Currently I am a nursing major but I want to go on to medical school sometime in the future. The reason why I chose to do nursing first is because I would like to make some money and support myself through medical school. Will medical schools look down on me for becoming a nurse first?
I need some advice...HELP!
- Thread starter McWiener
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uhhhhhhhhh no????
This is quite an unnecessary question. The answer is no, unless you ask them to look down on you. Use your employment as an opportunity to connect with doctors and seek out learning opportunities from them at work. Tell them you are premed and ask them questions. You just might find a great mentor that way.
I know many nursing students work while taking nursing classes. But don't expect to be working as a nurse while in medical school. You can "work" as a tutor. Med school is grueling enough without the added pressure of a concurrent job. Don't do that to yourself. Just close your eyes and take out loans for whatever your personal funds or scholarship will not cover.
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That's only a benefit. You'll have patient care experience and a whole lot of knowledge. My classmate is a former nurse and she is running laps around the rest of us. But you'll have to be able to explain why you want to be a doctor as opposed to being a nurse. She gets asked that allll the time.
If you want to become a nurse solely so you can work while in medical school, it is not a good plan because working as a nurse while in medical school is not very viable; medical school is a full-time gig and then some.
If you want to become a nurse so you can work before medical school, it might make sense. However, as mentioned above you will need to have a damn good explanation for why medicine and not nursing, because you'll need to provide it many times. You should also consider this: the market for entry level nurses varies wildly from place to place. If you want to be in a certain geographic area or in a certain care setting, you should look very carefully into the hiring environment where you want to be to decide if your plan makes sense.
Overall medical schools won't necessarily look down on you for being a nurse first, but they may question why you 'took the seat' from someone who would actually be a career nurse, and if you already know you want to be a doctor the detour is probably not worth the time and effort. Just major in something else and go to medical school.
