Any RN's wanting to go to vet school?

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ERPeds

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I was just wondering if there are any RN's here that are considering vet school. I had struggled for about a year with considering med school, which I ultimately decided against, and actually got accepted into a graduate nursing program, which I dreaded doing, and consequently withdrew from. I've done some serious soul-searching (for lack of a better term) and have realized that this is the only way I'll ever be happy with what I'm doing.

Anyway, my question is, do ad comms look down on a switch from human--->animal medicine, and what are some obstacles a nurse/career changer would encounter in the pursuit of vet school? I realize I need about 2 years post-bacc (mainly chem and physics), and am completely ready to do that. I took the GRE for the grad nursing and scored decent, but I'll retake it to be more competitive for vet school. I have tons of animal experience, though not directly with a vet.

Any input is appreciated.

Thanks.

P.S. My undergrad GPA is 3.58, which I expect to raise by studying my butt off and getting A's in the post-bacc courses.

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OK.. A couple issues here.. First, how do you know that this is what you want to do? I know that soul searching is useful, however, experience is really helpful in making these types of decisions.. I'd suggest shadowing/volunteering/observing/doing anything you can to get experience with the real thing. Have you compared job outlooks of human med, vet med, nursing? Potential salaries? From personal experience, there are lots of things about vet med that one may not be aware of if they don't have much experience in the field. Now, with that being said... If this is truly what you want to do, DO IT! During your two years of getting the pre-reqs, do the things that I mentioned above. Volunteer, shadow, clean poo, observe, do everything you can in as many different areas of animal med as you can (but you can concentrate in the area that you are interested in). As for adcom committees and the career change thing... My class has a lawyer, a real estate/mortgage broker guy, a guy that did three years (I think) of human med school, a couple marketing/business professionals, an EMT, and of course, those of us that have always been on this path. If you KNOW that this is what you want to do and you think you have it in you to get the adcoms to believe it too, you can do it. Good luck! :thumbup:
 
Anyway, my question is, do ad comms look down on a switch from human--->animal medicine, and what are some obstacles a nurse/career changer would encounter in the pursuit of vet school?
Note that I have no personal experience with this, but I'll tell you a couple things I've distilled from other posts. My guess is the biggest obstacle for a career changer is convincing the adcom that you're serious this time - you're not going to get halfway through vet school and then decide you'd rather be a doctor (or an engineer, or a florist, or whatever) after all. I have no useful advice on *how* one goes about giving that impression, but I guess mentioning in your PS and in your interviews that you're really committed, and *not* saying anything wishy-washy would be a good place to start. Showing some logical progression in your life moving toward veterinary medicine would probably also be good. The other thing you definitely want to avoid, seeing as you have medical experience already, is giving off the impression that you already know it all, or you expect special or advanced treatment. (Especially bad would probably be saying anything that gives the impression that since human medicine is more important or more complicated or just all around better, clearly you're going to have an easy time in vet school... or anything like that.) Loads of people come into vet school having worked as licensed vet techs, which is essentially the same role as a nurse. So you could instead play up how you have similar experience with that aspect of patient care, and are eager to learn the rest.

Anyway, like I said those are just guesses. As you already mentioned, rocking the prereqs and improving your GRE are always good too. :) Good luck!

EDIT: On the subject of prereqs, you might already have noticed this but I think there's more variety in what vet schools require as prereqs than in med school. Davis requires a stats class, Tufts or someplace requires a communication/public speaking class... So when planning your post-bacc work, make sure you look to see if any of the schools you're interested in require any oddball stuff.
 
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I do have an idea of what potential salaries/job outlook are in all fields (nurse, vet, human doc, etc), and don't mind that vets make much less than human docs. While many people say it, I actually mean it when I say it's not about the money. As a nurse I've dealt with working my butt off for mediocre pay, and am used to it.

