nurse to md

[nappy kat]

I've heard that nurses don't fare very well in the medschool admission game, but are there any numbers (i.e. admission statistics) that back this assumption up. thanks in advance. BTW, i didn't go to nursing forum because it would take forever to get an answer.

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[moo]

From the 2000-2001 MSAR, for the 1998-99 entering class:

282 Nurses applied, 74 accepted for an acceptance rate of 26.2 percent.

Compare with overall acceptance rate of 42.4% for that year. Anyone have the new MSAR that lists this information?

 

[SM-UCLA tech]

I would venture to say that you should not be deterred by statistics.....if it's what you want....go for it.....

I must say that I remember reading some statistics last year on acceptances by major....... it listed nursing as having the lowest acceptance rate. I think that there is some prejudice that is held at some schools towards nursing. But don't let that effect you.

I know a director of admissions at a school, and she had verified that with me, ( it came up because I work in a hospital ), but her opinion was that she wished she had at least one nurse in every one of her classes.

 

[Cerberus]

Anyone care to postulate why nurses fair so low in the admissions game?

 

[atsai3]

Based strictly on these numbers, it doesn't immediately follow that there is some characteristic inherent to former nurses that puts them at a disadvantage in medical school admissions. At the very least, you would want to stratify your numbers by, say, MCAT, undergrad GPA, and race/ethnicity -- so you can get an idea of whether the applicant pool of former nurses somehow systematically differs from the general applicant pool.

(If, for example, the applicant pool of former nurses is disproportionately comprised of non-racial/ethnic minorities with lower undergrad GPAs and lower MCAT scores, then those three attributes alone might explain the 15 percentage-point difference in acceptance rates. To conclude that they were unsuccessful 'because they were formerly nurses' would be a mistaken inference -- because you would be mistakenly attributing to their being former nurses an effect which you should be attributing to their racial/ethnic grouping and lower mean GPA/MCAT. But that's just one example. Whether the applicant pool of former nurses somehow systematically deviates from the overall applicant pool is an empirical question that we can't answer in the absence of further data.)

-AT.

 

[SM-UCLA tech]

there are some great ideas as to why things may be the way they are.....

and many of them might be absolutely correct...it's hard to say...

but you are failing to recongnize the philosophical differences between nurses and physicians. The teaching comes from different perspectives. A nurse is taught to be a patient advocate. Since I have worked alongside nurses in surgery and labor and delivery for almost nine years....I have seen these differences..... I am in no way stating that a nurse wouldn't make a good physician.....quite the contrary....I think a nurse would make an outstanding physician.

I think that this discussion could go on for hours, and it's very interesting to talk about the subtle nuances that occur between the two fields. It is impossible to deny though that there is a love/hate relationship between doctors and nurses. This might be a consideration for adcoms when it comes to evaluating perspective students.


That's just my 2 cents.

 

[Brandon]

I think it's because of the nursing shortages. If med schools accept a nurse, then they lose one from their hospitals. When there was a shortage of primary care docs, med schools hired mostly people who seemed to want to go into this field. I would think the logic is the same. My thoughts anyway...

 

[UCLA2000]

That's untrue.

If someone has competitive scores AND they're a nurse, then I'd expect them to fare very well in the admissions process.

However, if their numbers aren't up to par, and they're relying solely on their prior medical experience...then ya they're not going to fare very well.

 

[PharmD2b]

i think its about grades in my graduating bs pharmacy class of 190 10 people applied to medical sch 1 person got in this person had a 3.6 and a 34 (i think he would gotten in whatever major he choose) the other highest gpa was 3.3 and and a 29 ..............i went to my pre med advisor he told me pharmacy people dont fare well but my gpa sucks anyway i think it has do with gpa i think people in allied health professions may slack off more , what do i mean i mean: cuz we already have a profession so people are like screw it .....just pass.......but when u realize you want to be a doctor and not a pharmacist it comes back to bite in the ass like my case

majoring in an allied health professions unless you are sure you will do well is a big mistake its like all those biomedical engineering pre meds sometimes the program is hard too

 

[Jessica]

Originally posted by UCLA2000
That's untrue.

If someone has competitive scores AND they're a nurse, then I'd expect them to fare very well in the admissions process.

However, if their numbers aren't up to par, and they're relying solely on their prior medical experience...then ya they're not going to fare very well.

My sentiments exactly, as long as the rest of your app is competitive, I think that nursing experience is a tremendous asset in the admissions process.

I was formerly a nursing student, and my clinical experiences were most definitely a selling point for med school admissions.