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Discussion

RN to MD

I have been seeing a lot of nurses going to medical school lately. There is nothing wrong with this, but I'm wondering if there are any nurses out there who have that can tell me why they chose the nursing path before medical school instead of just going straight to med school. Do or did you feel like you were taking a spot in nursing school from another student who really wants to be a nurse? I'm just curious.

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    One person I know worked as an RN for about 6 years and just found the medical model interesting. This person had to take a few more classes, the MCATs and something else. I don't consider it any different than someone doing nursing as a second degree/ life change.

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    I have been seeing a lot of nurses going to medical school lately. There is nothing wrong with this, but I'm wondering if there are any nurses out there who have that can tell me why they chose the nursing path before medical school instead of just going straight to med school. Do or did you feel like you were taking a spot in nursing school from another student who really wants to be a nurse? I'm just curious.

    I think it's pretty rare for a nurse to go to medical school ...not unheard of, but rare. Anyway, "want" doesn't mean squat. If someone really "wants" to go to nursing school, they need to be competitive enough to make the cut. It's not something that can be "taken" from them.

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    I strongly doubt anyone does (or should) feel bad about "taking spots" away from other potential nurses on the basis of what they do years down the line.

    Anyway, nursing school doesn't cover many of the bases you need for pre-med and med school applications - organic chemistry, physics, etc. As such, just about nobody who plans on entering med school as soon as possible goes to nursing school first. It doesnt make sense. Nurses who later become doctors either want to work as nurses for a while for whatever reason, or (more often) planned on a career in nursing before changing their minds.

    For whatever its worth, what I see even more frequently is nurses going back to school to become PAs after a few years in the field. Why go to nursing school first? Same reasons as above, mostly.

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    I graduated from nursing several decades ago ... but way back then ... 6 out of the approximately 100 nurisng students in my BSN graduating class went to med school within a year of our nursing graduation. A few others went to law school (which is something I seriously considered). And still others headed to Master's programs in things like Health Services Administration. Add that all up and I'd say 10-15% of my graduating class went to grad school in other fields right after college.

    It was not uncommon for people back then to think of an entry-level nursing degree as a stepping stone to some other, related degree. That was my plan when I entered my undergrad program -- get the basic BSN and then build on that with a degree in some other field to have a career that focused on health care within that other field. (e.g. healthcare law, healthcare business, etc.) Decades later, I wish I had double-majored in nursing and history and become a historian of healthcare.

    What happened to me was that I got burned out in academia -- and decided to take a year or two "off" after college while supporting myself with staff nursing. I found that I liked being a NICU nurse and thus decided to go back to school for an MSN in perinatal nursing instead of getting a degree outside of nursing. Got the PhD a little later. For me, staying in nursing was a surprise.

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    I've known a number of nurses who continued on to medical school, but none of them entered nursing school with the idea that this would be a path to medical school (because, if that's your plan, it's not a v. good one, as cowboyardee noted!) They started out wanting and intending to be nurses, and changed their minds as time went on.

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    Do or did you feel like you were taking a spot in nursing school from another student who really wants to be a nurse? I'm just curious.

    There would be no good reason for anyone on either side of that situation to think that. Unless there is a Boogeyman/Nursing School Spot Stealer out there somewhere.

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