Doing the research, making a plan....

[The right Path]

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Hello,
New member here. I'm currently an RN (5 yrs) and have decided the time is right to pursue a degree in medicine. I have some particular questions and challenges that I would appreciate feedback on.​

I have a sweet deal schedule-wise that allows me to work stictly weekends (12-h shifts) with the option of picking up extra shifts as staffing needs dictate. How feasibly can I continue working weekends while actually in medical school. Have any of you successfully managed this workload?​

Clearly this follows the assumption that I'm accepted into a local medical program. This is my ideal situation because I don't want to move away from my current neighborhood and I don't want to work in any other hospital (as an RN). Of course, I'm willing to adjust as needed. I'm just so happy here that I'd rather not.​

On the upside, there are 3 local MD programs (SF Bay Area) that I find highly desirable. On the downside, they are highly desirable (read competitive). That intimidates me a little, but I'm still going to go for it.​

My current stage is investigating post-baccalaureate programs. I'm most interested in UC Berkeley, Mills College, and CSU SF. Does anyone have any insight into these programs?​

You (members of the forums) are great. I really love the great information and inspiration. Best of luck to all of your endeavors!​

 

[ArkansasRanger]

Hello,

New member here. I'm currently an RN (5 yrs) and have decided the time is right to pursue a degree in medicine. I have some particular questions and challenges that I would appreciate feedback on.​

I have a sweet deal schedule-wise that allows me to work stictly weekends (12-h shifts) with the option of picking up extra shifts as staffing needs dictate. How feasibly can I continue working weekends while actually in medical school. Have any of you successfully managed this workload?​

Clearly this follows the assumption that I'm accepted into a local medical program. This is my ideal situation because I don't want to move away from my current neighborhood and I don't want to work in any other hospital (as an RN). Of course, I'm willing to adjust as needed. I'm just so happy here that I'd rather not.​

On the upside, there are 3 local MD programs (SF Bay Area) that I find highly desirable. On the downside, they are highly desirable (read competitive). That intimidates me a little, but I'm still going to go for it.​

My current stage is investigating post-baccalaureate programs. I'm most interested in UC Berkeley, Mills College, and CSU SF. Does anyone have any insight into these programs?​

You (members of the forums) are great. I really love the great information and inspiration. Best of luck to all of your endeavors!​

Nobody else replied, and I don't have any specific answers to your questions so I just thought I'd wish you luck. I also recommend dropping the CCRN, TNCC, and all that alphabet soup. Those add on certificate classes don't mean a lot to doctors, and I only say that because I've heard them make pokes at them so many times behind nurses' backs.

Anyway, you'll do fine. You've studied before so you can study now. With so many people living in CA you're in for some stiff competition so you might have to move. Hopefully some other people from there will chime in.

Good luck!

 

[The right Path]

Thanks for the encouragement AR.

As for the "alphabet soup", I'm proud of my accomplishments. It demonstrates I've taken the time and effort to enrich my depth of knowledge for the population that I care for. Research demonstrates better outcomes in units with a higher percentage of certified RNs.

One of our neurosurgeons gave me props for how well I scored on the CCRN.

As for any physicians or any other healthcare professional for that matter making denigrating comments.... well in life in general, you deal with all kinds of personalities.

Cowardly behind the back badmouthing demonstrates immaturity and an unprofessional attitude. There are legitimate grievances between and among various disciplines in healthcare at various times. There is a difference between those that handle problems directly and appropriately, and those who do not. And in those cases, their professional careers and bottom line, their patients' outcomes are at risk.

Getting off the soapbox.

 

[ForrestG]

I think AR was just trying to give advice to you so people wouldn't pick on you on the forums, but hey, you want to keep your letters, fine with me.🙂

Forrest G., BSME, MBA, PE

 

[sindadel]

I have three kids and I commute three hours on the weekend to see them. I choose to spend no time doing schoolwork on the weekend. Therefore, I believe it would be possible to pull two weekend shifts along with the medical school courseload as long as you don't have significant external relationship commitments.

As far as working in your current hospital goes, as long as it is not attached to the med school, I think you are good. There was some advice from a school admin on allo recently about being careful not to be dual-status. This can cause some problems.

 

[ArkansasRanger]

I have three kids and I commute three hours on the weekend to see them. I choose to spend no time doing schoolwork on the weekend. Therefore, I believe it would be possible to pull two weekend shifts along with the medical school courseload as long as you don't have significant external relationship commitments.

