Nursing before Medical School

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ArtMot425

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I am in phlebotomy school right now and was wondering if it would be worthwhile to become an RN and have a BS in nursing before going into medical school. The only medical schools that I want to go to are in Texas, California and Arizona. I live in AZ and would like to go to U of A to become an Internal Medicine doctor. I also like microbiology and I know that I only have 15 credits before I get my AS degree from Mesa Community College. I was just wondering what would be best? My main interest is Medical school but if I can be a nurse before then, I would be at my best.

I am also considering a degree in Chemistry to try to get in to medical school.

I got a B in my first chemistry class.

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I too came from Arizona.

If you want to be a doctor then go to medical school.

If you want to be a nurse go to nursing school.

If you want to major in chemistry then major in chemistry.

Do whatever makes you happy! Just make sure you get good grades. Become active in student organizations, volunteer, shadow.

Don't choose your activities based on how you think medical schools will interpret them.

Best of luck
 
I too came from Arizona.

If you want to be a doctor then go to medical school.
Yes, I will say this once. Getting a nursing degree will harm your chances of getting into medical school because you'll have to explain why you wasted a nursing spot when there's a shortage.
If you want to be a nurse go to nursing school.

If you want to major in chemistry then major in chemistry.
If you like chemistry yes major in it. However I will say that if you got a B in chem 1 I'd worrying about your grades when you get into physical chem( the hardest class you can take in undergrad). I will also add that getting a degree in chemistry will not give you advantage in medical school admissions nor do you need to major in science for medical school. So unless you actually want to do chemistry major because you love it you shouldnt major in it.
Do whatever makes you happy! Just make sure you get good grades. Become active in student organizations, volunteer, shadow.

Don't choose your activities based on how you think medical schools will interpret them.

Best of luck


Yup just adding a little emphasis :D.
 
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In general, you should pick a major that most interests you.

Being a nurse before medical can be good and bad.

Being a nurse gives you great healthcare experience and exposure to physicians as well as potentially demonstrates your compassion for others, but besides that it won't help you out. The practice of nursing and the practice of medicine are two completely different fields. Medical school admission committees could care less if you have taken a blood pressure or started an IV before. They are more interested in what these experiences have done for you intrinsically, not what technical skills or knowledge base you come away with (i.e. many adcoms feel as though an applicant with a Spanish degree will be just as good of a doctor as one with a nursing degree).

Also, another tricky situation to handle is the interview. If you are a nurse and applying to medical school, you can be assured that this will come up during the interview. Anything but a thoughtful AND honest response will surely hurt you (saying that you went to nursing school to get into medical school won't nearly be good enough; it wouldn't be enough if I was interviewing you).

-admissions committee interviewer / senior medical student


Also, many of the nurses who I know have been successful as physicians, practiced first as nurses and then realized what their true calling was; they never went to nursing school with the intention of going to medical school.
 
I was actually in my schools nursing program before i switched majors to biology.

What ive come to the conclusion is......
While they say you can major in anything you want, ADCOMs dont necessarily want you training for a career. This is because training for one career and then going into medicine would be a waste of time( for you and the institution that trained you).

If you become an RN and then a doctor, you will never use your RN training because your MD/DO training will far surpass that. You might have a slight head start during clinicals, but this is comparable to starting a few steps early in a three-legged marathon.

In the end another reason i opted out of the nursing degree was so i could have enough upper div science courses under my belt.
 
lol at pchem being the hardest class you can take as an undergrad. Ask some math/chem double majors about that.
 
It's the hardest class in my undergrad.

maybe in your major, doubtful that its the hardest class at the college, Im sure they have abstract algebra, complex analysis, topology, and several challenging physics classes.
 
I applied to nursing school with the thought that I didn't want to spend all that time in medical school. However, now that I'm IN nursing school, I realize that if medicine is my true calling, I should have just gone for it. I'm MISERABLE in nursing. I mean, you learn good skills...but I'm really more interested in the science behind everything and the diagnosing and treating....none of which you even get near in nursing. If you really want to be a doctor, don't go to nursing school. And plus, it's really hard to do nursing AND get all your med school pre-reqs plus some upper division science courses. It's not impossible....but it's difficult.

As far as it hurting your or not...I actually talked about this with a physician that I was shadowing lately who used to be on his school's admission committee. He said some schools may see it as a negative, but most won't. They'll just want a REALLY good answer as to why you changed to Medicine after nursing, as someone prior to me said. But if you already know you want to go into medicine...it's really pointless to waste time nursing.
 
I majored in nursing.

The biggest draw back to nursing is that most of my clinical courses (4 credit classes) were S/U (or P/F) only and therefore are included in my credit hours, but have no bearing on my GPA.

The positive was that I was able to knock out the chemistry and biology pre-reqs which were also required for medical school (apparently this is school dependent however). I also learned that I really want do want to do medicine. I have great clinical experience and have developed significant relationships with people who can write meaningful recommendations.

There are several RNs who have gone MD.
 
I am an RN with a BS in nursing and have just been accepted to Medical school. I n my opinion, i will not trade my four years critical care experience for nothing, if anything, i think it has prepared me more to witness the life of almost any specialty day in and day out to give me a really clear picture of what i might one day choose to do. i was able to pay of all my undergrad student loans and i have many friends currently in med school that are nurses or PA's and pull a shift or 2 every two weeks. now at $40/hr for my on-call position i will be getting btw 650-900bucks in 2weeks. enough to cover my rents even if i decide to work just 2shifts a month. The nursing question came up at both of my interviews and it was not a big deal at all. if anything, the adcoms were very impress with me and my answer. PM me if u need specifics, always keep in mind everyone's situation is different. i wanted to stay in healthcare instead of a biology/chem major to provide for my family and also be very well informed abt medicine while as a nurse.
 
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