doctor, whether it's DNP, MD, a doctorate in education, etc. There's a principal at an elementary school in my area with a doctorate, and thus is referred to as Dr. so and so. Did it confuse the kids? Sure, for about 10 minutes while it was being explained at an assembly at the beginning of the year.

As far as confusion for patients, it's an opportunity for education. Although honestly, what do DNPs call themselves? I don't think I've met a DNP. Do they or would they get crap from MDs for calling themselves doctor (since they do in fact have a doctorate) sure, maybe, probably, depends on the physician. But who cares.

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its an impractical way to go. nursing school takes about 4 years to get to, ironically just to receive your associates, and then you'll need another 2 years to get your bachelors which depending on where you are/where you want to work, youll generally need to get to find a job.

In addition, nothing youve learned from nursing will really help you as far as med school curriculum goes. I always heard people comparing NPs and PAs saying their main difference in schooling is that NPs learn from a nursing model, whereas PAs learn from a medical model like MDs do. I didnt really understand what that was suppose to mean up until i started nursing school and now i understand fully, and i truly loathe the nursing model in comparison to the medical model (i was formerly a paramedic, so this is a painful transition for me but thats neither here nor there)

take into consideration med school will be 4 yrs itself plus maybe a year (With summers) to take any ofyour science pre reqs you may not have gotten from your ADN/BSN or that mayve expired, and another 3 yrs of residency you may be burnt out from the..16-17 years of school you're about to endure

the only practical reason i can see for doing this is i guess if you want to work/save some money to pay for med school, but lets face it, if you want a decent education to get a good paying job, life revolves around loans--a debt that youll be racked with at the end of such an arduous journey

but its your journey nonetheless, and with sheer force of will, im sure itll all be worth it for you in the end if its really what you want.

My 2 pesos.:)

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If you have a doctorate, call yourself doctor (don't care about the "confusion" thing, PhDs were "doctor" first, so if ther's confusion, physicians need to fix it.)

But, if you just want to be called "doctor so-and-so" you can get that pretty quick off the internet. Often from the same places you can get ordained.

Sincerely,

Reverend Wooh

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I'm doing the opposite, I have pre med degree and now I'm going for my BSN...So few of the classes translate over. Like yes, we both take microbiology but I took 475 in college and needed to take 250 to apply to nursing school. I took pharmacology but premed pharmacology is completely different than nursing pharmacology and so on. If you want to be a doctor save yourself the headache of trying to transfer classes and just go to med school lol.

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And to answer the question in your original post, yes (at least now) I want to continue on with my education and maybe get my MSN or DNP...But I say this before I even start nursing school lol...Being a nurse or a NP is completely different than being a doctor, like others have said. If you know you want to be a doctor, why even bother going to nursing school?

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Have a good ol' fashioned "Come to Jesus" moment with yourself and figure out why you think practicing nursing before becoming a doctor is a good idea. Also, why you'd want to be a nurse or doctor without the other attached

My two cents: Nursing school is tough, Med School pre reqs are tough, Med School is tough. Why not subtract a tough or two from the equation and just pick one or the other. It may seem like a good idea (for experience, as a fall back, idk) to do nursing as your undergrad, but I've looked into it and it just seems like it would be a nightmare. If you're 100% on being a doctor get a degree you're passionate about/ inherently good at and do well in it.

If you don't know what the hell you want to be. That's okay too. In the end, the choice is yours. There is no right or wrong way to do life. We're so trapped in a groupthink of "Well you can only be one thing" and I think people have more talents than pigeon holing themselves to one career.

The answers you'd be getting on here would be much different say, if you were a nurse who'd worked for X number of years, already had all of your med school pre reqs out of the way with a 3.5 GPA or higher, scored a 30+ on your MCATS, and had a story of passion about wanting to be the doctor you never saw in the hospital. People would probably be telling you to do it.

Everyones path is unique and sometimes you've got to bend a norm. Good luck with whatever you decide.

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No offense to you, OP but I'll never understand why some people think that nursing is a stepping stone to med school. They're 2 completely different paths.

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No offense to you, OP but I'll never understand why some people think that nursing is a stepping stone to med school. They're 2 completely different paths.

Umm.. Not as a stepping stone, but I see it as being in the Medical Field, and gain valuable experience. I know the are two different fields. I just didn't know if people actually did it or not.

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Umm.. Not as a stepping stone but I see it as being in the Medical Field, and gain valuable experience. I know the are two different fields. I just didn't know if people actually did it or not.[/quote']

Sorry, I wasn't trying to demean anything you said. Clearly I just didn't read your post thoroughly enough. I personally don't know anyone that has but I'm sure a lot of people have. The only thing that sucks about it, is at least at our school, the chemistry and bio courses are specific to majors. The chem I'm taking now is a nursing chem. If I'd switch to pre med, I'd have to take completely different chem classes, etc. although, it's no different than anyone changing your major. I'm sure being an RN can help in some ways gaining experience in the hospital setting and with patients.

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Its a really impractical way of going about getting a medical degree. Less than a quarter of your nursing prerequisites will count for the classes you need for med school. And the classes you take in nursing school won't be transferable to med school. Go into nursing because you WANT to be a nurse. If your ultimate goal one day is to be a doctor, do pre-med now. There is no age limit on med school, but the amount of time its going to already take you to become a nurse and get into the field is almost 4 years depending on where you are at in your prerequisite classes and how fast you progress through nursing school. After all that work, you'll have to basically get a whole other degree to get into med school.

You technically don't have to be a science major to get into med school like some people have said. But you do have to complete the minimum course requirements which is: 1 year of general biology, 1 year of general chemistry, 1 year of organic chemistry, 1 year of general physics, and a few upper level biology courses such as genetics or micro. And most schools will have their own set of other requirements as well. I know this because I was pre-med before I chose to go into nursing. I just realized I didn't want to spend the better part of my 20's and give up my career as a competitive horseback rider and my relationship to go to med school.

So technically, you could become a nurse before going to med school. But you're really just wasting your time if your ultimate goal is to become a doctor. Just preparing to get into med school will take you years, on top of 4 years at a medical college and then residency. I understand you wanting to get a good experience in the medical field, but you will get that time in med school at clinicals and in your residency. If nursing is not your longterm goal, don't waste the time and effort you should be putting into going to med school.

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You know what?

Do what you want and what you can handle.

Being here and reading all the depressing horror stories (and seeing bad experiences for myself) about how impossible it is to get a job as a new grad nurse has made me wish I took pre med courses in my first couple years of school in case a job doesn't work out.

Don't go about telling the world you are pre med or have that path in mind. It's nice to have it in case you change your mind or can't get a steady middle class job as am RN. But keep it your secret.

Maybe even take an extra year if you can to get the pre recs done.

There are RNs who became MDs in the world and they aren't evil people. You are better off doing what makes you feel comfortable and secure rather than what people on the internet tell you to do.

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You would be wasting a lot of time. If you want to be a doctor, go right for pre-med and skip nursing school. Having a nursing background is not going to help you out much, and pre-requisites are completely different and non-transferable. It would be a huge waste of time and money getting your RN and then going to med school. Pick one or the other. As other posters have stated, it is a possible path, but again, it seems rather silly.

If you do pursue your RN, have you considered going into advanced practice? (nurse practitioner or maybe nurse midwife?) Also, getting your PA is something to consider too. It's a lot easier to transition from RN to PA than it is to MD or DO.

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