As far as working in your current hospital goes, as long as it is not attached to the med school, I think you are good. There was some advice from a school admin on allo recently about being careful not to be dual-status. This can cause some problems.

Abby Lockhart on ER was a nurse and a medical student in the same hospital. 😉

 

[The right Path]

I think AR was just trying to give advice to you so people wouldn't pick on you on the forums, but hey, you want to keep your letters, fine with me.🙂

Forrest G., BSME, MBA, PE

It's cool, I get it. I didn't take offense to AR. The point I'm trying to make is that I'm close to 30 years old and not about to worry about being picked on by any insecure dorks on the internet. I'm particularly not going to give a second thought to negative attitudes about something that I'm proud of and is generally universally valued.

 

[The right Path]

I have three kids and I commute three hours on the weekend to see them. I choose to spend no time doing schoolwork on the weekend. Therefore, I believe it would be possible to pull two weekend shifts along with the medical school courseload as long as you don't have significant external relationship commitments.

As far as working in your current hospital goes, as long as it is not attached to the med school, I think you are good. There was some advice from a school admin on allo recently about being careful not to be dual-status. This can cause some problems.

Thanks for the heads up. I'm definitely interested in hearing about what some of the problems are with dual status. My hospital is not a teaching hospital, so there'll be no conflict there.

And the external relationship commitments are a husband and two kids, but my husband is supportive as well as his family and my family which are all local- another reason to want to stay local. And the home ownership thing- wretched California economy- our house is worth about 100K less than when we bought it.

I'm not kidding myself that I've got some huge uphill work to do. So I really appreciate all of your advice.

 

[riverjib]

Thanks for the encouragement AR.

As for the "alphabet soup", I'm proud of my accomplishments. It demonstrates I've taken the time and effort to enrich my depth of knowledge for the population that I care for. Research demonstrates better outcomes in units with a higher percentage of certified RNs.

One of our neurosurgeons gave me props for how well I scored on the CCRN.

As for any physicians or any other healthcare professional for that matter making denigrating comments.... well in life in general, you deal with all kinds of personalities.

Cowardly behind the back badmouthing demonstrates immaturity and an unprofessional attitude. There are legitimate grievances between and among various disciplines in healthcare at various times. There is a difference between those that handle problems directly and appropriately, and those who do not. And in those cases, their professional careers and bottom line, their patients' outcomes are at risk.

Getting off the soapbox.

You should be proud of your letters. I've worked in a clinical setting for ten years, and the only time you hear anyone badmouthing (unprofessional, yes), it's usually personal and not directed at a group. Seriously, who's mocking a certified critical care nurse?

My advice is to just go for it, and don't listen to the noise. Apply to all the post-bacc programs. You have tremendous experience, which will work in your favor. I'm not even an RN, but my experience and knowledge of health care has served me well. You didn't mention your undergrad GPA, but it's probably not that important. This isn't med school, yet.

If I was on a post-bacc ADCOM, (if only from a business standpoint) I'd look for students who could convince me they're determined to succeed...not only so they finish and pay full tuition, but so that they actually get in to med school and raise the standards of the program. Maybe the 4.0 pre-law major who wants to apply to med school, but the experienced (and with the certs to prove it) nurse knows what medicine really entails and probably wouldn't through this process if he/she wasn't absolutely determined to become a physician.

If this is what you want, you'll get there.

Now for the financial question...nobody can really tell you what med school will be like for you. Some people work part-time, and others struggle just to deal with the work load. I'm not there yet, but I've worked throughout undergrad. The first two years, I worked nearly 40 hours/week with a full-time course load (no kids), but now I work per diem shifts. It's not easy...I'm often tempted to say I can work when I have upcoming exams, simply because the extra money would help. Sometimes, I say yes because I've been locked in a lecture hall and library for weeks on end and I miss the patient contact that reminds me why I'm doing this in the first place.

I plan to keep the per diem option open in med school, but I'm prepared to live on loans if necessary.

Sorry for the long post. Take anything you read here with a grain of salt...some people mean well, but don't realize they're really insulting you. They're also accustomed to dealing with people (not you) who take themselves too seriously. Really, there are tons of them here...you'll see 🙂 And many will someday be the residents you currently threaten to report to the attending because they're too *important* to answer their pages! You'll always have to deal with them...

