Pre-Health student unsure of what path to take...

[science_nerd_]

---

Members don't see this ad.

I am a pre-nursing student working toward getting BSN. Unsure if I want stop at BSN or possibly become PA or DO. I would love to go to medical school however I am unsure of what would be the best for my lifestyle. I want to have a job that is family friendly and am unsure if this is possible when going through medical school and working as a doctor. What is the difference between a PA and a DO? And how different is the course study from getting a BSN and then going for PA or DO or just going for PA or DO and not pursuing BSN.

 

[deleted6669]

BSN is a great place to start. From there you can do NP, PA, CRNA, or DO/MD.
DO programs typically like older applicants with prior experience moreso than MD programs, although it is possible to get into an MD program also from a nursing background. In terms of lifestyle, med school will be harder in your 20s due to the length of school and residency, but easier after you are done with training(unless you do surgery). PA/NP/CRNA will be easier in your 20s due to shorter training, but harder for the rest of your career when compared with many physicians. As a physician you could work 20 hrs/week and make > 120k/yr. To make that kind of money as a PA/NP/CRNA you will be working full time (+). Also, there is a huge respect differential between physicians and everyone else. Docs are automatically respected, PA/NP/CRNA have to prove themselves daily for years to earn respect. A doc makes a mistake and "it was a complex case". A PA/NP/CRNA makes the same mistake and it's " A physician would never have missed that".
best bet for family friendly in my book is md/do + cush family medicine residency and work 20-24 hrs/week. I have several friends doing this. one works 5 hr days 4 days/week only when her kids are in school. she takes them to school, goes to work at an FP clinic from 9-2, picks them up and is a mom at home all day. she makes as much as I do working 50-60 hrs/week.

 

[takeonme]

As someone with a BSN, I can tell you that if you get your BSN, you will need to take additional classes to apply to DO schools. I am planning on applying to MD schools next year, and I basically had to take all the pre-reqs since unfortunately, not much (if any) carries over from the pre-req nursing curriculum. I'm not sure if this is similar for PA programs

 

[science_nerd_]

BSN is a great place to start. From there you can do NP, PA, CRNA, or DO/MD.
DO programs typically like older applicants with prior experience moreso than MD programs, although it is possible to get into an MD program also from a nursing background. In terms of lifestyle, med school will be harder in your 20s due to the length of school and residency, but easier after you are done with training(unless you do surgery). PA/NP/CRNA will be easier in your 20s due to shorter training, but harder for the rest of your career when compared with many physicians. As a physician you could work 20 hrs/week and make > 120k/yr. To make that kind of money as a PA/NP/CRNA you will be working full time (+). Also, there is a huge respect differential between physicians and everyone else. Docs are automatically respected, PA/NP/CRNA have to prove themselves daily for years to earn respect. A doc makes a mistake and "it was a complex case". A PA/NP/CRNA makes the same mistake and it's " A physician would never have missed that".
best bet for family friendly in my book is md/do + cush family medicine residency and work 20-24 hrs/week. I have several friends doing this. one works 5 hr days 4 days/week only when her kids are in school. she takes them to school, goes to work at an FP clinic from 9-2, picks them up and is a mom at home all day. she makes as much as I do working 50-60 hrs/week.

I will need a 4 year bachelors degree before entering a PA or DO program right? I am 22 and I am struggling to find out what I'm good at and what profession I can best be of service to. When my advisors at school ask me why I'm thinking about a health profession, I reply " because I want to help people and enjoy science especially when relating it to the human body ." Can I ask " What interested you about medicine and what process did you go through to get where you are today?

 

[science_nerd_]

As someone with a BSN, I can tell you that if you get your BSN, you will need to take additional classes to apply to DO schools. I am planning on applying to MD schools next year, and I basically had to take all the pre-reqs since unfortunately, not much (if any) carries over from the pre-req nursing curriculum. I'm not sure if this is similar for PA programs

I wonder if they have changed the curriculum for students to transfer some of there classes. I'm still in the process of getting gen-eds done to enter a 15 month BSN program so I'm not for sure, but I thought that a pre- med students would need a 4 year bachelors degree to get in along with pre-recs such as physics, organic, bio chem, genetics.....

