NP to MD

[PBM]

Hi all,
I am a 31 year old nurse practitioner who is thinking (more like obsessing) about medical school. I graduated from undergrad with a BS in Health Information Management. Unfortunately, there is a paucity of incredibly interesting jobs in that field so I decided to become a nurse. I quickly realized that bedside nursing was not for me. After 3 years I started graduate school and became an NP. I currently work in the intensive care unit of a large, city hospital and my role is similar to that of a resident. I erroneously thought that becoming an NP may somehow satisfy my dream of being a doctor. The truth is I am more frustrated than ever. Over the last year my intellectual curiosity and passion for medicine has become relentless. I have been thinking about medical school for many years but never had the guts to just go for it. Now that I am over 30 I have come to realize that it is now or never. Variables I have been obsessing over include: my age, finances, my relationship (boyfriend of 3 years) and taking the pre-reqs while continuing to work full time. For anyone who was able to make it through my protracted post-what do you think?

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[njbmd]

You are definitely going to be asked why you are making this career change and what you hope to accomplish with this career change. This goes with the territory. Other things will be:

• The competitiveness of your application within the context of the pool of applicants to the schools that you apply.
• The competitiveness of your academics and scholarship. You can't afford not to do exceptionally well in your coursework period.

Age and boyfriend have little to do with the process other than their importance to you. If medical school is what you want to pursue and you are competitive, you shouldn't encounter any problems. Just be prepared to articulate clearly, why you are not satisfied with your present career (nursing) and why you believe you would be better served by a career in medicine.

 

[CogitoA1]

^ Njbmd sounds on the money to me.

Combining his post with your concerns, I think the answer is that you should decide how much time and dedication a post-bacc will require, the effect it will have upon the variables you mentioned, and the likelihood of admission to medical school assuming excellent performance in the post-bacc and a decent MCAT score.

In other words:

1) can you afford to not work full-time and take a post-bacc;

2) can you work full-time, take a part-time post-bacc (I've heard differing views on the effects a part-time post-bacc has on ADCOMS, and I frankly don't know at this point; someone more knowledgeable should chime in if she or he is reading this), and still make excellent grades;

3) is your long-term boyfriend understanding and supportive of the fact that this new endeavor will substantially reduce your free time;

4) are you willing to undertake all this with the understanding that, in the end, the venture might fail, i.e. you may not get into a medical school?

Of course, if you have a near 4.0 uGPA and tend to score in the 99 percentile on knowledge-based standardized tests, the odds of the venture succeeding might be very high, changing the nature of consideration #4.

I'm weighing similar variables (I'm 30 years old, currently an attorney in NYC, with an old, subpar uGPA--no sciences), and it's a very tough call. If you find this useful at all, can you keep us apprised of your decisions? The suggestion is slightly selfish, since I'm a glutton for additional information on the process, and seeing how others approach this is helpful; but you might find the feedback and support here helpful as well. I've found this board extremely helpful.

In any event, good luck!

 

[PBM]

CogitoA1, Thank you for your insight. This is definitely a difficult decision. I also live in NYC and I'm considering Hunter College for my post-bacc certificate. What is your game plan for tackling the pre-reqs?

 

[dragonfly99]

One thing the adcom will want to know, and likely will ask, is whether you are likely to be satisfied as a physician, since you weren't satisfied with your first two careers (IT and nurse practitioner).

 

[PBM]

dragonfly: great point. the bottom line is i should have applied to medical school 5 years ago. i decided on graduate school for NP instead. at the time it seemed like the better decision.

any advice on how i would approach questions regarding my career decisions?

 

[ChairmanMao]

Hi all,
I am a 31 year old nurse practitioner who is thinking (more like obsessing) about medical school. I graduated from undergrad with a BS in Health Information Management. Unfortunately, there is a paucity of incredibly interesting jobs in that field so I decided to become a nurse. I quickly realized that bedside nursing was not for me. After 3 years I started graduate school and became an NP. I currently work in the intensive care unit of a large, city hospital and my role is similar to that of a resident. I erroneously thought that becoming an NP may somehow satisfy my dream of being a doctor. The truth is I am more frustrated than ever. Over the last year my intellectual curiosity and passion for medicine has become relentless. I have been thinking about medical school for many years but never had the guts to just go for it. Now that I am over 30 I have come to realize that it is now or never. Variables I have been obsessing over include: my age, finances, my relationship (boyfriend of 3 years) and taking the pre-reqs while continuing to work full time. For anyone who was able to make it through my protracted post-what do you think?

I can only reiterate what everyone else has said on this board by saying that you'll find it a lot easier on you if you already have high college grades (preferably 3.5+) and can do well on standardized exams. Given the fact that you've worked as a nurse for probably a decade, I don't think healthcare experience or personality issues are going to be a problem. Obviously, the science classes that you took in nursing school are going to be different than the science classes that you will take to complete your pre-requisites, however, if you can spare 20 hours per week to study and go to class, you can probably take the classes part time and work full-time as a nurse. Doing so may take 2-3 years at the end of which, you will need to take the MCAT and apply and interview for medical school.

As njbmd has stated, your age and relationship with your boyfriend aren't going to affect your competitiveness. Even though you're 31, it's not an unusual age for matriculating medical students. People have gotten in by the time they're in their forites - at most you may not be able to get a neurosurgery residency (those things take like 7-8 years to complete after medical school) and you may have to get married and have kids when you're in medical school. As for your boyfriend, he needs to be onboard with this if you're really close. You will need all the emotional and financial support that you can muster from everyone around you because medical school and residency will be time consuming and costly. Sit down with him and have a heart to heart talk. Ask him if he thinks this is a good idea and ask him if he would be willing to support you for the 7-8 years that you will need to go through medical school and residency.