 

[The right Path]

No need to appologize for detailed advice. That is what I am here for. I also appreciate the well mentioned warnings about the "bad guys". My attitude is that there are always bad guys. Everywhere. Sometimes, your patients are the bad guys. Sometimes they can't help it, and sometimes they're just detestable. The respectable practitioner doesn't sacrifice his/her integrity by lowering their level of care. Easier said than done. That's what cathartic sessions at the bar are for. But, I digress....

Details are so meaningful to me because while I've been thinking, talking, and nebulously planning returning to school for awhile, this is the time when I'm actually making it concrete. Up until recently I've thought, maybe I'd like to have another baby, maybe we should plan a vacation to Maui, maybe I should get a Mercedes SUV like all the other moms, you get the picture. I have a great career that despite numerous issues I love and a pretty good lifestyle. However, I just can't ignore that itch anymore.

So it's on. But I don't want to be a fool about it.

 

[Nasrudin]

My current stage is investigating post-baccalaureate programs. I'm most interested in UC Berkeley, Mills College, and CSU SF. Does anyone have any insight into these programs?​

Too much forward thinking. I think. Can be a waste of energy. For instance, medical school is so competitive to gain a seat that no one picks a city to live in before they get into a school there. Unless you're like the dork lord. Who has been over achieving since kindergarten. And even then. You're talking Stanford and UCSF. I'm not sayin it couldn't happen. I'm just sayin.

SFSU is a slick school to get your classes. But budget woes have changed the game. You have to take their restricted enrollment high-end post-bacc program to get the classes you'll need in a decent amount of time. City college is harder than Berkeley freshman courses. No ****. Ridiculous. So those options are negated. Mills is reputable but expensive as well. UCSF is for minority students. UC Berekley Extension program has not been reported about well on sdn. Gamble there. With a mixed bag I'd imagine breaking down course by course.

Try the CSU's for 2nd bacc. status, maybe CSU east bay.

Go for it.​

 

[WNT Signaling]

To the OP, I feel your pain about not wanting to leave the Bay Area

First, you don't have to do all your prereqs at one institution. If you live in SF, you could complete pre-recs at SFSU, Berkeley Extension, and City College. The advantage of enrolling in a postbac program is that some of these programs have linkage programs, and some programs are willing to write a committee letter for you. Second, I'm not sure you realize how competitive it is to get into California schools. UCSF, UCD, and Stanford are all extremely competitive, so you might also want to look at Touro-Mare Island, which is an osteopathic school in Vallejo. Just remember, most applicants to medical school apply to 15 or more schools, and if you limit yourself to 3 schools, 2 of which are so competitive that any premed would sell their mother to get into them, you might not get in anywhere. Also, UCSF and Stanford are research heavy, so make sure that if you don't have any research experience that you get some before you apply

Good luck!

 

[The right Path]

Too much forward thinking. I think. Can be a waste of energy. For instance, medical school is so competitive to gain a seat that no one picks a city to live in before they get into a school there. Unless you're like the dork lord. Who has been over achieving since kindergarten. And even then. You're talking Stanford and UCSF. I'm not sayin it couldn't happen. I'm just sayin.

SFSU is a slick school to get your classes. But budget woes have changed the game. You have to take their restricted enrollment high-end post-bacc program to get the classes you'll need in a decent amount of time. City college is harder than Berkeley freshman courses. No ****. Ridiculous. So those options are negated. Mills is reputable but expensive as well. UCSF is for minority students. UC Berekley Extension program has not been reported about well on sdn. Gamble there. With a mixed bag I'd imagine breaking down course by course.

Try the CSU's for 2nd bacc. status, maybe CSU east bay.

Go for it.

That is some awesome feedback, thank you. I've solidified my plan a little more and you've really helped. I've poked around the CSU websites and looked at their catalogues to get an idea of what their class scheduling looks like and also got an idea of the number of waitlist spots for some of their classes, bummer. However, I've taken classes before in which all the waitlisted students were admitted because the high attrition rate for some of these classes really cuts down the size.

That said, I'm still not much of a gambler, so I'm going to apply to Mills. I've planned out for 2 classes per semester for 4 semesters while doing my weekend thing. Totally doable.

Sem 1: Bio I and Orgo I, Sem 2: Bio II and Orgo II, Sem 3: Physics I and Biochem, Sem 4: Physics II and Genetics, or maybe Neurobio, or Immunology, or Molecular cell bio. (I'll cross that bridge when I get there).

