Essentially there is nothing wrong with getting an undergrad degree is just about anything you want, so long as you do the pre-reqs, score well in them, do well on the MCAT, and jump through the other hoops.
The issue that is disturbing to me is when I see people needing a bachelor's who are NOT already RNs and going for the BSN as a jumping off point to medical school. This is suboptimal to getting another degree in general. The reason is that you are saying you aren't really making a commitment to the profession of nursing, and that you are using it as stepping stone to try to get into med school. In my opinion, this is just idiotic--for a number of reasons.
One is that whilst striving to get into medical school, you will be lucky if you get the opportunity to get strong clinical experience as nurse in acute or critical care--two of the main areas where clinical exposure is most valuable--much less move through the 5 levels of nursing experience:
- Novice
- Advanced beginner
- Competent
- Proficient
- Expert
It takes time to learn and apply clinical nursing. You can't get this in a year or two of nursing. You can't really get it in three years, full-time--especially if you work in a specialty area, like various forms of critical care.
Two, these areas will physically and mentally beat you up, due to the sheer physical work, the rotation schedules, the numerous stressors of functioning effectively in an area that demands a lot of multifunctional/multi-disciplinary work and commitment. Some of this may depend on the area of nursing you choose to focus on; but in general, you are forced to interact with so many disciplines and clients, trying to focus on priorities and keeping everyone happy, which is not something that can always be done,
but it IS expected of the nurse. So, then you are running around trying to attend the required pre-req sciences and scoring well, while working rotating schedules as an RN, as well as shadowing, volunteering, preparing for MCAT, developing sound relationships, and preparing a strong application overall. You can forget about a social life if you are working full-time while going to school. And even if your grades don't suffer, chances are you will get sick or have boatload of trouble at work. Eventually something has to give when you work in the craziness that is acute/critical care in a busy hospital, working rotations. Working other areas will not give you the same valuable experience, and you need to at least get to competent/proficient in the field.
Yes, if you get a undergrad degree in science, you may then work in some level of research; but generally you won't be working rotating, 12 hour D/N schedules whilst working your arse off in the same way. (Literally in many areas of nursing in a busy hospital, it's like someone blows the whistle, the ball is kicked, and you start running and you don't stop until morning or night, whichever rotation you are on at the time.)
Plus rotation from day to night every two weeks makes attending classes and labs tough--or even being able to schedule classes, b/c some weeks you will be working day 12s, which means you can't attend the classes and labs on those days. This is a huge problem. And if you do get there after working 12-13 hours all night, you may not be as sharp and alert for the class as you should be. So, in general, unless you can knock out all your pre-reqs and get A's--while building good rapport with your professors in these classes--all during the completion of your undergrad, it's a waste a time. Even if you manage that, it's still a huge waste of time to go straight for nursing as some kind of bridge to medicine, b/c you will not have time to really work in the field and gain any valuable expertise to use on your med school application and PS.
That's why going from nursing to medicine only makes sense if you are/were already a RN and needed the BSN after working for a while out of an ADN or diploma school program. In most cases, I don't even think it makes sense to get an LPN and then go to become a RN through a BSN program. This approach ONLY makes sense if you have already been a licensed RN, who obtained the right to sit for state board RN exams through a BSN program, or you have completed an NLN accredited RN program sat for the boards and passed, then worked for a decent period of time in nursing, and found that you had developed a legitimate and profound interest in medicine after working in the nursing field.
It makes not sense to go for a BSN if you know you will have essentially no time working in the field. In all likelihood, most nurses that go to medical school will have very little to absolutely no time to work as a RN while in medical school or residency. And good luck with trying to get a per diem position in most places without a good 2 to 3 years full-time experience in your particular area of nursing practice.
