Seriously considering dropping nursing school for medical school?

[Strawberrygirl2]

I've been recently admitted to nursing school. I am only 19 years old, but I have spent the last two years strenuously completing prerequisites and planning my nursing career.

I work in a hospital, and for months I have observed the work of nurses and that of physicians. I have slowly come to realize in the past few months that nursing is not where I am meant to be. Please don't misunderstand me, I have absolute respect and admiration for nurses. I have simply realized that my passion lies within the medical model and not in the nursing model. When I picture myself as a nurse, I feel discontent. I feel as if I will have settled for something maybe more practical in the moment, but not for something that is in my heart.

One side of me thinks, you're nuts. You have already been accepted to nursing school. You have the finances to cover the program and come out with little debt. You've got a path completely mapped out. You have the support of your family, friends, and superiors at work. You have a guaranteed job out of school at a beautiful new hospital. You have so much going for your already. Why throw all of that way?

But the other side of me thinks, good for you. For once you aren't settling for something you don't want. For once you aren't letting the opinions of others influence what you know is right for you. You no longer have to long for the career of the physician walking down the hall; that will be you. You no longer have to convince yourself that you can live your life in a career that you don't want. You're living your full potential. You're exceeding your expectations.

I thought to myself a couple of weeks ago... if you could have one thing in your one life, what would it be? My answer came immediately. To be a doctor. I wondered to myself... if there is one thing that I want more than anything in life, why wouldn't go out and get it?

I have considered the route of nurse practitioner. In fact that was my original long term plan. But I would be going into that career for the wrong reason. I would be getting a degree as a nurse and a NP just so that I can be closer to working the career of a doctor. That doesn't make much sense to me. If I want to be a doctor, I should be a doctor.

So after two years of nursing prerequisite work, a stressful application process, and an admittance to nursing school, I am about to drop all of that. I am planning a transfer to the University of Washington, looking into starting a Microbiology major, and working towards applying to medical school in a few years. I am not elligible for financial aid and cannot get any support from my family. Due to being a middle class white I have never been able to get any scholarships despite high achievements and volume of scholarship applications. So I will end up in some serious debt. Especially if I cannot get into my one in state medical school and have to go out of state.

My new supervisors are so impressed by my prior enthusiasm for nursing school, and being a nurses themselves, have promised to help me balance work and school. I do not feel they will give me the same approval if I tell them I dropped nursing school to pursue medicine.

My poor grandparents and extended family have been rooting for me all along to become a nurse... what will they think? My parents say they will support me... why don't I feel that support? Half of my friends have flat out told me I'm being young and stupid.

It sounds crazy. Working so hard to get into nursing school, getting accepted, then dropping it. All to start over on some wild and difficult new adventure.

But I've never felt so right about anything else in my life...

I'm so scared. I guess I am just looking for opinions. Thanks for listening everyone.

[mike109810]

As someone who recently finished medical school, and is now starting off as a freshly minted resident, here is my take on your situation:

I think it is fantastic that you have been able to do a bit of introspection to decide what makes YOU happy; afterall, it is YOU that will be in the career that you chose to pursue. You are still relatively young, so it is good that you are mature enough to sit down to think this true, and follow a goal (that is more than I can say about most 19 year olds). I feel that if you WANT to pursue medicine, why not go for it? You are at the point in your life where you have truly nothing to lose. I know people in undergrad who switched their major 4 times, and are spending their 6th year still working towards their bachelor degree; you on the other hand, haven't wasted any time.

My advice is to work your backside off during undergrad, and start your MCAT preparation as early as possible. I can't stress this enough! I was a student ambassador at my medical college's admissions office, and I remember that they ranked the waitlist 90% based on the MCAT score, since it eliminated variability based on course ease/difficult across the board.

As long as you are truly motivated, NOTHING can keep you out of medicine (hey, if I made it through med school, I am sure anyone can). I do agree with the other poster who said that the medical college admissions process is a pain...a HUGE HUGE HUGE pain, and you will hate it with a passion (applying for residency was even more annoying). However, once you find yourself in a pathway you enjoy, it will all be worth it.

If for whatever reason you are not able to have success during your undergrad pursuing pre-medicine (as you stated you were concerned), you can use your credits towards obtaining a BSN. I know bio majors from my undergrad who switched after 2nd year to a BSN tract, and are now practicing as registered nurses. The point I am trying to make is that anything is possible...things can easily be changed around.

I think you should listen to your heart, because, you don't always want to wonder "what if". Best of luck...with career choices like these two, you can't go wrong. Either way, you will be in a great profession.