Shortly after I started nursing, I became dissatisfied and very disappointed. Not so much with what I was doing, but how the profession is viewed and because it is a profession that is highly influenced by politics (at least in my area of the country). I considered medical school b/c I have a desire to know the 'why's' of what's happening and being able to have the knowledge required to fix it. But it's just not something I could see myself doing for the rest of my working life. I can be very analytical and I figured by doing the graduate nursing I was sort of doing a compomise b/w the two-a more flexible lifestyle than medicine allows, but a broader knowledge base than general staff nursing. But as I began the program, I had a feeling in the pit of my stomach that it was the wrong decision. I knew it wasn't right. I can't really explain it.

I have considered vet school in the past but was deterred by the fact that the vet school I would most want to attend is a good 12 hours from my home. I'm older now and am more comfortable with that. I do have an idea of what vet medicine entails; I've had animals since before I could walk and have had to deal with a gamut of animal 'problems' (stroke, cancer, Lyme disease, EPM, laminitis, etc). Not that this in any way represents diagnosing and treating these illnesses, but I think I've learned enough that I'm not naiive to the fact that vet medicine has an incredible depth of knowledge and requires extensive studying and commitment. I do plan on volunteering/shadowing my vet to gain more exposure to the field and to show ad comms that I'm not blindly trying to make a career change.

By no means whatsoever do I think my career in nursing gives me much of an advantage. I realize that while MD's have to know about the human body and related illnesses/conditions, DVM's have to have a broader knowledge base that includes more than one species. I certainly don't expect any special treatment; the opposite is actually true. The way I look at it, ad comms would look at my application and say "OK, so you were a nurse and didn't like it; what makes you think you'll like being a vet?". That's where I think I'll have trouble articulating into words what I know in my heart is right for me.

I appreciate everyone's input; thank you!!
 
Note that I have no personal experience with this, but I'll tell you a couple things I've distilled from other posts. My guess is the biggest obstacle for a career changer is convincing the adcom that you're serious this time - you're not going to get halfway through vet school and then decide you'd rather be a doctor (or an engineer, or a florist, or whatever) after all. I have no useful advice on *how* one goes about giving that impression, but I guess mentioning in your PS and in your interviews that you're really committed, and *not* saying anything wishy-washy would be a good place to start. Showing some logical progression in your life moving toward veterinary medicine would probably also be good. The other thing you definitely want to avoid, seeing as you have medical experience already, is giving off the impression that you already know it all, or you expect special or advanced treatment. (Especially bad would probably be saying anything that gives the impression that since human medicine is more important or more complicated or just all around better, clearly you're going to have an easy time in vet school... or anything like that.) Loads of people come into vet school having worked as licensed vet techs, which is essentially the same role as a nurse. So you could instead play up how you have similar experience with that aspect of patient care, and are eager to learn the rest.

Anyway, like I said those are just guesses. As you already mentioned, rocking the prereqs and improving your GRE are always good too. :) Good luck!

EDIT: On the subject of prereqs, you might already have noticed this but I think there's more variety in what vet schools require as prereqs than in med school. Davis requires a stats class, Tufts or someplace requires a communication/public speaking class... So when planning your post-bacc work, make sure you look to see if any of the schools you're interested in require any oddball stuff.


Thanks so much-you gave alot of good advice.
 
OK.. A couple issues here.. First, how do you know that this is what you want to do? I know that soul searching is useful, however, experience is really helpful in making these types of decisions.. I'd suggest shadowing/volunteering/observing/doing anything you can to get experience with the real thing. Have you compared job outlooks of human med, vet med, nursing? Potential salaries? From personal experience, there are lots of things about vet med that one may not be aware of if they don't have much experience in the field. Now, with that being said... If this is truly what you want to do, DO IT! During your two years of getting the pre-reqs, do the things that I mentioned above. Volunteer, shadow, clean poo, observe, do everything you can in as many different areas of animal med as you can (but you can concentrate in the area that you are interested in). As for adcom committees and the career change thing... My class has a lawyer, a real estate/mortgage broker guy, a guy that did three years (I think) of human med school, a couple marketing/business professionals, an EMT, and of course, those of us that have always been on this path. If you KNOW that this is what you want to do and you think you have it in you to get the adcoms to believe it too, you can do it. Good luck! :thumbup:

Thank you for the advice and encouragement.
 
