Should I pursue CRNA or Med School? (Help)

[ahreeol]

I love this website! You guys can be so encouraging and informative.

This is my problem. For the past two years i have spent my time completing all my nursing prereqs for undergrad. I FINALLY got into the nursing program at my school in just my first try (400 applicants and only 30 seats per year). Everything from orgo to anatomy was straight A's. Honestly i found the coursework to be pretty light. My only troublesome class was microbiology (still got an A though). My point is.. I love science. A lot.

The ONLY reason i pursued nursing was to become a nurse anesthetist. When i did the massive research for the field a couple of years back I learned that it only took 2 years of grad-level coursework to complete. I started doing some research this week and it's becoming more apparent that the field is transition to a doctorate level. Thus, "ima" have to spend more time in school.

My point is i've always said that if i were going to do 3-4 years of intense schooling after my bachelors i might AS WELL become a doctor. It only makes sense (at least, in my mind). Becoming an RN is hard..becoming a CRNA is harder. Still, becoming a doctor is the hardest of the three. Regardless of which route i choose I will still have to give up working or having a life outside school. If i'm going to enslave myself for years to come should i just put myself through med school?

I know i sound like a confused little boy who probably has no idea what he's getting into but i've actually spent countless of hours researching all my alternatives. I also have a 3.87 overall gpa and 4.0 science gpa so i do know how to apply myself in school. I am without a doubt sure i can ace all my prereqs for med school.

Here's the time breakdown for everything:

Undergrad nursing 2 years + 1-2 years work experience + 2-3yrs (summer included) SRNA = 5-7 CRNA route

***From what i understand getting into crna school with ONLY 1 year experience is possible but more than likely not realistic. So, a realistic time frame would be 6-7

Undergrad premed 2-2.5yrs + 4 yrs med school= 6-6.5

Should I pursue crna school??? Or med school? I'm just scared that by the time i actually finish becoming a nurse and gained experience, most if not all of the programs would have transitioned to dnp.

Also, I do understand that doctors do residency so the time frame is without question, longer. But i feel like once i graduate med school i'm basically soooo much closer to becoming a licensed doctor so please for the purpose of this thread lets not focus much on the residency portion.

Despite sounding like im leaning towards becoming a doctor i'm actually SO confused. I truly am 50/50 about it. Can someone practical tell me how these two different routes will affect me and how hard each truly is.

Help,

Confused kid

[Mully]

Lets not focus on the likely 5 or more years of residency?

...lol...

[SoniaReb]

......without a doubt sure i can ace all my prereqs for med school.

Therein lies your answer. You seemed confident in the fact that you can get excellent premed grades and will be able to get a good MCAT Score, ultimately getting into Medical School, so I see no reason why you wouldn't pursue a medical career. The problem I see is you are not 100% committed to be a doctor. Most Premed students are very passionate about becoming a Doctor and tend to focus on that goal.

If I was in your position, I would delay Nursing school (can you defer your seat?), spend 1-1.5 years doing the required Premed Courses and take it from there. You do not want to spend the rest of your life at the head of the operating table thinking that you should have been the doctor performing the surgeries, as oppose to being the CRNA. As an alternative, you could finish your BSN, get licensed and then complete your Premed Prerequisites and then apply to Med School. There a lot of nursing students who were also premed majors and went on to become MDs after completing their BSN.

To sum it up....follow your heart! A poll is not going to help you arrive at a personal decision that will effectively determine your future career.

[Rc224]

Hi ahreeol!! I am totally in the same predicament. I can't decide what I want to do either. I have spent 2 years on all of my pre-reqs for my BSN in nursing and aced all of them. I am starting the nursing program in a couple weeks and hope to become a CRNA one day, but most of the programs have already migrated to a doctorate level in my area. I think the same thing...should I go through all that schooling and get a doctorate of nursing....or should I just go for it and try to get into a medical school? It would really set me back though to not enter into the nursing program, it would take me at least 1.5-2 years to take the pre reqs I would need to be successful on the MCAT (I would still need to take Chemistry and physics..etc..) Ahhh so many decisions! I've shadowed many RN's and they have always encouraged me that I could still go to med school after nursing. I just want to make sure I find a profession that suits me and I will be happy in. I hope that I am making the right decision. Best of luck to you!

[ahreeol]

Mully, that's totally debatable! lol (depending on the residency).

Soniareb, I truly appreciate your wisdom and helpful guidance. I am definitely considering deferring my seat (if possible.. which if not, I could still apply to and get in because acceptance in my school is purely based on gpa and the hesi score which i easily scored above in- compared to everyone else). If I do take this route, however, i'll have all the requirements for PT, OT, PA, RN, MD..So I do feel slightly incline to take this chance because i'll have more options in the long-run (just IN CASE). I just loathe the 5 year timeframe most schools have for having completed all the sciences. It truly puts a damper in things.

