A little support would be nice

[DenaliView]

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I am currently an RN who is very seriously considering going back to school to become eligible for medical school. I have not been a nurse very long but figured out pretty quickly that I was not going to find contentment if I continued in this field. Nursing is wonderful and essential to the healthcare system just not the career for me. I am quite excited about starting over again and feel that with my experience I maybe have a slightly better view of what it means to be an MD on a day to day basis just through observation. So my frustration: in telling friends & family I feel like I get very little support. Answers range from “do you really want to go to school for that long” to the ever popular “why not just go back and become an NP”. The truth of the matter is I forsee the road to medicine to be a long and somewhat lonely one which I am alright with and at the end of the day I am the one who will be putting in the hours and making it happen so these opinions are simply that opinions. With all that being said my question, does anyone else seem to have trouble finding the support from friends and family or is it just me???

 

[0Complications]

Support comes from action. Once you actually enact the change and start going down the road to medicine your family will most likely get behind you. Right now you have done nothing to get into medicine except talk about giving up a career you worked hard to get into. Your family is just trying to get you to really think about this option before you make another decision that you might regret.

If you want medicine go for medicine, but I think the fact that your family is not backing you on this yet is their way of saying that they care about you and they don't want you to go astray.

At the end of the day, it's your life. Do what makes you happy and your family will support you. 😉

 

[Mobius1985]

I think the above is very true. At least they aren't actively telling you that you aren't smart enough, as I saw someone else post.

And if all else fails, you have us to support you.

 

[VoiceofReason]

I am currently an RN who is very seriously considering going back to school to become eligible for medical school. I have not been a nurse very long but figured out pretty quickly that I was not going to find contentment if I continued in this field. Nursing is wonderful and essential to the healthcare system just not the career for me. I am quite excited about starting over again and feel that with my experience I maybe have a slightly better view of what it means to be an MD on a day to day basis just through observation. So my frustration: in telling friends & family I feel like I get very little support. Answers range from “do you really want to go to school for that long” to the ever popular “why not just go back and become an NP”. The truth of the matter is I forsee the road to medicine to be a long and somewhat lonely one which I am alright with and at the end of the day I am the one who will be putting in the hours and making it happen so these opinions are simply that opinions. With all that being said my question, does anyone else seem to have trouble finding the support from friends and family or is it just me???

But what is it, exactly, that makes you want to be a physician rather than a nurse?

 

[DenaliView]

I went into nursing because like most everyone else entering into the medical field I had a desire to help people. But to be completely honest this came secondary to my desire to delve into the very complex world of pathophysiology, pharmacology, etc. I loved school and have felt quite amiss ever since graduating wishing I could go back and continue on. I am intrigued by the amount of information that is obtained in such a short period while you are in medical school. I have the ability to continue in my own studies but there is no way I could ever take away as much information as I would by being a medical student. I also love the technical and procedural part of medicine that with a nursing degree I will only be able to scratch the surface of. While a lot of the desires I mentioned above probably could be fulfilled with becoming an NP I feel like even then I still would not be satisfied. While NPs can do so much they are hardly ever the ones that deal with the sickest of the sick, the training they receive does not prepare them for those kinds of patients. No doubt if a current medical student or resident is reading this I am sure they are probably thinking I have no idea what I am asking for and to be frankly honest I am sure I don't. But who of us do, medical school and residency are an incredible and miserable 7-8 years of your life but you come away with so much when it is all said and done. No other discipline in healthcare comes close to having the knowledge and experience that you gain. I know now it sounds crazy and in the midst of it I probably would eat my words but the idea of being in the middle of all that is really exciting to me. I really hope I too get to someday be part of this. Please know these are a few reasons and not a complete list as that would take way to long and probably bore everyone.


And thanks again for the kind words posted thus far.

 

[LiveUninhibited]

I went into nursing because like most everyone else entering into the medical field I had a desire to help people. But to be completely honest this came secondary to my desire to delve into the very complex world of pathophysiology, pharmacology, etc. I loved school and have felt quite amiss ever since graduating wishing I could go back and continue on. I am intrigued by the amount of information that is obtained in such a short period while you are in medical school. I have the ability to continue in my own studies but there is no way I could ever take away as much information as I would by being a medical student. I also love the technical and procedural part of medicine that with a nursing degree I will only be able to scratch the surface of. While a lot of the desires I mentioned above probably could be fulfilled with becoming an NP I feel like even then I still would not be satisfied. While NPs can do so much they are hardly ever the ones that deal with the sickest of the sick, the training they receive does not prepare them for those kinds of patients. No doubt if a current medical student or resident is reading this I am sure they are probably thinking I have no idea what I am asking for and to be frankly honest I am sure I don't. But who of us do, medical school and residency are an incredible and miserable 7-8 years of your life but you come away with so much when it is all said and done. No other discipline in healthcare comes close to having the knowledge and experience that you gain. I know now it sounds crazy and in the midst of it I probably would eat my words but the idea of being in the middle of all that is really exciting to me. I really hope I too get to someday be part of this. Please know these are a few reasons and not a complete list as that would take way to long and probably bore everyone.


And thanks again for the kind words posted thus far.

I would assume that as a nurse you work with doctors all the time and have a good idea what their jobs are all about? If you can demonstrate the academic aptitude for medicine, this would make you a very good candidate. The reasons you mentioned about wanting to delve into the complex, scientific issues of medicine made sense. Hopefully there is a way for you to pursue medicine while maintaining your RN prior to entering medical school? That way you would still have something to fall back on if, for whatever reason, it doesn't work out.