Please help me make this life-changing decision

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Hello everyone, I am a 19 year old pre-nursing student who recently has been denied acceptance to a competitive nursing school with a 4.0 and 73% on the teas for this coming fall (I know, not the best score in the world, but sufficient).

I am tempted to drop all my nursing prerequisite classes I'm signed up for right now, switch my major to something business-oriented, and start on med school prerequisites because of additional research I have conducted.

I have done countless hours of research, and am still unable to come to a reasonable conclusion; I CANNOT be the only person in my situation, and I am incredibly frustrated and indecisive. I'm at Zermatt ski resort in Switzerland on vacation, and instead of having a good time, I'm stressing out and typing this up. That said, please excuse any grammatical errors as this is my phone I'm typing on.

Please take the time to try and understand my logic and point me in the right direction. I know I'm the only one who can make the decisions for myself, but input would be greatly appreciated.

BACKGROUND:

I started college a year and a half ago, and after picking apart every major under the sun all through high school, I decided on nursing. I love medicine, solving problems, and seeing the look on peoples' faces when I can make them happy or do something for them. I believe that I will find fulfillment through helping others, and that is the only way.

One day I want to have my own primary care clinic, or work independently in medicine, business, or both. I don't like punching in and out for "the man," nor dealing with a superior's uneccessary disrespect in the workplace, which as I'm sure you all know, is all to common.

The plan was to get my BSN, get my FNP, and get some primary care experience in some doctor's office for a few years until I feel confident enough to open my own clinic. And do it efficiently.

From the start, I wanted to be self-sufficient ASAP, so you can see why this may be frustrating. Here I am, with my 4.0, an AA that will be done by the summer, and nothing to do for fall.

MAIN CONCERNS ABOUT MD:

- Quality of life and free time are two of the most important things to me. A life buried in books and work is not a life to me; that is slavery. This is the main reason I chose nursing initially; I could help people and still have a life.

- If I do not do a residency, I will be restricted to family medicine.

- If I do decide on a residency, that almost certainly means I will be working at least 60 hours a week to over a hundred, excluding dermatology, which is as I understand nearly impossible to get into. I refuse to sacrifice my friends, family, hobbies, and quality of life for twice full time and $11 per hour for years.

MAIN Concerns about DNP:

- In the coming years, the MSN will be inferior to the DNP. This is just a fact.

- A DNP possibly may be required by the time I have my BSN, though unlikely; if the MSN programs haven't been completely terminated, they surely will be hard to find post-graduation. The experience required to enter the DNP program (if experience is necessary by then, which is likely) will have defeated the purpose of the more timely graduation, fraction of the tuition, and somewhat easier schooling of FNP nursing school compared to MD school. This is true for me because I will not be serving a residency if I go to med school. If I do, it won't be for a while.

- DNP's have the same scope of practice as those with an MSN (for the time being). Meaning if I wanted to practice, I would most definitely have to move away from Florida.

- Currently, FNP's are not recognized by commercial insurance agencies, meaning I can't get paid by anyone but illegals and out-of-pocket patients in almost all of the states.

- I refuse to work in an American hospital as nurse because of its degrading drug testing policies, and I really don't feel like being Canadian. Even if I didn't care, I highly doubt I would enjoy working in a hospital, at least as an RN.

Even as I type this I feel like I've determined the answer for myself, unless I'm missing something. If so, please enlighten me. Is DNP worth jumping through all of the political hoops? Is med school too time consuming or not a better alternative in the long run?

Kudos to anyone who actually read the whole thing. I'll stop rambling and let you all talk.

I'm glad you've made a decision that you feel comfortable with OP. Everyone finds their niche in different places. I certainly hope you didn't base you decision on what synaptic has said though.

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medical school, hands down. Ive been out of NP school a few years. never made less than 100k, but Im still going back to medical school. Start in the fall and can't wait. All my bosses at work (er docs) make 4 times as much as I do.

People that don't say its worth it are crazy!

Unless your deadset on the nursing model, skip out and take the more financially rewarding route.

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Specializes in NICU.

Think hard about your lifestyle...the saying, "you can have a life or save a life" is not far from the truth. Doctor's schedules are terrible and the debt that most people go into is insanity. I have no regrets about not being a doctor. I am more than my job and have other interests that I like to pursue like traveling, triathlons, and spending quality time with my family. For the doctors that I work with and the ones that I've seen in my time, that is their life. And they love it- most of them. But there are the younger ones in their 30s that hate the time they have taken away from their families...

Is the lifestyle like that with every specialty? No. But it is for too many for comfort.

