Thanks everyone who responded. This is definitely taking up a big chunk of my PS because of its relevance in terms of clinical experience and motivation. It was the pathophys and A&P classes required by nursing, the OR and post-op experiences, the talking over pt's diagnoses and disease etiologies with the more patient and friendly physicians that helped me realize I wouldn't be happy staying with nursing, even advanced practice nursing, (which had been my original plan). We didn't round with the residents or have anything other than incidental contact with med students or doctors. Nursing students are kind of at the bottom of the totem pole, and most of my time was spent doing..."patient hygiene", giving meds, and writing redundant and useless care plans with those (often ridiculous) nursing diagnoses...although I did get a feel for the hospital and exposure to some of the ethical issues doctors face. I won't be mentioning in my PS the bottom-line, superficial kind of thinking that my program encouraged (only care about it if it's on the NCLEX), although that factored in as well in my decision to get out. This kind of emphasis makes sense when you have just a few years to cram in all that info and clinical technique, etc, and it obviously has its place, but I'm a big, over-analytical nerd , so it was incredibly frustrating for me. When I took a couple of basic science summer courses to feel things out, I felt like I was home--finally, explanations! Reasons! Maybe you can relate, blueflower.
Anyway, thanks for your input. I'll list it as an EC even though it was school, technically.
