Nurse Midwife to DO

[Shelbell]

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i just graduated with my masters in nurse midwifery and have been an RN in Labor and delivery for 10 years. I plan on working for a few years as a midwife and getting my pre-med classes in order as they were taken 13-15 years ago. I then would like to go back to medical school, either family practice or OB. I worked with a family practice doc, that did her own sections, so I know that is possible.

I just have this perpetual student thing, going on.

My question is, how do I pay for 4 years of medical school, when I'm nearly maxed out on my federal loan money as it is!

Is it even worth it?

I just feel like I want more knowledge, but yet I want to provide that non-interventive care that patient's desire, but when things start circling the drain, I don't want to be the one having to call the "doc" in, I want to do it myself!

I think there are ways and I'm just going to have get creative, my goal is to get the majority paid off while working as a midwife in a FQHC site. That will be 60k paid off in 2 years.

During that time I will slowly work on my pre-reqs.

Have any of you done this, midwife to do? Am I totally crazy?

My other dilemma is to choose family or OB, I'm leaning towards OB even tho it's a year longer, but that truly is my interest. I think my background as a midwife would be invaluable.

Other than working on my prereqs, then taking MCAT, what else should I be doing to prepare?

I'm willing to go anywhere in the state, *cheap* please, even considered carribbean, so suggestions would be appreciated!

THnaks

 

[Dotsero]

Loan limits go up for graduate/professional programs. If you do max out you can also get GradPlus loans that have no limit (but do require a good credit score). You could also look at the military HPSP programs (they waive age limits for med students. I got a waiver at age 48. Things may be getting tighter though).

As far as what else to do. Try to have a GPA of at least 3.5 and a MCAT of 30. If you do that with your background you should have no problem getting in at a DO school.

 

[gynogrl]

I'm sure it can be done. One thing I'd think about, though, is what exactly you want your practice to be. One thing I lament about OB/GYN is that it's tough to do a lot of low-intervention births, from a financial standpoint. It makes more sense to have a single attending or laborist ready for the complicated deliveries and sections, while having midwives and residents handle the lower-risk deliveries. And if you were to take on another 8 years of training and loans, it might be hard to justify all that if you wanted to maintain a similar practice as you have now, just with the addition of sections and higher risk births.

But if you think it through and decide it's what you want, I'm sure you'd be really great at it and find a way to pay for it. Good luck with whatever you decide.

 

[FutureDoc734]

I agree with PP's. However, I would seriously re-think going into med school if you only got into Caribbean schools...for one thing, they are super expensive; most importantly, though, they don't guarantee that you'll get a residency program here in the States. And then, what do you do.

As far as loans, I would avoid borrowing from private lenders instead of the government; the interest rate on private loans is ridiculous.