Attorney --> thinking about nursing

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I've been practicing criminal defense/personal injury attorney for 4.5 years. Still in my early 30s. Long story short, I had a very powerful, life-saving experience recently that made me want to work in health care. Doing an MD now would be nuts--that's at least 7 years of school and 100s of thousands in debt. I've decided that being a nurse would be the better choice for my goals.

I had two questions:
For anybody who made a similar transition, did you need a full 4-year bachelor's degree in nursing, or is there a faster path for people like me (I had two physics classes and one chem in undergrad, but nothing else)? If you could start all over, would you still choose NP or RN as a profession?

In other threads nurses complained about long hours, ungrateful patients, and bossy doctors/admins. I don't mind--in legal practice I've already learned how to deal with that sort of crap from nasty judges/opposing counsel/clients.

 

[Stuaccount]

Don’t know about the path you are considering but have seen a couple of people who went grad school in unrelated field to NP, in case you are interested in that route. Something called direct entry NP program where they don’t need a previous nursing degree. But can’t comment on the quality of such programs. The people I saw doing that, I wouldn’t want to get care from them but that might be specific to them and not their programs.

 

[EthylMethylMan]

Have you done any shadowing? That would probably be the best thing you could do at this point. Just like how your clients don’t know the ins-and-outs of attorney work, patients don’t really see how the medical sausage is made. Make sure you know what the actual day-to-day is like before you start making big moves.

 

[Marcus Aurelius 64]

If you're used to and don't mind the crap from people you'll be interacting with on a day to basis, nursing is a great field and can be really rewarding with a very decent salary and job security (relative to other fields). I work as a PSA while in nursing school. Personally, the NP market is oversaturated in my opinion because if you look at the rate of new NP schools popping up and the trend, there are lots of new grads and not enough positions to meet the supply. I see lots of nurses who graduate and can't get an NP position so lots of NPs are still bedside nurses. Not to mention that NPs and PAs have almost the same scope of practice, you're not only competing with all the NPs for a position, but also with all of the other PAs as well.

 

[sallylimes]

1. Doing an MD is not nuts. If you want an MD, do an MD/DO. I have a PhD and am in my thirties with a child and am in the cycle this year.

2. I seriously considered nursing. There are several routes. You can go the ABSN route and do an accelerated BSN, but you'll need some prerequisites, and you don't have them. You can do an ASN in two years, get your RN, and then figure out a specialty to move into - a lot of MSN programs allow direct entry from ASN. Most nurses I know will tell you not to go straight to being an NP as you won't have the bedside experience.

3. PA school is an option, but again you'll need pre-reqs. These can be acquired through a DIY postbac or a formal postbac program. I appreciated my formal program because of the community and because of then having a letter from my pre-med committee for MD/DO applications.

4. Do some shadowing or work in a clinical area. When I became an MA it really solidified my certainty that medicine was for me. The pay check is tiny, but i'm happy to go to work every day. working as a CNA, MA, or PSA will give you a sense of what you actually want to do.

 

[deleted1191256]

I've been practicing criminal defense/personal injury attorney for 4.5 years. Still in my early 30s. Long story short, I had a very powerful, life-saving experience recently that made me want to work in health care. Doing an MD now would be nuts--that's at least 7 years of school and 100s of thousands in debt. I've decided that being a nurse would be the better choice for my goals.

Why not? JD/MD programs exist for a reason and you can probably have a better paying part time job than most students to support yourself. Believe it or not there are scholarships that will pay entirely for med school like NHSC or HPSP that are service requirement based and not military.

I had two questions:
For anybody who made a similar transition, did you need a full 4-year bachelor's degree in nursing, or is there a faster path for people like me (I had two physics classes and one chem in undergrad, but nothing else)?

You can do an accelerated BSN if you already have a bachelors or do applied associate of science degree in a community college. Prereqs must be done within 10 years in most institutions.

In other threads nurses complained about long hours, ungrateful patients, and bossy doctors/admins. I don't mind--in legal practice I've already learned how to deal with that sort of crap from nasty judges/opposing counsel/clients.

In my experience as a shortly lived radiation therapist who worked with nurses, yes the nurses were not exaggerating. You’re literally worked to the bone in every field of healthcare but nurses and allied health have very little say in things such as how many patients they can safely have, very little entry job opportunity outside med/surg, etc.

I’ve been assaulted in at least two separate ways by patients and administration doesn’t step in to protect you, and you have to cross your fingers that your coworkers can. You have to really love the job, take care of yourself, and care for your patients in order to be able to do it well. It has its really great moment, fulfilling moments, and ok moments but you need to really be able to handle things like grieving patients.

There’s a reason we have a shortage of bedside nurses it’s because they don’t want to work for hospitals treating them badly, not cause nursing schools are not popular.

My advice: talk to nurses about their careers if you really want to do it. Don’t just take my word, shadow a few nurses in different specialities to see if you want to make the commitment.