[wazeout]

Why not do both, that is get your RN and work and go back to school to become a physician. The hospital you work at may even help you out.

[SpEdtacular, MSN, RN, EMT-P]

There are plenty of people who get a BSN and then go to medical school. I think that you should really examine your likes and dislikes of both professions and talk to doctors and nurses to make sure your perception of what they do is accurate. You also need to consider the lifestyles of the different professions and see which is more compatible with you. There are all kinds of people working in different areas of the medical profession but no matter what the area is you'll have good ones and bad ones so don't fool yourself.

[biker nurse]

I can only tell you , it wasn't until after I was married, that I got the confidence to become a LPN. AN LPN knowing I always had an RN to fall back on. When I finally achieved my RN , it took 10 years. I had 3 kids , a husband and some other set backs. If I could do it all over again, I would have become a doctor. I know I still can , but at 43 I just don't have the ambition. SO If I were in your shoes..... I''d go for it!!! MD all the way!!!

[DizzyLizzyNurse]

Thank you everyone, your responses are all very encouraging. I appreciate the support. I have received comments on the other side of the spectrum from family and friends, and secretly share some of their worries.

I have always been smart and ambitious. But what if I drop nursing, start pre-med and realize that I can't even handle the difficult courses of my undergraduate degree? How on earth would I handle med school? Residency? What if I realize I hate what I am doing and wished I was in nursing school and had never quit? What if I get through my undergraduate degree and don't get into medical school?

What if... what if... what if... I feel I owe it to myself to consider these questions, but I also feel like I owe it to myself to follow my heart.

Even if you hate it or find out you can't handle it or it's not worth it to you......at least you KNOW instead of always wondering what might have been. I say go for it. You can always change your major later if you hate it.

[love-d-OR]

Go to med school if you want to be a doctor. Do not waste any more time with nursing school. Actually, you should be grateful for having realised your prefernce now instead of years into practicing nursing.

You are 19 and have all the time in the world to make mistakes and make changes. I'm fairly young too, but I did not get where I'm at in one shot! I wanted to be a doctor because that's all I knew as a kid, graduate medical school prep-type high school at 15 --> took a break cause I did not even want to go to college anymore, but at 17 decided I wanted to be a computer engineer, so I started taking computer science classes in college. Then one day, I realised I wanted to be a nurse!

My point is, go for what you are passionate about and if things change so what? At least you will not be 40years old regretting never having tried. Regarding your family, don't worry about them, it's your life. I know I wasted time listening time listening to my parents, it's not always worth it.This is the time for you to make mistakes or great decisions, trust me, if you don't one day you will look back and regret it. Good luck!

[brainiacal1]

To the Original Poster:

You might be able to do both with very little to no slow down if you plan WISELY. If you were to get a BSN, you could then apply to medical school. You don't HAVE to have a biology or microbiology, etc degree to apply to medical school......you simply have to have the medical school prerequisites plus ANY 4-year degree (could even be engineering or teaching, for that matter - although something like biomedical engineering would parlay much better than something like teaching insofar as being germaine to the pre-reqs, etc for med school). Most pre-med students get a science degree in either the biology or chemistry-related fields mainly because it gives them the opportunity to take all the pre-reqs plus some of the medical school courses too (such as biochemistry, etc). As a BSN, you will have taken all the medical school pre-reqs except for the 4-semester chemistry sequence. You might also have to take a couple of physics courses and calculus I (can't recall if those are required or just recommended). In any case, if you plan wisely, you'll take the 2-semester chemistry sequence instead of the 1-semester chemistry most nursing schools require. Then all you'll need are the 2 semesters of organic chem (don't take the less-in-depth one-semester organic chem for medical school prereqs). After that, although not required, take the biochemirtry course (again, do not take the "easy" one) since you will be taking that course in medical school (it will give you a leg up once you get into medical school). In addition, look carefully at the medical school curriculum and take as many similar courses in your undergrad curriculum to give you a leg up in those courses too. A course like pathophysiology may also help in medical school since many medical schools include a pathology course in their curricula. You will already have that either overtly or included in your nursing curriculum...although maybe not as in depth, but it should still give you a leg up. You'll already have a leg up on the A&P in medical school since 2 semesters of A&P are required for nursing school too. The "trick" is to take all those "extra" courses in the wait year AFTER you apply to medical school. Ie. you have to apply a year before getting into medical school, so you'll have a year of free time for on your hands anyway if you have already taken all of your core coursework for your 4-yr undergrad degree. By taking those courses after you apply/get accepted to medical school, you won't have to worry as much about your grades since you will have already applied/been accepted to medical school. (Hopefully, you'll still get great grades in those courses, but it does take the "heat" off psychologically.)

