Please Help RN to Med School Advice

[futurecaregiver96]

Hi,

Ok, I was hoping someone could give me some advice on becoming a registered nurse and then going to medical school but let me give a little background on my personal situation. It's a little long, but I really appreciate it if you read through it. If not, my questions could be found where it read "QUESTION"

I am a Senior in high school and I take care of my mother who is ill. Her hands do not function as well as they used to but she still does lightweight work at her jobs and she works because we need the money. While she can still manage personal hygiene, i do the things such as cooking, moving large things etc etc. I am there to translate for doctors, to do basically everything she can't because of her health.

I thought about going to a CalState locally and becoming an RN by earning a bachelor's in nursing first and then applying to med school. I would be able to be by her side and hopefully she would quit her job and I would work as an RN for a few years while we stabilize our finances. Then go on the med school hopefully

QUESTION

My questions is the road to RN to Med school difficult? I know that the prereqs for med school don't correlate within nursing but I know it is not impossible. I just wanna know how practical it is. My dream is to be a doctor and help many but nursing for me could be an opportunity to help others earlier while providing financial support for my family.

Please give me advice, Has anyone out there done this? Advice really appreciated!

P.S. I'm sorry. I know it was long and I'm sorry if I came across as if I'm doing nursing only for the money or using it as a stepping stone for medical school. In a way I am, but I hope you can understand my reasons why.

[Dranger]

This post always creeps up once in a while so I will copy and paste my usual response:

NO NO NO NO times infinity No lol

Statistically it is the worst degree path (MCAT and practicality wise) to go straight from nursing to med school and here is why.

1. Wasting your time, most of the nursing curriculum besides basic basic patho/pharm is not going to apply to medicine at all plus you are taking a seat from someone who wants to be an RN

2. Your classes don't count, almost none of the pre-nursing classes count for anything when looking at the pre-med curriculum which means your summers will be swamped with pre-med classes

3. Statically nursing/allied health majors scored on average the lowest on the MCAT even lower than Music, English etc

5. Resentment, if you tell anyone while in nursing your plans to jump ship you will instantly be ostercised by peers and professors

6. 99% of people on here saying it is a great pathway to becoming a doc are blowing smoke and have never tried it. It's the most convoluted and difficult of any path in my opinion

MY ADVICE:

Best option: Switch majors and go pre-med NOW, pick an easier degree and excel at the pre-reqs

OK option: Complete nursing degree work a few years then try and gut out the pre-reqs on your own time which is not easy

Terrible option: Try to do both while in school, your priorities will be in disarray

​Been there done that, I took partial pre-med curric in nursing school then more as a nurse while studying for the MCAT. If I had to do it over again I would have just switched majors because this is the least practical path imaginable trust me. I have friends who I went to college with who are already doctors, one a poly sci major and the other history. Nursing is too specialized of a degree and med school admissions officers will be suspicious why you left nursing and will suspect you will ditch medicine as well. Exact words from a ADCOM to me...My pre med GPA is actually pretty good but I have lost years off of my life with work and school while taking hard science classes.

[Cg37387n]

Wait I don't get why you don't go the Pre-Med route? Like as a Chem, Bio, or BioChem major?

If you're doing Nursing as a backup plan, go for the regular 4 year degree in Biology or Chem, or whatever you want to major in (but do the Pre-Requisites) and if you don't get into Med School due to grades or shadowing or whatever it may be. You could always do an ABSN.

To be honest, I don't think you know what you want to do, and you are trying to decide nursing school because you might like that, but you love the "power" as a doctor. Set your priorities.

[futurecaregiver96]

Thank all of your for your advice. I appreciate it! I have a pretty good idea of what I should do now.

My priority is my mother and I will figure out the best way to take care of her and support her.

Thanks once again.

Best Wishes.

[v111]

I think you should take it one semester at a time. I was going to go to medical school and got my degree as a medical laboratory scientist. The degree combines all of the classes required for medical school admission. Then, my father passed away. I was left to take care of my 82 year old mother with health issues. Medical school was out of the question. Now I have been admitted to an accelerated bachelor of nursing program. I feel my mom should do fine being home alone four days a week 9-5 for just one year. Afterwards my options for furthering my education are limitless and flexible. I plan on attaining my masters in family nurse practitioner on a part time basis. this will allow me to work part time, take care of my mother and work on my masters part time. Then, doctorates in nursing. In the end I will end up will end up with a doctorates that I will be proud of as I believe my father would too. Good luck.

[sMoLsNurse]

I personally am not offended by what you posted. I would suggest go for nursing and then maybe on to an NP. You could always do a part-time RN program if it's too much time spent at school for a full-time program. Best of luck to you!

[mynameisdave]

You can always become a Nurse Practitioner later on, they are similiar to doctors. They can prescribe meds, interpret labs, etc.

