current college student

[felisha]

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Hello my name is Felisha and I attend Troy University in Troy AL I am currently a freshman majoring in Nursing to get my B.S.N. I wanted to know exactly how to go about becoming a neonatologist? Am I on the right track? After I get my BSN what do I need to do to get my career on the road?
Thanks

 

[ny skindoc]

Read this http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=132715

 

[edmadison]

Hello my name is Felisha and I attend Troy University in Troy AL I am currently a freshman majoring in Nursing to get my B.S.N. I wanted to know exactly how to go about becoming a neonatologist? Am I on the right track? After I get my BSN what do I need to do to get my career on the road?
Thanks

4 years of medical school
3 years of pediatric residency
3 years of NICU fellowship

Then you get rewarded by long hours, but decent pay for peds (I just love rounding from 7am - 5 pm!)

Ed

 

[oldbearprofessor]

Greetings: I did want to respond to this one comment about rounding for 10 hours/day! Although I know neonatologists who round (or seem to round) all day, I really don't think this is a great idea for either patient care or education. The babies, as well as the doctors and nurses, need breaks! I hope you get a chance to see a team work in the NICU where rounds are efficiently done in the morning, leaving time for teaching conferences at noon, admissions and family conferences in the afternoon, and sign-out at a reasonable hour. Of note is that the 80 hour work week for residents has forced some slow colleagues to pick up the pace a bit so they can get the post-call residents out on time!

I do agree that the curse of slow or near-continuous rounds (I think this occurs in lots of intensive care settings, not just NICU's) seems to be getting worse!

For the OP - I know several neonatal nurses who became neonatologists. However, in general, there is no particular need to do a BSN if you are planning to go directly to medical school. If you do go the BSN route, with the accompanying clinical time, it would be worthwhile to consider working as a neonatal nurse for a couple of years. I suggest talking to some local neonatal nurses or neonatologists about this early in your college years.

Regards

"oldbearprofessor"

4 years of medical school
3 years of pediatric residency
3 years of NICU fellowship

Then you get rewarded by long hours, but decent pay for peds (I just love rounding from 7am - 5 pm!)

Ed

 

[kristing]

#1 - Transfer to Alabama or Auburn!
#2 - Don't do nursing, no one in med school has a nursing degree - get a degree in Biology or anything else that interests you and take the pre-requesite courses

Shouldn't make huge sweeping generalizations like that. We have an RN in our class.

 

[Sanman]

Not to get away from the topic, but haven't there been a lot of these " I am college student, how do I become..." threads lately.

To the OP, I'd be careful of getting a nursing degree because I've heard that med. schools don't like that because it is like that are stealing other healthcare providers and nurses seem to have a lower acceptance rate. Keep in mind that these are all anecdotal responses and it certainly can be done, as mentioned above.

 

[DrDre']

There are neonatal nurse practitioner programs as well, which would be more rapid.

I don't think a BSN would look negatively on you at all. And gods forbid, if you don't get into med school on the first try, you can work in health care, expand your knowledge base and improve your resume.

I strongly encourage you to continue with BSN as long as you keep your grades high in premed coursework.

We have a former BSN ICU nurse in our class and I was a paramedic for 4 years. It only helps your application.

 

[fourthyearmed]

Shouldn't make huge sweeping generalizations like that. We have an RN in our class.

Sorry, just meant that I have never met a med student or physician who was formerly a nurse. I've know plenty that were paramedics, etc. Didn't mean to insult anyone just to point out that it's not really a common route as the OP seems to believe.