Back to School for MD/DO or Psych NP

[IamOat]

Hello,

I'm posting to see if I could get some input on well...my mess of a life. Sorry that it's long.

As a brief of my life I didn't do very well in high school and got into a state school undeclared. Dropped out after 1.5 years when my mom died with a GPA of 2.8. Did an EMT course and worked as an EMT for 2 years. I liked that quite a lot and developed an interest in nursing. Finished up my prerequisities while working as an EMT. Got accepted to nursing school, graduated with my bachelors with a GPA of 3.73 (I know it's just nursing school). Nursing market was completed impacted in my state so I had to work in home health. Did overnight one on one nursing for a year while prepping for nurse practitioner school. Got in to NP school, realized it wasn't the challenge I was hoping it to be but I was already that far in. Graduated with my masters with a GPA of 3.94 (I know it's just nurse practitioner school) and have worked for two years in family practice.

I'm 29 now. Unmarried, no girlfriend, no children, 1 cat. I just finished paying off my debts after 2 years of just working non-stop full time and living minimally. I like what I do and I feel like I do a good job at it. I have a large panel of patients that respect and trust me however I feel like I could always be doing more for them and wonder if I was an MD/DO would I be.

My two passions are family medicine and psychiatry. My medical director who is internal medicine-pediatrics advised that only to go for it if I was going for internal medicine or another specialty. I've also been recommended to a psychiatric nurse practitioner program by one of my former professors and there is a huge need for mental health clinicians where I live as all the psychiatrists are now working in the prison system.

I did fair in my science courses: B in anatomy, A in physiology, A in microbiology, A- in statistics, C+ in human biology (not actually a 101 course just an intro), B in chemistry (again just an intro course). I would need to take my 1 year of biology, 1 of chemistry, 1 of o-chem, and 1 of physics for the majority of the schools I've looked at as I never took these classes. I'm looking at age 33-34 before getting those prereq's done.

My questions are that with the above that is my life would going back to school make sense? I could potentially work part time while completing the above but that would mean sacrificing a large part of my income and my insurance benefits. Could I take a semester each of the usual prerequisities and/or really buckle down for prepping for the MCAT with a mind towards applying to those schools that don't have set in stone prerequisites? Would all it be worth it if I do just plan on going into family medicine or psychiatry?

Thanks for any insight and sorry for the long post.

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[ChopinLiszt]

You don't need to repeat bio and chem- just take physics and ochem and maybe one semester of biochem. At lots of schools you'd be fine with one semester organic and one semester biochem. You have enough bio. I would take one year of classes and study like crazy for the MCAT. You should be able to get in DO and maybe MD depending on your MCAT. Your nursing experience will help, too. It's only worth it if it's what you really want. Will you be satisfied with your current (or any other) career track? The consensus is, only go into medicine if there's nothing else that will satisfy you. Good luck!

 

[ChopinLiszt]

Also, you don't necessarily have to finish prereqs before you apply. Many schools will admit a student without 100% prereqs and if they want them to have more courses, tell them to finish before matriculation.

And don't worry too much about age. I'm 36 and just turned in my primary application, and there are plenty of med students older than me out there!

 

[backside_attack]

My medical director who is internal medicine-pediatrics advised that only to go for it if I was going for internal medicine or another specialty.

... so, all of medicine? I'm confused about what exactly this person meant?

Back to your story: don't discount your experience ("just nursing school" or "just NP school") -- NP's get a lot of s**t on this site for trying to do too much and encroach on our territory, but you should still be proud of where you're coming from.

Check out the MCAT syllabus put out by the AAMC to help guide you in your studying, and definitely don't retake classes you have a good grade in. Just check that they aren't listed as nursing (bio for nursing, for example, is different than Gen Bio I in the eyes of AdComs). You can have one or two incomplete prereqs before applying, but the major issue here is MCAT preparedness. If you're leaving English 101 and Stats for after acceptance, sure. But don't leave the important ones that will appear on the MCAT.

 

[IamOat]

You don't need to repeat bio and chem- just take physics and ochem and maybe one semester of biochem. At lots of schools you'd be fine with one semester organic and one semester biochem. You have enough bio. I would take one year of classes and study like crazy for the MCAT. You should be able to get in DO and maybe MD depending on your MCAT.

Thank you for your input. Most community colleges in my state require general chemistry as a pre-req to organic chemistry so unfortunately I can't skirt that. Funny you mention DO and MD. After doing my reading on SDN I see that DO programs are less competitive but also have more set in stone prerequisites for biology, chemistry, o-chem, and physics. I'm not quite sure what to make of that. For me as someone who would be doing primary care I don't have a lot of qualms about applying to DO and less competitive MD schools as long as it's not in the Caribbean

 

[IamOat]

... so, all of medicine? I'm confused about what exactly this person meant?

