I am a long-time RN with experience in critical care, adults and children, OHS, etc. I am not yet in medical school, b/c I have not applied d/t the completion of another program I started before considering medicine.
Because I had already pursued nursing and have strong experience in certain areas, I don't doubt that there are times when I may be able to pick up shifts while in MS. If I am lucky, maybe it will equal to 20% of my full-time work value. I may indeed be dreaming here.
To start a career in nursing just to make a certain amount while in med school will not pan out for you in all probability. The Opportunity Costs of a nursing degree will not give you the gain you are looking for in terms of the cost of attendance, time commitment, and then getting a strong amount of experience in a particular area in order to be marketable, and then it will be more than challenging to move further in terms of work while juggling medical school unless you are some kind of machine when it comes to quickly learning large amounts of material.
In terms of jobs, well there are some exceptions, depending on the area, but right now, graduate nurses are NOT, repeat NOT getting jobs--and if they are, they are not in the areas they want or even in the hospital. Places outside of the hospitals tend to may a lot less. On top of that, as in any field, you have to pay your dues, and that means, usually, a good amount of night shift, holidays, and weekends. If you do get a hospital acute or critical care position right out of school, you will be so beaten up by the job, again, depending upon the type of hospital and area in which you are working, it will be a huge struggle to concentrate to meet the demands of med school. Plus, you would be new to the field, and would have to deal with the extra stress of the learning curve, and an environment that is not always supportive (often not even a little supportive) of those new to the field.
It's not worth the money, energy, stress, & the reduction in time that would probably need to be dedicated to medical science studies--along with any little time left over to take care of yourself and be with your family. It might be one thing if you were already working in the field for a good period of time; but even then, the demands of medical school material and volume will make working more than say, per diem, pretty difficult. You'd only end up with 1/5 of what you think you might be able to make in the field, IF THAT, given the school demands--and that's if you find a job in one of the higher pay settings and get through the heavy and often caustic grind of acclimating to the role. It can be tough to get hooked up with people that will truly be there for the new nurse, as opposed to those that are just waiting for the novice nurse to make a mistake. Many places cycle through new nurse hires like socks. You might get lucky in that regard, but it will still be a grind. Being a new nurse in acute or critical care--in say a busy university center--as one example--along with going to medical school. Wow, I don't have the time to really get into it all. It's compounded stress and for the hours you will be able to work, so not worth it.
I think everyone is on the right track in this thread, and I think they are being wise and honest.
Opportunity Loss/ Opportunity Gain will not make it worth it.
