NP Student thinking about going pre-med

[anonymousman]

Hello,

my name is anonymousman. I am 25 years old. I have been a nurse for three years. I currently work part time and I am in nurse practitioner school. I am halfway done with the program. I will be done with NP school this December if I hustle or next May if I take my time. I am underwhelmed with the education I am receiving with my program. I wish that I had more clinical hours. There are only 675 hours. I wish that there was less papers and discussion boards about nursing, nursing theory, and the nursing profession. I would appreciate science-oriented classes and more clinical hours, which is why I was thinking about going MD/DO. I find this idea exciting. Although, I realize that after a while the excitement does wear off and that it may seem like endless work for many years. There would be a major downside to going this route though as then I would have to take on debt. The DO school near me costs 75k a year. The MD schools near me are about 50k a year. I live in the Chicago suburbs. So far, I have not had to take on any debt in undergrad or with my MSN because of working as a nurse, living with my mom, and going to cheap schools (a community college and then a state school). I admit that I chose the NP route so I can graduate without debt and start helping out my single mom financially as soon as possible. She is only an LPN and 50 years old. I would also like to mention I do not want to start a family and whichever route I go I do wish to lead a childfree life for personal reasons. With a desire to go to med school what should I do? I was thinking about finishing NP school, working as an NP and saving the money for an inexpensive medical school. Is this a wise choice or should I go straight into becoming a pre-med? I would love to hear any advice that this community has to offer. Thank you.

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[anonymousman]

I would also like to mention that I do have an interest in primary care and I am open to the NHSC loan repayment program as well as inexpensive schools for primary care such as the FMAT program in texas tech.

 

[deleted975457]

Inexpensive medical school is an oxymoron. If you are solidly middle class or working class you'll be taking out loans and a lot of them. The high salary typically balances it out later but economically delayed gratification is going to be part of the deal. You also would need to be prepared to move as acceptance rates to any one medical school are nominal, most students move and have to go wherever they get in though Chicago has a good amount of options.

If you're looking for deeper understanding of basic science and pathophysiology, greater responsibility and much more in depth clinical experience, MD/DO will definitely satisfy that need. That's the reason I chose medicine vs PA/NP. Overall I think medicine is a great career and I can't imagine choosing anything else.

It is a long road, and it will be a lot of debt and delayed income (but a higher income later in life). It is definitely something you have to jump into with both feet. It is likely you will also need some classes to meet basic science prerequisites coming from a nursing background (if you did a BSN), so that is a consideration as well. Lots of career changers do the prereqs through local university or a CC. A good step to get started would be looking into what medical schools require and seeing what the scores and experiences of successful applicants look like to see if that feels reasonable to you. And doing some shadowing so you can see which career path you prefer.

 

[LizzyM]

Do consider that the first two years of medical school are mostly non-clinical with anatomy lab, histology, physiology and pathophysiology, pharmacoloogy, etc, often mushed together into organ and system based instruction but still instruction in lectures, small group case discussion, etc. It is only in the third and fourth year that you do almost all of your learning in clinical settings. Even then, most physicians will tell you that they really learned to be doctors in residency. So you may be jumping out of the pot and into the fire in a quest for more clinical training (although you will get more science-oriented education at the cellular and molecular level than you'd get in nursing school).

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

Do consider that the first two years of medical school are mostly non-clinical with anatomy lab, histology, physiology and pathophysiology, pharmacoloogy, etc, often mushed together into organ and system based instruction but still instruction in lectures, small group case discussion, etc. It is only in the third and fourth year that you do almost all of your learning in clinical settings. Even then, most physicians will tell you that they really learned to be doctors in residency. So you may be jumping out of the pot and into the fire in a quest for more clinical training (although you will get more science-oriented education at the cellular and molecular level than you'd get in nursing school).

I mean, the OP is underwhelmed with their education in general. It seems like they want to practice medicine and have the best education to do that. That’s med school. They will definitely be a year or two out from clinical education depending on which school they go to, but that preclinical stuff will be way more in depth than anything they are getting now.

 

[deleted994889]

1) Do not, repeat, do not quit NP. If you do so and then apply to medical school, you bring up the red flag of commitment. An adcom may ask, well if this student wont/cant finish NP, how do we know they will finish MD/DO?
2) Do not, repeat, do not assume that you will get into a medical school or residency, any place near where you live now. Acceptance rates at individual medical school is under 5%. People apply to on average 15 medical schools. Overall across all schools, 100% start applying, 60% get rejected, 20% get a single acceptance, 20% get more than one acceptance. That means roughly getting a seat someplace. You may be anyplace in the country in medical school for 4 years and then in a different place for residency, for at least 3 years or more
3) Do not, repeat, do not look too deeply at the cost of medical school as a factor to become a doctor. you do not what school you might, I said might, be accepted to. You do not know how much financial aid you may get. If you are motivated and committed to be a doctor, then be one.
4) Do not, repeat, do not assume that a NP or RN background will be considered a plus for you. Specialized health science majors have the lowest average MCAT score as well as the lowest acceptance rate to medical school across 7 broad categories of majors.
5) If you biggest concerns are money and location, then I would seriously re-evaluate your desire to pursue MD or DO

I also believe health science majors usually don't have the coursework to fulfill the prerequisites.

My advice is to finish NP school, then shadow and volunteer to see if this is what you really want, then take the necessary classes and MCAT. You can work part-time if you want but know that your prereqs and MCAT are your highest priorities. If you do find that medicine is what you really want, don't let anything get in your way.

 

[PTPuser]

Maybe consider an NP residency program in your field of interest and evaluate later how you feel. Everything gonnif said is true.

 

[deleted1048020]

I'm a nurse who decided on medical school. I don't know that I would quit NP though when you are SO CLOSE! If you finished school and worked as an NP, you could at least see first hand whether it's really worth it to you to go to medical school. If you still have the desire, you'll just be further ahead in your skill set and can make a more informed decision with some extra dollars, going into it.

That's just my 2 cents, but only you can decide.

I highly highly recommend medical school thought, if it's what you want!

As far as the debt, you'll be in a pretty big hole when you're done, but you'll have a shovel to fill it back in with. I think it's worth it Medical school is SUCH A JOY after nursing school. I'm finally diving into the WHY of everything that I always wondered after learning the "what" in nursing school. It's been a dream, honestly. A big, expensive dream but a good one.