I am a nurse. So, my opinion is it will be extremely humbling. Some days are really awesome, but if your true desire is to be a physician, some days will really upset you. The knowledge I've gained is extremely valuable. Scribing is cool, shadowing is cool, but what you know and learn from the experience of working every day, straight hands on patient care, you just can't beat. I love seeing those medical students rotate through the hospitals and the attending asks them questions, that they don't know and I do know. I smile on the inside, because I've seen this, I know this. An attending pulled up a CT, and was like okay what do you see, 4 different medical students said "I don't know". Fortunately, this attending knows I want to be a physician, and says okay MedSchool, (my nickname at work ) what do you see? I say, well I see a Intracerebral Hemorrhage with a midline shift. They looked at me like wtf. But hey, I've seen plenty of these. That's why I know that. So most definitely you'll have a leg up on some clinical things, and your bedside manner will kill that of those who have no idea what it means to comfort the family of that traumatic CPR that just rolled in your trauma bay. As far as the person above me, you probably will have great ways to answer "why medicine", but an even harder time answering "Why not Nurse Practitioner". Another poster graduated nursing school in 2011, as did I, that person is an ICU nurse, and I'm an ER nurse, so I can bet we can both answer any specific questions. But some days man, I hate nursing, I will not lie to you. Some questions I want answered aren't "nursing" questions, as I've been told plenty of times by other nurses who I've asked, but use that to get close with your doctors, there are the things I want to do and I can't because it's out of my scope. I want to suture or staple you, not take them out. It has been a terribly dissatisfying career for me personally, because a doctor is what I have always wanted to be, but best believe I've made the best out of it. My best advice to you is, that if you decide to pursue nursing first and then go to medical school be prepared to be humbled.