 

[ChairmanMao]

Hi all,
I am a 31 year old nurse practitioner who is thinking (more like obsessing) about medical school. I graduated from undergrad with a BS in Health Information Management. Unfortunately, there is a paucity of incredibly interesting jobs in that field so I decided to become a nurse. I quickly realized that bedside nursing was not for me.

Also, not that I'm critizing you or anything, but it sounds like you don't find satisfaction in your current job. Realize that during medical school and residency, you may have to do the exact same thing as what you are doing right now. If you don't find satisfaction in your current job, I'm wondering whether or not you'll find satisfaction as a physician. Before you commit to start taking premedical classes and applying to medical school, you might want to take some time out and explore other career fields. Just because you studied nursing does not necessarily mean that you have to take care of sick patients for the rest of your career. I've met nursing students who switched career paths and became pharmaceutical sales representatives, nursing educators, hospital administrators, managers, consultants, etc... All of thse are high paying jobs with potential for six figure salaries. You might be better served by looking around and seeing what other careers you can get into with your nursing experience. Ultimately, you may realize that you simply wanted to switch jobs and career paths rather than go through 10 years of school to become a doctor and end up doing what you're doing right now.

 

[gman33]

If the ICU work isn't cutting it for you, maybe you can look for another position. I'd be very careful about starting down a 10 year path that might not change your current situation very much. If it's mainly intellectual curiosity, you can satisfy that in other ways.

What area of medicine interests you? I think it would kind of suck to go through all this and maybe end up back in a primary care field (which you could pretty much do now anyway).

If you put in the time/effort, you have as good a chance as anyone at getting into med school. Age is really a non-issue.
Just make sure this is what you really want.

 

[PBM]

ChairmanMao and gman33, thank you for your input. Much appreciated. In my original post I think that I gave the impression that I do not like being in medicine or in the ICU. The fact is, I love being a critical care nurse practitioner. My frustration lies with the fact that my autonomy and medical decision making is severely limited given that I am a mid-level practitioner. As I have said, my current role is essentially that of a housestaff resident. In my ICU we are one and the same. The huge difference between them and me is the knowledge gap. I am constantly reminded of just how little I know about the pathology of the human body and it drives me nuts! Medicine is where my passion lies...no doubt about that. But I don't want to be a pseudo-resident for the rest of my career.

 

[OChemist]

Go for it! if you really want it; do it!
Had you consider a doctoral degree in nursing?

 

[blueflower77]

Dear, just go for it. I'm just a bachelor's degree nurse in the pediatric ICU and I like taking care of these types of patients, too... but you definitely hit the nail right on the top by saying that the knowledge gap is sufficient enough to make me (you) excited about what you don't know and realizing how fun it would be and how much more sense things would make if you did know it (sounds weird, I know, but you understand). I say go for it. I have a good friend who is an acute care NP in our ICU who graduated 2 years ago and is married to one of our attendings and I talked to her a lot about various aspects of nursing vs medicine and she said definitely that if she could do it over again, she would go to med school instead of pursuing a Masters in acute care. If that's what you love and you KNOW it then do it. Don't let anyone talk you out of it! Good luck to you!!!

 

[gman33]

It sounds like you have pretty good reasons for pursuing more education. You are aware of the sacrifices, so you just have to decide if it is worth it. No one can answer that question for you. I'd just continue to ask questions and see what answer you come up with. You can always start the prereqs part-time while you explore further.

 

[EMDream]

I just want to say that i am in the same boat. I am a PA graduated two years ago and have been working as a hospitalist pa for over a year now, i am highly autonomous (only call md as needed) but still frustrated daily by patients and families not taking me seriously as a pa, consultants asking to speak with an md who knows nothing about the patient and by the limits of simply being a pa, i would like to do more icu as well. I'm 27 in a few months and have a little 7 month old baby and to make things more difficult my husband is a 3rd (almost 4th) year medical student. I am constantly laboring over the decision to go to med school or have mroe of a family life (which was why i chose pa in the first place)

 

[EMDream]

I also agree the knowledge gap is frustrating as well. I sometimes help the interns at our hospital and it amazes me that they will go from having so little knowledge to being highly proficient doctors in a few years (hopefully). That's something only a residency can do i think.

 

[bigpharmD]

I just want to say that i am in the same boat. I am a PA graduated two years ago and have been working as a hospitalist pa for over a year now, i am highly autonomous (only call md as needed) but still frustrated daily by patients and families not taking me seriously as a pa, consultants asking to speak with an md who knows nothing about the patient and by the limits of simply being a pa, i would like to do more icu as well. I'm 27 in a few months and have a little 7 month old baby and to make things more difficult my husband is a 3rd (almost 4th) year medical student. I am constantly laboring over the decision to go to med school or have mroe of a family life (which was why i chose pa in the first place)

I dont think this is just a problem from PAs...it happens to MDs too

 

[dragonfly99]

I dont think this is just a problem from PAs...it happens to MDs too

That is true. As a hospitalist, part of the problem is you have no pre-existing relationship with the family and patient, and they are scared and intimidated by the medical situation. Some families and patients will only trust a specialist doctor (as opposed to primary care/internist) in this situation as well, so it might not matter if you were an MD. Also, during med school and residency + possible fellowship (which is 7 years minimum, but often longer) you'll go through the same thing with families and patients. I'm 8+ years into this, and I still get the same attitude from people because they don't know what a fellow is and some assume I just graduated from med school a few months ago, instead of 5 years ago.