BSN -> MD

[evee123]

So I know there's many threads on BSN to MD, but they don't exactly answer all the questions I have. First, I'll start by saying that currently I'm a CNA, I did CNA because I wanted to start the medical field at a young age & it was what I could do at 17. I originally was gonna get my bachelors in environmental science, but I'm currently thinking about getting a bachelors in nursing so I can take a year off school to work & save money for medical school, also I may be able to work one shift a week whilst in medical school. Currently I'm at a CC, which has a nursing program where I can get my ADN, then transfer to possibly a CSU to get a bachelors. Will me being a CC student then CSU transfer hinder my chance of getting in? Will it look bad if I do my medical school pre reqs at a CC? I'm not attending less prestigious schools because of my grades, but because of finances. I'm currently receiving no financial aid so going to a UC would be tough. I appreciate any advice, thank you!

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[AlbinoHawk DO]

If you want to be a doctor, become a doctor. Don't become a nurse to become a doctor. It is frowned upon.

 

[brainnurse]

If you want to be a doctor, become a doctor. Don't become a nurse to become a doctor. It is frowned upon.

... by certain medical students and outdated physicians.

I have yet to see a nurse with the required grades and the decent MCAT not get into medical school, so I don't know why this "nurse to physician is frowned upon" nonsense is still being perpetuated.

That being said, @evee123, while your plan is entirely doable, I have to warn you that it's not the easiest way to get where you're going. Nursing is a tough major to get As in, particularly when you have to mix nursing classes+labs+clinical studies with medical school prerequisites. Those are two very time intensive academic endeavors.

CNA->ADN->BSN while working and with nursing+med school prereqs is a much longer and much bumpier road than you are required to take. Why not maintain your CNA job while completing a different degree, maybe one that also fulfils your medical school requirements? This way, you have a source of income, have an excellent track record of patient care, interact with physicians and possible LOR writers, and avoid the exhausting stress of a nursing degree/profession.

 

[AlbinoHawk DO]

... by certain medical students and outdated physicians.

I have yet to see a nurse with the required grades and the decent MCAT not get into medical school, so I don't know why this "nurse to physician is frowned upon" nonsense is still being perpetuated.

That being said, @evee123, while your plan is entirely doable, I have to warn you that it's not the easiest way to get where you're going. Nursing is a tough major to get As in, particularly when you have to mix nursing classes+labs+clinical studies with medical school prerequisites. Those are two very time intensive academic endeavors.

CNA->ADN->BSN while working and with nursing+med school prereqs is a much longer and much bumpier road than you are required to take. Why not maintain your CNA job while completing a different degree, maybe one that also fulfils your medical school requirements? This way, you have a source of income, have an excellent track record of patient care, interact with physicians and possible LOR writers, and avoid the exhausting stress of a nursing degree/profession.

Most nurses that get in have years of experience under their belt. They are not kids that purposely take a seat from a potential nurse (wasting training) just because they are insecure about getting into medicine.

 

[evee123]

Thank you! I appreciate the advice immensely. I guess now I must decide if I want to take on an extra load for a definite secure job that I'll be satisfied with if medical school doesn't happen, or complete an easier degree to try to accelerate my career path. Once again, thank you

... by certain medical students and outdated physicians.

I have yet to see a nurse with the required grades and the decent MCAT not get into medical school, so I don't know why this "nurse to physician is frowned upon" nonsense is still being perpetuated.

That being said, @evee123, while your plan is entirely doable, I have to warn you that it's not the easiest way to get where you're going. Nursing is a tough major to get As in, particularly when you have to mix nursing classes+labs+clinical studies with medical school prerequisites. Those are two very time intensive academic endeavors.

CNA->ADN->BSN while working and with nursing+med school prereqs is a much longer and much bumpier road than you are required to take. Why not maintain your CNA job while completing a different degree, maybe one that also fulfils your medical school requirements? This way, you have a source of income, have an excellent track record of patient care, interact with physicians and possible LOR writers, and avoid the exhausting stress of a nursing degree/profession.