Hi Rc224!!! :)

If you tell me you're 22, i'll definitely assume you're my long lost twin lol. It's nice to know i'm not the ONLY person going through this right now. Two-three years ago (before starting the preqs for nursing) I did massive research on the CRNA route and saw that every program was at a masters level. So, logically i thought that this was the best (and shortest) route for me. After doing research this past week i saw that most in my surrounding area were transitioning too . It's becoming more real with every passing year. I did look into NP as an alternative but even the NP programs are now becoming doctorate (which is ridiculous to me because PA programs are not). However, I must say the transition is i think happening slower for NP than CRNA.. perhaps maybe because there's more schools for that program. Still, most places are REQUIRING 2 years of experience before applying to an NP program, which just adds time on to everything (and im not necessarily getting younger). So that's 2 years to become an RN, then 2 years to gain experience then 3-4 years to get a doctorate for NP or CRNA. That's 7-8 years in total. I feel like becoming a cop and calling it a day lol.

[WhiffOfGas]

I typically just read this forum and absorb like a sponge rather than posting. However, after reading this conversation, I thought I’d throw in my two cents:

I agree with the previous posters Mully and SoniaReb: Go with your passion! Honestly, I think you're weighing the length of school too heavily. Now, I'm not saying it shouldn't be a factor, but I believe it shouldn't be the primary consideration in choosing one field over the other. Working around doctors and CRNAs, it’s my observation that their motivation for entering their respective fields are generally quite different from each other. Medicine is not nursing. Nursing is not medicine. The majority of CRNAs I know chose that route because they wanted to practice nursing-based care/anesthesia NOT medicine; I think you’ll notice many nurses here on the forum cite this same rationale for why they didn’t go to medical school. Furthermore, I think it's worthy of asking: Are you looking at anesthesia as a specialty after med school (ie anesthesiologist)? What would be your primary reason for being an MDA vs a CRNA -what differences in the two professions are most attractive to you? Maybe my individual experience has biased me, but, it is my perception, MDAs and CRNAs do function in a different capacity; CRNAs are typically doing more of the cases and are more involved with patients than an average MDA -who is doing more of the paperwork, administrative duties, and running from room to room (said another way: I see most MDAs in front of a computer or pile of charts, and I see most CRNAs in front of an actual patient).

For me, the CRNA route is the most appealing. In graduate school, you will learn the science of anesthesia, and of that particular specialty; in undergrad nursing -and while garnering necessary experience to apply for anesthesia school- the primary emphasis will be more on patient care and the basics than on the "deep science" of it all (that's where grad school comes in). In pre-med/medical school, physicians, on the other hand, will be much more science-based than patient-based throughout. This isn't to say that doctors don't care about their patients, or that nurses don't care enough about the science, but I mention all of this to point out where a HUGE difference lies. I argue that most people are driven to become nurses (and thus, CRNAs) because they want to be involved with and help patients; most people, I contend, are driven to the physician route primarily because they want to practice medicine. Which are you more drawn to? It's actually kind of easy once you put it in perspective. Frankly, I don't believe you'll find many nurses who became nurses simply because the length of medical school was more daunting than nursing school, but rather they became nurses because they wanted to practice nursing --and became anesthesia nurses because they wanted to practice anesthesia as a nurse.

In short, your decision should primarily come from the heart, not the calendar.

Just my (lengthy) two cents. Hope it helps!

[Rc224]

Ahrehol,

Lol close.....but I'm 20 right now haha. Yes I feel the same way, before I chose nursing I definitely looked at the APRN's and had loved that I could still be in anesthesia and be a nurse. I have always wanted to be an MDA since I was little, but I knew that medical school would be such a long road for me. I thought CRNA would be perfect. I am really bummed that the programs are transitioning so quickly...I know by the time I get my bachelors and my ICU experience as an RN that they will be. The school I am interested in has a masters and a doctorate option, but from what I've read it would make finding a job easier after school to go ahead and get the doctorate. I've shadowed in the ICU at my local hospitals and have found out just how hard it is to land a critical care position fresh out of school. Which means even more time to gain my experience I know that I probably should take the others posters advice and not focus so much on length of school, but it is really hard! We have many hoops to jump through, but I know we will get there one day! :)

[ahreeol]

Aroww33,

Thank you so much for giving me such a thorough response. I really do appreciate it and I hope it enlightens other readers who, like me, were/are confused as well. Taking time to just re-evaluate what i really want as opposed to how long it'll take me to get there is something i really need to do (and intend to do). So again, thank you :)

Rc224,

You're exactly right in every possible way. I truly feel like our minds, in regards to everything nursing/life, couldn't be anymore in sync. It's nice to know I'm not the only one thinking and going through this. Even though i originally was set in med school or CRNA school I am now considering other options like NP or PA school. It seems the NP route will become a doctorate level as well but so far most of the schools in my area are still at a masters level. I still have a lot to consider and i still need more time to weigh my options but do let me know what you decide if you change your current nursing route.

[subee, MSN, CRNA]

To the OP: What makes you think you would even want to spend your life in anesthesia? What is so appealing about it to you? Why would it make you happy?

[loveanesthesia]

How long do you think a MS in anesthesia is? How long do you think a DN(A)P is? Seems like an odd reason to look at spending an extra 4-5 years in school.