Nursing to Medical School

ImLovingIt · May 24, 2017

First, if you want to raise your GPA, the most impressive thing you can do is take graduate level classes. Taking undergrad classes isn't going to be as impressive. Second, nursing school tends to have a tougher grading scale. For instance, my school was 93-100, A; 85-92 B; 78-84 C. Third, many people who do well in school struggle in nursing (not everyone, but plenty 4.0's go away after a semester of nursing school).

Basically, it's 2 years of classes that are unlikely to get you where you want to go.

applewhitern, BSN, RN · May 24, 2017

My nursing school's grading system was even harder than ImLovinIt's. 94-100=A. 90-93-B. 84-89=C. Anything less than 84 was an F, and you were out of the program. That was for my ADN program. When I went to the BSN program, the grading system was a piece of cake compared to the ADN. The BSN program was based on the traditional grading scale~ a 70 was a passing C.

Borntobenurse? · May 24, 2017

You are posting on the wrong site, but as someone who has some experience with the situation you want to put yourself in: You definitely can do medicine after nursing, but its much harder. Having all the medical prereqs will help, but if you want to be a surgeon, go try and be a surgeon. If you can't do that, go PA.

Yeah you could work in a hosp. till you 'get in' but its much more likely that all the work required just to get to the 'working in the hosp' part will burn you out and make it take much longer. Nursing is not a jumping board for medicine. Only someone who has never been in it, would think that becoming an RN is a good stepping stone to becoming a physician.

Coffee Nurse, BSN, RN · May 24, 2017

OP, I agree that PA would stand you in better stead than RN if your ultimate goal is medicine. The medical and nursing models are completely different ways of approaching patient care.

Editorial Team / Moderator · May 24, 2017

What is your GPA? Have you attempted the MCAT yet to see where you end up?

As the nurse married to a medical student, I would advise you to head directly to your ultimate goal. Do the post-bacc, take your MCAT, and apply broadly to med schools. Getting in is extremely difficult and competitive (nursing has NOTHING on med school, seriously it's a crap shoot sometimes).

RNperdiem, RN · May 24, 2017

From what I understand, just having the pre-requisites for medical school isn't enough these days. You need to far exceed the minimum to get accepted- great grades, top test scores, research, leadership in extracurricular activities, etc. Go over to the pre-med page on Student Doctor network. The competition is intense.

Nurses who become doctors are great, trouble is all that extra education does not come free or cheap.

WestCoastSunRN, MSN, CNS · May 24, 2017

I second, or third the idea of PA school ..... but only after you've tried to get into med school first. It's super competitive out there -- especially for med school, but in general, you need to be thinking about how to make yourself stand out. Get a job in a cath lab or some place and start networking with docs and nurses... see if there is a team that does any sort of missional or outreach work in the community or abroad. To raise your GPA ... are there any classes that are a part of the post-bacc program that you could take .... maybe like stats or something? Obviously it would be good if you could transfer that credit into your future medical program, so you'll have to some research on that. But I know in graduate nursing programs (at brick and mortar highly ranked schools), sometimes they will let you "start" on a class or two before acceptance into the program -- but don't know how or if this works on the medical side and I'm sure there is a difference between private and state schools. But at least it could get your GPA up.

Purple_roses · May 24, 2017

Your GPA absolutely will not raise by taking nursing courses, if that's what you're getting at.

SouthpawRN · May 24, 2017

I would say retake the classes you got a low grade and get 4.0 in each of them, that will replace your lower grade. Best way to increase your GPA. I think motivation would be an issue with nursing. I would look at doing something MS degree such as public health, research, biomedical etc. I think that will help more than being a nurse. I knew lots of paramedics that became medics just to get hired as a firefighter but had no love for EMS. I think PA would be a better choice. still you are looking at 1000-2500 applicants for 25 positions so you will be in the same boat with your grades. The nursing program I'm in required a 3.9 GPA to get to the interview.

floatingrib · May 24, 2017

Firstly one thing people keep saying which is false: GRADE REPLACEMENT NO LONGER EXISTS!! They recently took grade replacement out of DO schools as well, so retaking classes will not help you (sorry for the caps but I've seen an absurd amount of pre-meds not realize this early on and it's pretty bad to realize this as you're applying). That being said your upper level nursing classes will also not help your GPA since they will not go toward your science GPA (any allied health classes can't go towards the sGPA, only BCPM courses).

I'm not a nurse (yet), but I'm a nursing major doing pre-med on the side. Quite honestly you really need to be able to filter out fact from fiction esp on forums, but at the end of the day as long as you have a killer GPA and MCAT score and can explain why medicine after nursing no one really cares in medical school admissions. That being said your nursing professors will hate you and you'll probably have a hard time getting an recommendation letters from them (I made a very naive mistake as a freshman to express that maybe I'd become a doctor and let me tell you that didn't go over too well lol). Ultimately, I'm pretty sure you're not naive and you're probably aware this path may take an extra 3-5 years before you enter medical school vs taking a year off for the MCAT, volunteering, research, etc to make you're med school app more fancy, but as long as you know the reason why you're taking the path you're taking you have no way to go but forward. It definitely is a harder path, and it might be in your best interest to hold off your application until you get a year of full experience working as a nurse to apply to medical schools, but if you're dead set on it, go for it.

Ngl though it's probably far easier and far quicker to get into med school working as a cardiology tech then going down the nursing route because it won't really supplement your application. Plus nursing really isn't a major or field that's a jump board for medicine, and it will likely only make your path harder since nursing school is very demanding. (also side note about the PA degree, PAs do get to do minor surgeries, but the only way to become a full-fledged surgeon is to go to medical school so if that's your ultimate goal PA school probably wouldn't be best). Good luck though!

chacha82, ADN, BSN · May 24, 2017

I don't think it makes much sense. If you want to be a doctor, put your energy towards that. Med students don't work while they're in school - at least not as nurses. I follow an Osetopath student on Instagram and I think she makes some money working online doing beauty products - definitely not traditional work. Med school just doesn't allow time for working as a nurse. So, what would the point be? If you go to nursing school and then work in a hospital, you will spend at least 1 year as a New grad before you would be an experienced nurse (and that is still a baby in nursing years). So you would be deferring med school by at least 3 years.