 

[takeonme]

I wonder if they have changed the curriculum for students to transfer some of there classes. I'm still in the process of getting gen-eds done to enter a 15 month BSN program so I'm not for sure, but I thought that a pre- med students would need a 4 year bachelors degree to get in along with pre-recs such as physics, organic, bio chem, genetics.....

Typically, you do generally need a bachelors degree and how you fit in the pre-reqs which are the science courses you listed is all up to you. However nursing pre-reqs don't usually overlap with pre-med courses (at least with my program and nearby programs, we didn't need physics, organic chem, biochem), etc. Nursing majors needed microbiology, anatomy, physiology (all 3 of which are not needed to apply to med school) and 1 semester of chemistry (usually diff. from the pre-med one which requires 2 gen chem and 2 ochem). What my post is getting at is, basically with your BSN, you would need to take at least 4 more semesters (mainly the chemistry series) to satisfy the requirements, which would be hard to fit with your nursing curriculum. With a bio degree, or related science, you would already be taking some of these classes

 

[deleted6669]

I will need a 4 year bachelors degree before entering a PA or DO program right? Can I ask " What interested you about medicine and what process did you go through to get where you are today?

yes, you will need a BS degree and several specific prereqs above and beyond nursing school prereqs for both PA and med school admissions.
I have several docs in my family. They were all poor roll models of docs having lives, so I decided early not to follow their lead( big mistake- I later met lots of docs who could juggle life and work just fine).
anyway, EMT in high school at 17. worked as er tech all through college. medical anthro degree. Paramedic school right after my BS. 5 yrs as a medic before becoming a PA. MS in emergency med right after that. Post- MS 1 year Cert in FP/EM right after that. 18 years as an EMPA now and almost done with a 4 yr doctoral program in health science and global health. I ended up at a place where I work far more hrs/mo than all the docs I know who are not surgeons. I should have gone to medschool. I went back several times to take the few remaining prereqs I needed and got either a B+ or an A in all of them. each time I tried to go back life interfered. wife lost job, etc. Now I work solo shifts in small rural ERs and am scheduled interchangeably with docs. It's a good job, but I do a lot more driving every month than I would like and don't see the family as much as I would like because of it. I am very involved with several disaster medical teams and enjoy that aspect of my life and practice more than regular work.

 

[science_nerd_]

yes, you will need a BS degree and several specific prereqs above and beyond nursing school prereqs for both PA and med school admissions.
I have several docs in my family. They were all poor roll models of docs having lives, so I decided early not to follow their lead( big mistake- I later met lots of docs who could juggle life and work just fine).
anyway, EMT in high school at 17. worked as er tech all through college. medical anthro degree. Paramedic school right after my BS. 5 yrs as a medic before becoming a PA. MS in emergency med right after that. Post- MS 1 year Cert in FP/EM right after that. 18 years as an EMPA now and almost done with a 4 yr doctoral program in health science and global health. I ended up at a place where I work far more hrs/mo than all the docs I know who are not surgeons. I should have gone to medschool. I went back several times to take the few remaining prereqs I needed and got either a B+ or an A in all of them. each time I tried to go back life interfered. wife lost job, etc. Now I work solo shifts in small rural ERs and am scheduled interchangeably with docs. It's a good job, but I do a lot more driving every month than I would like and don't see the family as much as I would like because of it. I am very involved with several disaster medical teams and enjoy that aspect of my life and practice more than regular work.