Shortly after I started nursing, I became dissatisfied and very disappointed. Not so much with what I was doing, but how the profession is viewed and because it is a profession that is highly influenced by politics (at least in my area of the country).

The first thing that comes to mind when reading this, is that you may encounter the same issues with vet med. Most people don't know what it takes to be a vet. As a career changer myself I can tell you the majority of my friends thought it was just going back to school for a couple years, taking night classes or something. That is how the public will view you too.
 
The first thing that comes to mind when reading this, is that you may encounter the same issues with vet med. Most people don't know what it takes to be a vet. As a career changer myself I can tell you the majority of my friends thought it was just going back to school for a couple years, taking night classes or something. That is how the public will view you too.


Thanks for your reply. I appreciate everyones' responses!
 
Shortly after I started nursing, I became dissatisfied and very disappointed. Not so much with what I was doing, but how the profession is viewed and because it is a profession that is highly influenced by politics (at least in my area of the country). I considered medical school b/c I have a desire to know the 'why's' of what's happening and being able to have the knowledge required to fix it. But it's just not something I could see myself doing for the rest of my working life. I can be very analytical and I figured by doing the graduate nursing I was sort of doing a compomise b/w the two-a more flexible lifestyle than medicine allows, but a broader knowledge base than general staff nursing. But as I began the program, I had a feeling in the pit of my stomach that it was the wrong decision. I knew it wasn't right. I can't really explain it.



icck.....isn't every freakin' job influenced by politics?! You can't escape it! :mad:
 
icck.....isn't every freakin' job influenced by politics?! You can't escape it! :mad:


Absolutely. I don't expect to escape it completely, but I am trying to determine what options I have that would allow me to have a job I enjoy, while not having everything I do dictated by a bunch of idiots in suits that have no clue what my job is about. These clowns (and I'm sure it's not just at the hospital I work) come up with more frickin policies and just rewrite the rules rather than addressing actual problems. It's aggravating, frustrating, demoralizing, and gives the profession a bad image. This is in addition to many personal reasons why I'm considering vet school.
 
Absolutely. I don't expect to escape it completely, but I am trying to determine what options I have that would allow me to have a job I enjoy, while not having everything I do dictated by a bunch of idiots in suits that have no clue what my job is about. These clowns (and I'm sure it's not just at the hospital I work) come up with more frickin policies and just rewrite the rules rather than addressing actual problems. It's aggravating, frustrating, demoralizing, and gives the profession a bad image. This is in addition to many personal reasons why I'm considering vet school.

You will find the same sorts of people writing and rewriting rules and protocols in the vet field, too, flexing their administrative power and forgetting that they too were once in your shoes. I experienced that first hand at a large practice. I think its something about power in an institution :laugh: Definately no fun though...
 
Absolutely. I don't expect to escape it completely, but I am trying to determine what options I have that would allow me to have a job I enjoy, while not having everything I do dictated by a bunch of idiots in suits that have no clue what my job is about. These clowns (and I'm sure it's not just at the hospital I work) come up with more frickin policies and just rewrite the rules rather than addressing actual problems. It's aggravating, frustrating, demoralizing, and gives the profession a bad image. This is in addition to many personal reasons why I'm considering vet school.


lol...I know someone who has been an ER nurse for about 20 years....you sound just like her! A lot of the dumb-dumbs she deals are the docs. It certainly isn't just your hospital. Bureaucracy is everywhere. I do think it might be less in vet med or at least there are oportunties where you can minimalize your contact with it (just don't run out and join a Banfeild or a VCA hosptial..they are very corporate).

I think any profession you go into where you are an offical "somebody" (a doc rather then a nurse, or a vet rather then a tech) will help lessen how much BS you feel laden with. I'm not at all saying that you're not a "somebody," but there are people that don't care about their situation and/or the politics of it and there are people that do....because you do, and because it obviously bothers you, I would certainly seek a position where you feel like you do more to change things.

Personally, one of the many reasons why decided against human-med was b/c of how bureacratic it is. At least in vet med you don't feel like your fighting it every single bloody second....to me that does often translate into feeling like you are or can do more good.
 
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