 

[@Hazel-rah]

I wouldn't advise this. If I had known then that I wanted to be a doctor, I would have taken so many awesome prerequisites like genetics and a whole year of biochem, maybe even majored in biochem. Nursing classes won't really help you with the MCAT. You need layers of years studying chem, bio, physics, and upper levels to do well on MCAT and probably med school too. Nursing pre reqs and classes are not as rigorous and therefore an unnecessary waste of money and time, which seems to be a priority for you.

 

[@Hazel-rah]

Also, nursing is a really awesome and fun job and you can change specialities, advance, change jobs, teach etc etc and you can also make a decent income ~~~~$30/hr. If you don't know what you want, shadow and interview people from both! If you want to be a nurse, go to nursing school. If you want to be a doctor, head for medical school. That's my bottom line I guess

 

[jl lin]

... by certain medical students and outdated physicians.

I have yet to see a nurse with the required grades and the decent MCAT not get into medical school, so I don't know why this "nurse to physician is frowned upon" nonsense is still being perpetuated.

That being said, @evee123, while your plan is entirely doable, I have to warn you that it's not the easiest way to get where you're going. Nursing is a tough major to get As in, particularly when you have to mix nursing classes+labs+clinical studies with medical school prerequisites. Those are two very time intensive academic endeavors.

CNA->ADN->BSN while working and with nursing+med school prereqs is a much longer and much bumpier road than you are required to take. Why not maintain your CNA job while completing a different degree, maybe one that also fulfils your medical school requirements? This way, you have a source of income, have an excellent track record of patient care, interact with physicians and possible LOR writers, and avoid the exhausting stress of a nursing degree/profession.

It is a tough major for many reasons that pure science majors may not be aware of. Of course, at their clerkships in medicine or residencies, they get a feel for what is in the environment of nursing and medicine that can make it toxic. I mean yes. There is good and bad, but the competitive, political dynamics of nursing, medicine, and healthcare, well, it's interesting and stressful to the point of becoming distressing. Almost as soon as you hit the clinical realm you begin to feel it, and the intensity only grows. Whatever, be prepared to be stressed to your limits--and not merely in academic ways. If it were only that simple. I only wish I knew how to make the whole realm of healthcare less toxic and malignantly stressful. The best advice is to look to the leadership in all areas. Some organizations try to practice what they preach, and other organizations just preach as the toxins continue to spread.

I agree that the mixing of courses is one thing. The other thing is once a RN, there is this stress to keep working. I mean you are not going to stop working as a RN b/c you are are trying to get into medical school--and that is really where the stress comes in I think. Doing the work as a RN (and all that that may mean in your particular, clinical sphere) and then getting great grades and MCAT, and all the rest. It's just not an easy path.

 

[jl lin]

Most nurses that get in have years of experience under their belt. They are not kids that purposely take a seat from a potential nurse (wasting training) just because they are insecure about getting into medicine.

That's true also.

 

[jl lin]

Also, nursing is a really awesome and fun job and you can change specialities, advance, change jobs, teach etc etc and you can also make a decent income ~~~~$30/hr. If you don't know what you want, shadow and interview people from both! If you want to be a nurse, go to nursing school. If you want to be a doctor, head for medical school. That's my bottom line I guess

You may make a lot more than that, but it will still be a huge drain of your energy while trying to do well in all those classes and kick butt on MCAT and perhaps try to get some research and other things in there. You can only be pulled in so many different directions. The truth about changing specialty areas is that you have to be prepared to eat slop and start as practically a no-nothing--in general--some exceptions apply--in that sense, not much different than having to go back into a different residency. Big difference in time commitment and money loss, generally speaking as compared to being a physician and going back for training in another specialty, comparatively speaking. You still will be put through the grind in most cases--placed on the crappiest shifts, go through the hazing, etc. You can't get away from this hierarchical, crap rolls down hill stuff it seems.

 

[evee123]

I agree that it will definitely be extremely draining, but I'm thinking the drainage and hard work will be worth it to have a stable income whilst I'm completing the pre reqs. Even if I finish with a nursing bachelors by the time I'm 23 and spend two years working as a nurse doing pre med courses & studying for the MCAT, I'll have some money saved up, direct hospital-patient care, and work experience in the medical field. I feel if I get a degree in anything else and fail at medical school, then I'll be stuck either with a job I don't want that doesn't make as much as nursing, or the regret that I didn't do nursing in the first place.

