APRN vs MD for older student

[SmallBird]

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A close friend of mine is a super-star in grad school (biology), but has decided she would like to pursue a clinical and teaching career in either psychiatry or primary care. She is trying to think through the wisdom of going for either the midlevel route or else applying for med school after completing her PhD. My thoughts were that with a PhD in hand, one would be have great career prospects as an APRN hoping to teach and practice in those fields. I would have had a very different answer if she had hoped to become a plastic surgeon.

Thoughts?

 

[strangeglove]

Her PhD will have no value as an NP, except to help her convince patients to call her "doctor." An MD, otoh, would allow her to use her PhD if she considers taking up a research and teaching later.

 

[zenman]

The Ph.D. in nursing is a research degree. The MD is a clinical degree and from what every physician I've asked has told me is that their research training is mostly mentorship, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Your friend can check out nursing research journals if she wants. It's up to her though; just check out pros/cons.

 

[SmallBird]

The Ph.D. in nursing is a research degree. The MD is a clinical degree and from what every physician I've asked has told me is that their research training is mostly mentorship, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Your friend can check out nursing research journals if she wants. It's up to her though; just check out pros/cons.

Sorry, to clarify, she is doing the PhD in biology - thinking of doing a graduate entry MSN after that (there are some schools that allow you to do that without any nursing background). Of course, the PhD in biology would not be helpful in nursing per se, but perhaps if one is hoping to lecture undergraduates it would be of value.

 

[zenman]

Sorry, to clarify, she is doing the PhD in biology - thinking of doing a graduate entry MSN after that (there are some schools that allow you to do that without any nursing background). Of course, the PhD in biology would not be helpful in nursing per se, but perhaps if one is hoping to lecture undergraduates it would be of value.

Ok, but she can lecture all she wants with a Ph.D. in biology, as well as do research. So it looks like she just wants to do some clinical then. Got it.

 

[AnnoyedByFreud]

Her PhD will have no value as an NP, except to help her convince patients to call her "doctor." An MD, otoh, would allow her to use her PhD if she considers taking up a research and teaching later.

Actually, I think the PhD in biology would help if she wants to teach or do research in either field. What it comes down to is what this person's priorities are and how her career goals match up with either path.

 

[SeniorWrangler]

You get out and start earning money much sooner with the ARNP degree, you have to consider your goals and your opportunity cost in this situation. She can probably do research either way but it will be hard to be a big name researcher with an ARNP I think; on the other hand, there are very few big name researchers being created these days.