Senior Nursing Student (BSN) Planning on Med School- Looking for Some Adivce!

[AZ8409]

Hi all!

I am a senior nursing student and will be graduating with my BSN this May. Starting college, I knew I wanted to do something in healthcare that was heavily based in human anatomy/physiology, however was not sure what. Decided on nursing because it made the most sense at the time. However, after progressing through the nursing curriculum and doing all of my hospital rotations as a nursing student, I have decided that medicine is what I really want to be doing, and I I can elaborate on my reasoning more if anyone wants it (I am aware I will have to answer the "why did you leave nursing for medicine?" question), however my question is more about where I should go from here.

My current plan is as follows:
Graduate with my BSN and take the NCLEX this summer (2017), and work as an RN for one year. In Fall 2017 I plan on applying to formal post-bac programs that will begin in the summer (so summer 2018 for me, hopefully). I am taking the GRE (my SAT score is pretty meh) next semester, so will have that for my post-bac app. Then hopefully complete an accelerated year-long post-bac finishing off with the MCAT (doing a ton of research on the best programs for me currently), then either link into med-school (would be a reach), or take a glide year and apply/interview.

Bit of background:

• My cummulative undergrad GPA will be roughly 3.93+ (4.0 in my nursing prerequisites)
• Will have about 2,000 hours of work experience (Case management assistant at a level 1 trauma center)
• My BSN clinical rotations (although I have a feeling these won't count, as they were required by my program).
• Will have about a year of RN experience once I (hopefully) begin my post-bacc.

Again- I do not want it to seem as if I have decided on medicine on a whim; I have been thinking about this for the past two years pretty heavily, and finally decided that I picked nursing for all of the reasons I should have picked medicine. I only had a few science courses before beginning the nursing work (A&P 1-2, micro, bio (no lab though), some psych classes), and got straight A's in the classes and loved them. I am confident if I am able to get accepted into a formal post-bac I can do well (with a ****-ton of hard work, of course) in the pre-recs. I did some light-shadowing over the summer of NP's, PA's, and MD's, and it solidified my decision that MD is the only route I will be satisfied with. Since I only have two semesters of nursing school left, it makes the most sense for me to finish out and then go for a post-bac.

So if anyone has any insight or critiques for me/this plan- I would really appreciate it! Or if anyone else has gone the RN ---> MD route.

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[Carouselambra]

I've been a nurse for about 3 years now. All I'll say is even though it's just nursing there is still quite a learning curve depending on where you work and how much your hospital invests in educating you. My hospital tries their best to recruit, train, and retain nurses so my first year I had meetings and simulations I had to attend. So that might conflict with classes. Even though I went to a very good nursing school I really didn't know a thing until I started working. Perhaps I had a good foundation that has helped me. Still not sure. I feel like experience and learning on the job making connections has trumped anything I could've ever read in a book. While I never struggled or felt like I couldn't cut it I'm just saying that it's definitely hard work so don't bite off more than you can chew (not saying you are).

I've been working full time, taking classes and volunteering but those shifts really kick my butt. Not sure how some of these nurses have been doing it for 10, 20, even 30 years as it's physically demanding and emotionally draining. It's stressful dealing with very sick people, drug addicts/alcoholics, mean people, nice people, grateful and ungrateful people, noncompliance, etc. It's a rollercoaster. Doctors deal with that stuff too but the cherry on top for us is that it's more physically demanding imo. I played baseball in college and I'm still in great shape and I'm usually exhausted after 3 shifts in a row. So just be prepared and don't burn yourself out if you plan on working while doing everything else to polish that app.

Try your best to make connections on your last few rotations and land a job stat. That's probably the best thing you can do to get the ball rolling quickly. I had an ER job lined up at Emory but I moved to Florida with my now wife and it took about 5 months for me to finally land a job an hour plus away, nights, albeit at the best hospital in the area. If you are able to make nice on your rotations you're more likely to be offered a day position which would be much nicer on your sanity and plans.

 

[AZ8409]

I've been a nurse for about 3 years now. All I'll say is even though it's just nursing there is still quite a learning curve depending on where you work and how much your hospital invests in educating you. My hospital tries their best to recruit, train, and retain nurses so my first year I had meetings and simulations I had to attend. So that might conflict with classes. Even though I went to a very good nursing school I really didn't know a thing until I started working. Perhaps I had a good foundation that has helped me. Still not sure. I feel like experience and learning on the job making connections has trumped anything I could've ever read in a book. While I never struggled or felt like I couldn't cut it I'm just saying that it's definitely hard work so don't bite off more than you can chew (not saying you are).

I've been working full time, taking classes and volunteering but those shifts really kick my butt. Not sure how some of these nurses have been doing it for 10, 20, even 30 years as it's physically demanding and emotionally draining. It's stressful dealing with very sick people, drug addicts/alcoholics, mean people, nice people, grateful and ungrateful people, noncompliance, etc. It's a rollercoaster. Doctors deal with that stuff too but the cherry on top for us is that it's more physically demanding imo. I played baseball in college and I'm still in great shape and I'm usually exhausted after 3 shifts in a row. So just be prepared and don't burn yourself out if you plan on working while doing everything else to polish that app.

Try your best to make connections on your last few rotations and land a job stat. That's probably the best thing you can do to get the ball rolling quickly. I had an ER job lined up at Emory but I moved to Florida with my now wife and it took about 5 months for me to finally land a job an hour plus away, nights, albeit at the best hospital in the area. If you are able to make nice on your rotations you're more likely to be offered a day position which would be much nicer on your sanity and plans.

Thanks for your reply!

I am actually planning on working one year as an RN with no classes during that time. I will be applying to post-bacc programs, but that is it. I 100% agree nursing is no joke, and I will need to devote my time/energy to adapting to the real-world as a new grad!

 

[Carouselambra]

Thanks for your reply!

I am actually planning on working one year as an RN with no classes during that time. I will be applying to post-bacc programs, but that is it. I 100% agree nursing is no joke, and I will need to devote my time/energy to adapting to the real-world as a new grad!

Excellent. The only other thing I'd say is volunteering which I didn't see you mention. I'd start early even if it's only a few hours a week. Long term quality volunteering adds up and is better than stuff scattered all over the board imo.