You may make a lot more than that, but it will still be a huge drain of your energy while trying to do well in all those classes and kick butt on MCAT and perhaps try to get some research and other things in there. You can only be pulled in so many different directions. The truth about changing specialty areas is that you have to be prepared to eat slop and start as practically a no-nothing--in general--some exceptions apply--in that sense, not much different than having to go back into a different residency. Big difference in time commitment and money loss, generally speaking as compared to being a physician and going back for training in another specialty, comparatively speaking. You still will be put through the grind in most cases--placed on the crappiest shifts, go through the hazing, etc. You can't get away from this hierarchical, crap rolls down hill stuff it seems.

 

[popopopop]

Trust the nurses in this thread OP who are in medschool or are going to medschool like myself, It's not the best route to take and all of us have had many years in nursing before we made the switch. If you had an ADN right now and a job, then you're in a pretty good position to apply to medschool while having a good source of income. Can an ADN prepared nurse even get a job in Cali? I'm sure schools are pumping out a few hundred BSN prepared nurses every semester aren't they? That's how it is in Texas.

Purposely getting your BSN before medschool is the loooooong route around OP and simply not worth it in time and mental resources that could have been put towards research or hard science courses.

I think you should aim for a bachelor's in environmental science like you posted, then if things go badly, make the 1 year transition to an accelerated BSN program.

 

[NoTownPreMed]

Also an RN here who is hoping to apply next year. I too agree that going for your RN as a stepping stone for your MD/DO is a terrible idea. I can tell you right off the bat, the times where I've had a series of low GPA was in my ADN program, I'm pretty sure some of us can relate to that. This definitely is hindering me right now, as I believe my GPA aren't up to "competition" level because of that. Had I known I wanted to get into medicine much earlier and pulled the trigger, I would've majored in something else like psychology.

 

[ICUBlue]

Nurse here who will be applying this year... not with as much nursing experience as many others here but by application time about 3 years. I only worked as a full time nurse for one year before deciding to take pre reqs for med school. But let me weigh in with some bullet points nonetheless

-nursing school is not easy. No, it's not as "hard" as the basic sciences. But it's a difficult path for a number of reasons, none of which I have time to get into now. It's difficult in a different way. why put yourself through two difficult paths at once?

-there is likely less "clinical advantage" to this than you think. Nursing school teaches you how to critically think in a much different way than what medical schools teach you to critically think. Also in a much different way than what medical schools want premeds to critically think in general. Some very surface level knowledge of SOME medical concepts and being more comfortable with patients and the healthcare team. That's it. But that's part of what medical school is supposed to give you anyway.

-if you're looking at pay, understand that becoming a physician earlier in life will make you more lifetime earning potential than you may realize

My advice would be not to "toe-tap" the water. If you want to be a physician then try to get into medical school through whatever degree you like with the exception of something that is vocational in nature like nursing. Study a science or a humanity or something else. Just volunteer to get to know how to talk to patients and work in healthcare as a CNA or something to learn about the healthcare team. Just my two cents.




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[gramnegative]

OP, I'm someone who is in a BSN program who is planning on applying to med school eventually, and I can tell that this is the long way to that goal. First off, as people have said earlier in this thread, a BSN is not the easiest degree to get high grades in. A lot of the people in my program already have science degrees, or they did well on the pre-reqs for nursing school, and are struggling to maintain B's; nursing school requires a lot of work and if you have trouble managing your time the addition of clinical hours can make it difficult to maintain a high GPA. Also, while some of the prerequisites are the same for both paths, there are many that you will have to take for medical school, such as organic chemistry and physics. You also should plan on taking more science courses beyond the prerequisites in order to make yourself competetitive, something that I am going to be doing while working as a nurse. If I could avoid that, I would. You also have to keep in mind everything else that goes into a good application - good MCAT scores, volunteering, etc. You do have your youth going for you.