yes, you will need a BS degree and several specific prereqs above and beyond nursing school prereqs for both PA and med school admissions.
I have several docs in my family. They were all poor roll models of docs having lives, so I decided early not to follow their lead( big mistake- I later met lots of docs who could juggle life and work just fine).
anyway, EMT in high school at 17. worked as er tech all through college. medical anthro degree. Paramedic school right after my BS. 5 yrs as a medic before becoming a PA. MS in emergency med right after that. Post- MS 1 year Cert in FP/EM right after that. 18 years as an EMPA now and almost done with a 4 yr doctoral program in health science and global health. I ended up at a place where I work far more hrs/mo than all the docs I know who are not surgeons. I should have gone to medschool. I went back several times to take the few remaining prereqs I needed and got either a B+ or an A in all of them. each time I tried to go back life interfered. wife lost job, etc. Now I work solo shifts in small rural ERs and am scheduled interchangeably with docs. It's a good job, but I do a lot more driving every month than I would like and don't see the family as much as I would like because of it. I am very involved with several disaster medical teams and enjoy that aspect of my life and practice more than regular work.

Wow what a journey you have been through to get where you are today. Thanks for sharing this with me. I'm hoping someday something will click and Ill know exactly want I want to do not for a job, but a career. Who knows maybe ill be in my late 30's when I go to med school after Jamie is grown.

 

[BestDoctorEver]

I am a pre-nursing student working toward getting BSN. Unsure if I want stop at BSN or possibly become PA or DO. I would love to go to medical school however I am unsure of what would be the best for my lifestyle. I want to have a job that is family friendly and am unsure if this is possible when going through medical school and working as a doctor. What is the difference between a PA and a DO? And how different is the course study from getting a BSN and then going for PA or DO or just going for PA or DO and not pursuing BSN.

I am a RN who was accepted into medical school (MD/DO), but I chose MD because the tuition was lower not because it is MD (I did not care that much about the letters). What @emedpa is telling you is correct... People in here would tell you that NP/PA have better lifestyle. In some aspect, that can be true. But it is not absolute... Physician CAN have a good lifestyle, but most of them choose to work insane amount of hours for some reason... Since you are in doubt, you should shadow both professionals so you can see what their typical day is like. But in general MD/DO have more flexibility in what they can do... One of the physicians who wrote me an LOR work M-F (8-5) with no calls making almost 200k as an internist... I was in doubt as well between PA/(MD/DO) and I ultimately decided to go to the physician route because I want to have the knowledge and the flexibility that come along with being a physician...

When I was working as RN, there were multiple instances where patients refused to be seen by a PA/NP. That might not be a common thing everywhere, but it happened on a regular basis where I used to work... maybe because that hospital was located in a middle class suburb. And sometimes even if these patients were seen by PA/NP, they still ask you 'when the physician is coming to see me?' When you tell them a PA/NP just saw you, they would insist that they want to talk to the physician even if the physician will tell them the same damn thing...

You have plenty of time to decide since you have not taken the prereqs yet, but choose carefully; the last thing you want to do is that go to PA/NP and realizing letter on PA/NP does not fulfill your career goal... I made that mistake when I went to nursing school and I was miserable for the first 3 years I was working until I started to take the prereqs to pursue what I always wanted to be, which is to become a physician... GL.


Below is the perspective of another RN who just got into med school... I hope @Promethean does not mind me quoting him/her... I think he/she does a good job in talking about the grass is always greener.

As an experienced RN, I am frequently asked why not NP/PA. Scope, independence, and the desire for the most rigorous clinical education available to me so that I can offer the most to my patients. That is not to disrespect the valuable role of the NP/PA in the least. But having worked this long in a profession dependent upon another, I've found that I don't like it one bit and I can't see going back to school just to stay in the same situation.
Many physicians see the greener grass on the PA side, but if they actually were able to cross that fence, they would be pining for the MD/DO instead. The grass is greener where you water it. The physician has the option to change their conditions of practice so that they do have less money and more time... and if they were sincere in their preference for PA, they would. Rather, it is a nice thing to talk about wistfully while continuing to work themselves silly. They can't cut back on their responsibilities, not because that option isn't available to them, but because they aren't constitutionally suited to do so. It is just more comfortable to outsource that blame to externalities.