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Specializes in Ortho.

Become a PA

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OP,

You definitely remind me of myself 5-10 years ago. I even took the summer off during junior and senior year of my BSN program to attend a medical school internship at UAB. UAB selects 20 "young scholars" in Alabama every summer who spends two months living on campus and attending rounds, writing papers, studying for the MCAT, going to conferences, doing pathophysiology presentations, going to the attending house's for pool parties, etc.

During that time I was almost convinced to drop out of nursing school and switch to a biology major and go to UAB for med school. They don't officially say you have a spot reserved in med school but they did admit that almost all that attend the internship are taken into their med school.

After I thought long and hard about it I chose to do my BSN, then ICU experience then doctorate as a CRNA. It's the right choice for me and I wouldn't want it any other way. Everyone has a different path and I hope you find yours well.

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Specializes in Neuro/Trauma Critical Care.
Think hard about your lifestyle...the saying, "you can have a life or save a life" is not far from the truth. Doctor's schedules are terrible and the debt that most people go into is insanity. I have no regrets about not being a doctor. I am more than my job and have other interests that I like to pursue like traveling, triathlons, and spending quality time with my family.

100% this is what all the doctors I work for tell me. So many of them have told me if they could do it all over again they would do PA, CRNA, or NP (or dentistry interestingly...). The stress that they're under is unbearable and they have virtually no time at home. Plus the debt that you come out of after that amount of time in school is unreal. Our residency here in my department is 5 years, and if you want to specialize you have to do a fellowship. So 4 years medical school, 5 years residency, plus 1-2 yr fellowship for a grand total of 11 years not including the 4 years of undergrad? No thanks!

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100% this is what all the doctors I work for tell me. So many of them have told me if they could do it all over again they would do PA, CRNA, or NP (or dentistry interestingly...). The stress that they're under is unbearable and they have virtually no time at home. Plus the debt that you come out of after that amount of time in school is unreal. Our residency here in my department is 5 years, and if you want to specialize you have to do a fellowship. So 4 years medical school, 5 years residency, plus 1-2 yr fellowship for a grand total of 11 years not including the 4 years of undergrad? No thanks!

I've been thinking A LOT about this and I was eventually convinced to return to the nursing path. I know, I know, I am the most indecisive person on the planet.

I've been talking to many med and nursing students, nurses, and doctors about this on the net. Huge range of responses (many of which were just med students ******** at me for even considering nursing school).

I labeled the thread "Why go be a general practitioner when you can be a DNP?", or something along those lines. I know, it's a title that provokes the med students a bit, but that's what I was looking from them; I wanted them to defend their position. I also asked if it was feasible for a new DNP grad to open a clinic straight out of school.

That kind of backfired and I was accused of trolling, but I did receive quite a few interesting perspectives. I pissed a few people off, but who cares? It's the internet. Lots of good info, however.

Anyhow, I just can't justify spending the next eleven years of my life and enduring immense debt, all for an extra $50k a year after I turn 32. From a personal and economic standpoint, it simply does not make sense. I've decided that there's more than one way to make money in this world, and that isn't what is important.

If there is one thing the DNP will accomplish, it's allowing more autonomy for nurse practitioners in the future. It will act as leverage for the lobbies in that the educational value is technically more in-depth than the MSN. I'd be led to assume the educational standards for the DNP will be upped in the coming years.

What is important to me is being able to help people everyday while maintaining an active social life and activities other than work. I appreciate my free time more than a dollar. I just initially figured MD would be the best way to reach my goals. This is subject to change, obviously, but I've just resumed summer classes today in preparation for a BSN program.

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Specializes in NICU.

Thanks for updating us.

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- I refuse to work in an American hospital as nurse because of its degrading drug testing policies, and I really don't feel like being Canadian. Even if I didn't care, I highly doubt I would enjoy working in a hospital, at least as an RN.

Otherwise you do not belong in the healthcare field. Also, from the perspective of a student who considered both medical school and np school. Understand that getting into medical school is tough and not some cake walk. I studied for the mcat and just couldn't get the score. And organic chemistry that they teach for non nursing majors is really difficult.

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Otherwise you do not belong in the healthcare field. Also, from the perspective of a student who considered both medical school and np school. Understand that getting into medical school is tough and not some cake walk. I studied for the mcat and just couldn't get the score. And organic chemistry that they teach for non nursing majors is really difficult.

organic chemistry used to be used as a form of torture back in the 1960s. they banned it because peoples heads would explode randomly. mess was difficult to clean up

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