The pros to already having a BSN also include having clinical experience with pts. In addition, if, for some reason, you don't get into medical school, you can still work as a nurse. With a 4-yr biol type degree, there are fewer job opportunities (Google on Monster, Careerbuilder, etc to see what kind of job opps are out there for bio- & chem-related 4-yr degrees). The cons are you'll have to take a little additional coursework (ie the chem sequence for pre-med, etc).

The cons of medical school (and maybe nursing too) are the Obamacare or Socialistic type plans some people want to put into effect. Those types of plans have made careers in medicine close to worthless in Europe, for example. (You might want to Google that too.) On the other hand, the US public may not stand for those types of plans once they figure out they will be chockful of much heavier HC rationing.

The pros of medical school: medicine tends to be a more respected profession than nursing, you'll have more autonomy, more career options, and it also pays more (assuming Socialism is held at bay). In addition, if you like the scientific aspect more than you like the psychosocial/holistic aspect, you'll definitely enjoy being a physician more than being a nurse. BTW, another option is PA school (rather than NP) - it's more science-based vs NP which is more holistically based. Also, PA school has essentially the same pre-req requirements as medical school. One caveat: am not sure what effect the possible DNP requirement for NPs will have on PA employment in the future (could go either way, if you think about it), so that's something else to consider too. The other option might be CRNA if you go the nursing route....better pay & more scientific than nursing in general.

BTW, don't drop your nursing school seat (if you already have one) until the absolute last minute (or defer for a semester if allowed) - that will give you a little more time to decide and a buffer too. If you're just on a wait list for NS, then stay on the list even if you start working on a microbio degree in WA state - it'll keep your doors open in case you change your mind.

No matter what you decide, plan wisely and BEST OF LUCK!

[danh3190]

Why distract yourself with nursing school if you want to be a physician? Go for it with everything you've got, but don't spend time looking back wondering if you should have gone to nursing school. You don't want to be a 40 year old nurse wishing that you'd gone to medical school.

People make a big thing about medical vs nursing model, but there's nothing in the nursing model a physician can't do if he wants to, subject to their very heavy time constraints. I've seen a couple MDs who are better nurses than the RNs.

[breezy7, BSN, RN]

You're 19 - go for it! Though, honestly, I would give this advice to almost anyone at any age.

I'm in a similar situation - I'm a 22-year-old who just finished her degree in Anthropology. I realized that I was settling when I decided to pursue Public Health, so now I'm on the road to a nursing degree! I say go! go! go! You have the passion for it.

[brainiacal1]

I can only tell you , it wasn't until after I was married, that I got the confidence to become a LPN. AN LPN knowing I always had an RN to fall back on. When I finally achieved my RN , it took 10 years. I had 3 kids , a husband and some other set backs. If I could do it all over again, I would have become a doctor. I know I still can , but at 43 I just don't have the ambition. SO If I were in your shoes..... I''d go for it!!! MD all the way!!!

You know, at 43, you'd be finished with medical school and a 3-yr residency by 50ish (& residency is paid about the same as a nurse gets paid, BTW) ....still 15-20 years left to work as a physician. You're really not too old yet....borderline, but you STILL have time if you act NOW!

Just a thought..........

[Guest717236]

Strawberry! Don't waste time with what if, what then etc, etc.

See if you can shadow a nurse and a doctor for a day.

Ask your MD for ideas on who might let you observe in the doctors office

for a day. See if you can shadow someone in the specialty you are interested in. Ask lots of questions.

See if you local med school offers a mini med school experience for

the general public. It would give you an idea of the types of

subjects covered.

Here is one example--

http://www.baystatehealth.com/Baystate/Main+Nav/About+Us/Community+Programs/Mini-Medical+School/Course+Schedule

Nursing or MD training is a long journey. Start by being open to the experiences

and you may find the right career will pick you!

Best wishes, remember to follow your heart. Its better to be passionate

about the work you do....

[mazy]

I think you sound like you've got your head screwed on straight. You are both listening to what your heart wants and at the same time approaching this very rationally in terms of how to do it. I wish I had been so mature when I was your age.

Graduating from medical school with debt is a given for almost everyone, just be very carefully about the kind of debt you accrue and the way you spend your money. I would also sit down with a financial counselor at your school and work on a realistic understanding of what you need to spend your money on and how you want to borrow it and what it will take to pay it back.

I think that whatever you decide you'll be great. Wish you the best of luck.