I think what she meant was "Don't go back to school just to do family medicine. You're already doing that". Which I do agree with to an extent. The only major difference between what I do and what the family physicians in my group do is see patients who had more extended hospital admissions for follow up.

Back to your story: don't discount your experience ("just nursing school" or "just NP school") -- NP's get a lot of s**t on this site for trying to do too much and encroach on our territory, but you should still be proud of where you're coming from.

I'm one of those self hating nurse practitioners lol. I do take pride in what I do but I see what my profession is doing with the DNP and online programs and I don't think the leaders in our field realize how much this cheapens our image. I have thought about staying in my field and taking up teaching or a leadership position to have a say in steering our profession in a better direction and not making it look like we're a bunch of undertrained power mongers which is sadly the state of things.

Check out the MCAT syllabus put out by the AAMC to help guide you in your studying, and definitely don't retake classes you have a good grade in. Just check that they aren't listed as nursing (bio for nursing, for example, is different than Gen Bio I in the eyes of AdComs). You can have one or two incomplete prereqs before applying, but the major issue here is MCAT preparedness. If you're leaving English 101 and Stats for after acceptance, sure. But don't leave the important ones that will appear on the MCAT.

Already completed 2 semesters of english and 1 of stats. I never took pre-calculus or calculus though which puts me at a disadvantage.

Thank you for your input!

 

[backside_attack]

I think what she meant was "Don't go back to school just to do family medicine. You're already doing that". Which I do agree with to an extent. The only major difference between what I do and what the family physicians in my group do is see patients who had more extended hospital admissions for follow up.


I'm one of those self hating nurse practitioners lol. I do take pride in what I do but I see what my profession is doing with the DNP and online programs and I don't think the leaders in our field realize how much this cheapens our image. I have thought about staying in my field and taking up teaching or a leadership position to have a say in steering our profession in a better direction and not making it look like we're a bunch of undertrained power mongers which is sadly the state of things.



Already completed 2 semesters of english and 1 of stats. I never took pre-calculus or calculus though which puts me at a disadvantage.

Thank you for your input!

I never took calculus or pre-calc either, and I'm doing okay

 

[Darth Doc]

I think what she meant was "Don't go back to school just to do family medicine. You're already doing that". Which I do agree with to an extent. The only major difference between what I do and what the family physicians in my group do is see patients who had more extended hospital admissions for follow up.

I'm one of those self hating nurse practitioners lol. I do take pride in what I do but I see what my profession is doing with the DNP and online programs and I don't think the leaders in our field realize how much this cheapens our image. I have thought about staying in my field and taking up teaching or a leadership position to have a say in steering our profession in a better direction and not making it look like we're a bunch of undertrained power mongers which is sadly the state of things.

My background: physician assistant now a 4th year medical student who started medical school somewhere 35+

I went back after 15 years as a PA because I realized I never knew what I didn't know until it was too late and the patient had a misdiagnosis or mistreatment - whether or not there were negative consequences for the patient. I knew I could do better for my patients.

I love medicine. I'm so glad that I did this. I've worked occasionally as a PA during medical school and even during first year I could see how much my skills were improving. I'm a far better clinician now, even before residency, because of medical school.

If you're dissatisfied this early in your career, you'll continue to be dissatisfied. My husband asked me, "Where do you want to be in 4 years - still a PA or have a MD?" It's only 4 years. It's been difficult, but most of life it's the difficult things that end up being the most rewarding.

 

[ChopinLiszt]

My background: physician assistant now a 4th year medical student who started medical school somewhere 35+

I went back after 15 years as a PA because I realized I never knew what I didn't know until it was too late and the patient had a misdiagnosis or mistreatment - whether or not there were negative consequences for the patient. I knew I could do better for my patients.

I love medicine. I'm so glad that I did this. I've worked occasionally as a PA during medical school and even during first year I could see how much my skills were improving. I'm a far better clinician now, even before residency, because of medical school.

If you're dissatisfied this early in your career, you'll continue to be dissatisfied. My husband asked me, "Where do you want to be in 4 years - still a PA or have a MD?" It's only 4 years. It's been difficult, but most of life it's the difficult things that end up being the most rewarding.

This is so inspiring! Applying at 36 is nerve-wracking.. Glad to hear you feel it was worth it. Also, SOO many people try to talk me out of medical school, telling me to be a PA or NP instead because I'm older and have a family, etc.. I feel like if I'm going to put myself and my family through schooling/training, I might as well be doing what I really want to do.