You do have some options regarding finances, however. Since you are in California, I would suggest trying to get a job at a hospital affliated with a UC, since they probably offer tuition reimbursement programs.

 

[ICUBlue]

OP, I'm someone who is in a BSN program who is planning on applying to med school eventually, and I can tell that this is the long way to that goal. First off, as people have said earlier in this thread, a BSN is not the easiest degree to get high grades in. A lot of the people in my program already have science degrees, or they did well on the pre-reqs for nursing school, and are struggling to maintain B's; nursing school requires a lot of work and if you have trouble managing your time the addition of clinical hours can make it difficult to maintain a high GPA. Also, while some of the prerequisites are the same for both paths, there are many that you will have to take for medical school, such as organic chemistry and physics. You also should plan on taking more science courses beyond the prerequisites in order to make yourself competetitive, something that I am going to be doing while working as a nurse. If I could avoid that, I would. You also have to keep in mind everything else that goes into a good application - good MCAT scores, volunteering, etc. You do have your youth going for you.

You do have some options regarding finances, however. Since you are in California, I would suggest trying to get a job at a hospital affliated with a UC, since they probably offer tuition reimbursement programs.

I could be wrong about this, but in my experience in the Midwest... nursing tuition reimbursement programs that university affiliated hospitals offer will not reimburse for grad/professional school unless it is a nursing related graduate pursuit like NP or CRNA. They have no interest in paying for a nurse to go to med school.

Unless of course you were talking about getting a CNA job and trying to get them to partially finance an RN education with a stipulation of work commitment when you're done


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[gramnegative]

Yeah, I understand that, I meant using the tuition reimbursement as an aid to either taking prerequisites or getting a BSN.

 

[Wonder Woman]

Coming from a nurse in pre-med. GO FOR IT NOW! I have waited for well over ten years to do this just because I was insecure about if I could get into medical school. I've been a CVICU nurse for about 3.5 years and while I wouldn't change the experience/time for the world nursing school is no joke. Takes a lot of studying and time management like everyone has stated and if you're heart isn't into it its going to be a long four years. So save yourself time and the study stamina for the real deal. The science classes you take for nursing school do not even touch what is required for medical school/MCAT. I love being a nurse, but if I could go back I would go straight for the gold: Medical school.

 

[There&BackAgain]

Hey guys, a little late in the post but I am a pre BSN planning to go on to a grad program after graduating. I'm considering shooting for Med school but have a couple questions. My Nursing 102 professor mentioned a bsn-md program in TN, has anyone heard of that sort of program? Also, would going bsn to md give an advantage in helping the big rift that seems to exist between the med world and nursing? Coming from a different beginning perspective and that?

 

[ScribblesMD]

Most nurses that get in have years of experience under their belt. They are not kids that purposely take a seat from a potential nurse (wasting training) just because they are insecure about getting into medicine.

I accept this advice it also, we cannot all afford to just go be a doctor. I'm real life, some of us HAVE to do the detours. Sucks. But facts.

 

[RNthenDoc]

I have a BSN and have been accepted to medical school.

What people won’t tell you is, having an RN license to fall back on if medical school doesn’t work out is about as good of a situation as you can be in.

There are few degrees that open up so many job opportunities, MUCH more so than typical undergrads.

Do an accelerated ADN, then start working and let a hospital pay for a BA in biology while you get work experience. Then you graduate with a surplus of cash, more clinical experience than any other premeds of the same age, and you have a fantastic fallback.



*SOME* people frown on RN -> MD, but osteopathic schools have really liked my experience and diverse views, as nursing philosophy is well-established and dates back to the Crimean war...

Overall, though, I’ve been encouraged by the nurses and physicians I work with, and any stigma I experience is lessened by the fact that I’m in a much better financial situation than many of my peers.

 

[AsianPersuasion]

A fellow nurse here who made the switch to medicine.

No one gave a flying F**k that I was a nurse nor gave me a hard time about anything. Literally, the only thing they asked me was why I made the switch. All the ADCOM who ever asked me all said, "ok" and then moved on to something else.