I plan to apply to enroll in the Fall 2011 class. That way I can definitely save up and put away the money in advance for tuition. I don't want to start med school in debt, if I can help it. Plus, the extra time gives me an opportunity to grab my old gen chem and calc texts and scrape the rust off. If I get really ambitious, I'll swing by DVC and pick up a physics textbook and whatever else looks good. It'll also give me an opportunity to try to sniff out some research projects. I could kick myself because one of our pulmos just finished collecting data on comparing valved vs. nonvalved ETT. Meh, there'll be other opportunities.

As far as being an overacheiver, *sigh*, I wish. I'm just not that girl. Never have been, never will be. It's a recipe for stress, and dissatisfaction rather than success anyway. My lofty aspirations to apply to UCD, UCSF and Stanford, are just that. I'm not kidding myself about the purely statistical odds. The most hardcore overacheiver doesn't necessarily have a better chance. It seems to boil down to a certain je ne sais quoi. But, my philosophy is, if I'm going to try anything, I'll absolutely put forth my best effort.... and apply broadly 😀

 

[The right Path]

To the OP, I feel your pain about not wanting to leave the Bay Area

First, you don't have to do all your prereqs at one institution. If you live in SF, you could complete pre-recs at SFSU, Berkeley Extension, and City College. The advantage of enrolling in a postbac program is that some of these programs have linkage programs, and some programs are willing to write a committee letter for you. Second, I'm not sure you realize how competitive it is to get into California schools. UCSF, UCD, and Stanford are all extremely competitive, so you might also want to look at Touro-Mare Island, which is an osteopathic school in Vallejo. Just remember, most applicants to medical school apply to 15 or more schools, and if you limit yourself to 3 schools, 2 of which are so competitive that any premed would sell their mother to get into them, you might not get in anywhere. Also, UCSF and Stanford are research heavy, so make sure that if you don't have any research experience that you get some before you apply

Good luck!

Bay area love! That said, of course I'll apply broadly but I'm gonna shoot for the stars, baby. I'll probably also apply to the DO program you mentioned, but I do worry a little about the possibility that I'll be less likely to be matched when I get to that point. At this point, in this adventure, I've got my eye on a pathology residency, though I have an open mind. I do know that Forensic Medical Group, Inc. (which serves Contra Costa County, among others) takes on residents from that program. We'll see what happens!

 

[Nasrudin]

You sound like you have a keen sense of where you're going.

There's a lot of research going on in Mission Bay. I'm sure the RN license with medical school intentions would make you a great asset to clinical research teams.

Definitely shoot for the stars. It's gonna be tough to leave this city. And state for that matter. But I gotta shot so off I go. You sound like you might have some better trump cards so you might fare better. I hope so.


Some side thoughts. Gen chem for science majors is usually required. Not nursing chemistry. Maybe yo already know that. But I can't tell you how many nurse's have seen my chemistry text books and thought they were recollecting the same material. I've taken nursing chemistry at City. Great class. But not the real deal.

You're nursing math will be really handy. I was helping some LVN's w/ their dosing calculation assignments at work and was struck by the similarity in technique for moles and unit conversions in chem and physics. But If you wanted to prepare for chem and physics before hand you could polish up on your algebra and some minimal trig functions.

I think it is the most common mistake to go into the hard sciences w/out a good algebra skill set.

You'll do great. Take it easy.

 

[The right Path]

Awww, thanks! You're right about the level of chem/math that many nursing programs require. It's an unfortunate thing, too because without that background, physiology and microbiology can be a struggle. Fortunately, I did take the real deal general college chem I and II. I also took calc I to avoid statistics. That was 9 years ago, however, and you seriously lose what you don't use. I couldn't write an essay on the integral or the limit to save my children's life anymore. I could benefit from some quality time with my books so that I'm not desperately trying to remember it when I'm taking Physics.

It's awesome that you're already on your way. It wouldn't be as important to me where I ended up for med school, except for the fact that I've got some serious roots dug in here.

 

[The right Path]

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[The right Path]

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[Trismegistus4]

As far as being an overacheiver, *sigh*, I wish. I'm just not that girl. Never have been, never will be.

This sets off alarm bells for me. ALL medical students and doctors are overacheivers. Overacheiving is the sine qua non of medicine. If you are not an overacheiver, you will hate medical school and will regret your decision. Take it from one who knows. If I were you, I would not apply to medical school.

 

[The right Path]

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