As for why there are fewer 60+ PAs than MD/DOs, recall that posessing a license is not the same as practicing. A physician is more likely to teach or do research well into retirement from clinical practice, and may wish to retain their licensure purely for reasons of pride, long after they stop seeing patients. I would think that PA's are more likely to stop paying licensure fees after retirement... and to be able to afford to retire early enough that the 60+ group would shrink pretty quickly.

 

[science_nerd_]

I am a RN who was accepted into medical school (MD/DO), but I chose MD because the tuition was lower not because it is MD (I did not care that much about the letters). What @emedpa is telling you is correct... People in here would tell you that NP/PA have better lifestyle. In some aspect, that can be true. But it is not absolute... Physician CAN have a good lifestyle, but most of them choose to work insane amount of hours for some reason... Since you are in doubt, you should shadow both professionals so you can see what their typical day is like. But in general MD/DO have more flexibility in what they can do... One of the physicians who wrote me an LOR work M-F (8-5) with no calls making almost 200k as an internist... I was in doubt as well between PA/(MD/DO) and I ultimately decided to go to the physician route because I want to have the knowledge and the flexibility that come along with being a physician...

When I was working as RN, there were multiple instances where patients refused to be seen by a PA/NP. That might not be a common thing everywhere, but it happened on a regular basis where I used to work... maybe because that hospital was located in a middle class suburb. And sometimes even if these patients were seen by PA/NP, they still ask you 'when the physician is coming to see me?' When you tell them a PA/NP just saw you, they would insist that they want to talk to the physician even if the physician will tell them the same damn thing...

You have plenty of time to decide since you have not taken the prereqs yet, but choose carefully; the last thing you want to do is that go to PA/NP and realizing letter on PA/NP does not fulfill your career goal... I made that mistake when I went to nursing school and I was miserable for the first 3 years I was working until I started to take the prereqs to pursue what I always wanted to be, which is to become a physician... GL.


Below is the perspective of another RN who just got into med school... I hope @Promethean does not mind me quoting him/her... I think he/she does a good job in talking about the grass is always greener.

When I graduate with my BSN will I be able to shadow someone? I am taking pre reqs to get into a 15 month BSN program that goes straight through LPN RN and to BSN and all I have as of now if my CNA. I will get in May of 2016 so I have time to decide what to do. I am unsure of what requirements one would have to meet to be able to shadow.

Since you have your RN did you get your bachelors degree as a 4 year requirement for you medical school? Or do some not require a 4 year BA? What I am planning is to get my BSN so I can work part time and then work on pre-reqs for PA or MD/DO.

And one last question... What is the difference between MD and DO?

 

[BestDoctorEver]

When I graduate with my BSN will I be able to shadow someone? I am taking pre reqs to get into a 15 month BSN program that goes straight through LPN RN and to BSN and all I have as of now if my CNA. I will get in May of 2016 so I have time to decide what to do. I am unsure of what requirements one would have to meet to be able to shadow.

Since you have your RN did you get your bachelors degree as a 4 year requirement for you medical school? Or do some not require a 4 year BA? What I am planning is to get my BSN so I can work part time and then work on pre-reqs for PA or MD/DO.

And one last question... What is the difference between MD and DO?

If you work as a RN, you probably won't need to shadow because admission committees know that you understand what a physician job is like... I had an AS (RN), then I went to a 4-year university to get my BSN. I took my prereqs for med school while doing my BSN. I often took 2 nursing classes and 1 med school prereq per semester because I was working full time... It took me 3 years to finish my prereq while getting my BSN. Your med school prereqs will most likely be ok for PA if you decide to go PA. However, if you have a BSN, it will be easier to do NP... I did not consider NP because most programs I looked at were light on science...