[caliotter3]

Whichever path you decide to take, make certain that you put everything you have into it. Leave out the regrets. You will need all your mental energy. And do not fail to heed anything you might figure out along the way. Not everyone who is an A student in high school can maintain 'top of the pack' when they have to compete with other A students at a top tier university. You may do well, yet still find yourself not accepted to medical school, or nursing school. Be prepared with a Plan B and even a Plan C. Best wishes for you and your mom.

[MichelleRN32]

my brother (also an RN) talked to an MD today, from the LA area. He was a resident in podiatry. Making $3,800/month, having to work 70+ hours a week, and with $330,000.00 debt. He has a newborn at home and the biggest regret of his was not being able to spend time with him at all..he even said that RNs are luckier, they get the same amt of money, less work and most of all have little to no school loans when they start off.

I'm not saying that these are the situations with all the MDs;the knowledge and two initials after your name cannot be compared to anything.

Realistically, you need something where you can get a faster degree so you can earn $ quicker and the RN route is probably it. Later on, you can go into FNP, which is a mid level practitioner; then, you will be able to diagnose and prescribe meds etc.

Honestly, even with a BSN you can get years of experience in a field, get a couple of certifications under your belt (like RNFA) and make the same wage as an entry level FNP, from my understanding.

Good luck with your decision and hope all is well with your mom

[ceebeejay]

I would suggest that you go and talk to a director or nursing in a hospital and request if you can shadow a nurse for a few hours. See the real day in the life of a nurse. Then, see if you can do the same for a doctor. I kind of understand where you care coming from. I wanted to be a doctor my whole life. That is, until I had to spend some time caring for my own sick parents. Then, I realized the mental "idea" I had of a doctor was really the stuff that the nurses were doing. The doctors had almost no time to spend with the patients; they were running and rushing as and almost rude, because of the load of patients they had to see. The nurses were rushing and hurried, but were providing *care* to the patients. Especially, the ICU areas of care. It was an epiphany and it saved me a lifetime of misery. You are young and may have a "movie" in your head of what docs and nurses do, but the reality is quite different. In the end, if the doc is what grabs you, then go for that. The time and the debt will do you in if you try to do both. It's not an impossible leap from RN to Doc, but most RN's never started out as RN's with the intention of becoming a doc. Good luck to you and your mom.

[Carrie RN]

I am not offended. My sibling is a doctor. I would tell you go the biology, chemistry, or microbiology route if you want to be an MD. Go to nursing school if you want to be a nurse.

[LadyFree28, BSN, LPN, RN]

I would suggest that you go and talk to a director or nursing in a hospital and request if you can shadow a nurse for a few hours. See the real day in the life of a nurse. Then see if you can do the same for a doctor. I kind of understand where you care coming from. I wanted to be a doctor my whole life. That is, until I had to spend some time caring for my own sick parents. Then, I realized the mental "idea" I had of a doctor was really the stuff that the nurses were doing. The doctors had almost no time to spend with the patients; they were running and rushing as and almost rude, because of the load of patients they had to see. The nurses were rushing and hurried, but were providing *care* to the patients. Especially, the ICU areas of care. It was an epiphany and it saved me a lifetime of misery. You are young and may have a "movie" in your head of what docs and nurses do, but the reality is quite different. In the end, if the doc is what grabs you, then go for that. The time and the debt will do you in if you try to do both. It's not an impossible leap from RN to Doc, but most RN's never started out as RN's with the intention of becoming a doc. Good luck to you and your mom.[/quote']

^THIS.

I hope you are able to shadow both, research thoroughly before making your decision.

[TC3200]

If you choose med school: People have gone to med school at the osteopathic school in Lewisburg, WV as nontraditional students. I know two who were single mothers with one child in tow, each. And a former lab tech who moved his mother to med school with him, and she was not physically capable of work at all. This is late '80s timeframe I am speaking of, and things might be different now. But at that time, there were married couples, single moms with one kid, and that guy with his mother, and all of them found real nice apartments to rent AND also qualified as low income tenants with dependents. It was kind of a racket for the local landlords, to rent to med students as "low income." Great deal for the students, and the landlords got a far superior tenant that way, compared to the average Section 8 or whatever they qualified for. I think it must also have helped their financial aid situation, too, to be older students, minorities, with a dependent. My friend is a surgeon now. He borrowed as little money as possible. He has no regrets. The only thing I recall him complaining about was physical exhaustion from lack of sleep. He said he went to the school counselor and she asked him "Which do you want to do more? Sleep, or become a doctor?" He's a doctor, so that must have settled it.

If you go to RN school, you will also be run into the ground from no sleep. I was surprised about that when I went to RN school. I knew med school was like that. I thought RN school ought to be less work, haha. I didn't stay, and I'm going for med lab tech not RN. Nursing is not for me. I asked myself "Which do you want more? Sleep, or to become a nurse." Sleep won.

All the best to you, whichever you choose. :-)