RN on the road to DO

[futuredrbetton]

Greetings All,
Thanks for taking the time to read this. I am a 27-year-old RN with 9 years of overall nursing experience (4yrs as an LPN, 5years as an RN). I've worked from Long-term care to CVICU. Through all of this, I knew I wanted to become a physician but was too afraid of failing pre-med classes, so I opted to become an RN. Nevertheless, I still had the yearning to become a DO.
I am in the process of applying to ASU as a student at large to complete my prereqs (BCPM) and take the MCAT. I am hesitant about being a student at large because of not getting priority to enroll in the classes I need. Any thoughts about this? Did anyone experience this?
Interesting story, I completed 1yr of Naturopathic Medical School with a 3.2GPA. Still, during my last quarter, I realized my genuine desire is to become an Integrative Cardiologist, and as an ND I will not have the opportunity to partake in Cardiology Residences.
I am both excited and scared of the journey ahead of me to complete my prereqs and apply to DO school.

Thanks again for your time. Any input will be appreciated.
Best of luck on your journey.

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[Mr.Smile12]

Thank you for joining us!

Non degree students are low priority in registration in general, but you can see if you can get instructor permission to get access to labs concurrent with your prerequisites. Obviously ask before you decide to enroll. There are also online options for prerequisites but check with some of the schools you want to attend.

Hopefully you have made connections with DO's about their thoughts about going from nursing to medicine. The only other area to focus on is community service volunteering IMO. What do you have for this group of activities?

 

[Bonne Nuit]

Greetings All,
Thanks for taking the time to read this. I am a 27-year-old RN with 9 years of overall nursing experience (4yrs as an LPN, 5years as an RN). I've worked from Long-term care to CVICU. Through all of this, I knew I wanted to become a physician but was too afraid of failing pre-med classes, so I opted to become an RN. Nevertheless, I still had the yearning to become a DO.
I am in the process of applying to ASU as a student at large to complete my prereqs (BCPM) and take the MCAT. I am hesitant about being a student at large because of not getting priority to enroll in the classes I need. Any thoughts about this? Did anyone experience this?
Interesting story, I completed 1yr of Naturopathic Medical School with a 3.2GPA. Still, during my last quarter, I realized my genuine desire is to become an Integrative Cardiologist, and as an ND I will not have the opportunity to partake in Cardiology Residences.
I am both excited and scared of the journey ahead of me to complete my prereqs and apply to DO school.

Thanks again for your time. Any input will be appreciated.
Best of luck on your journey.

Yes, you will likely run into issues as a non-degree seeking postbac student with low priority registration status. You may very well encounter classes filling up before you can enroll in them, which is a major headache/time waste when you need to finish your science courses in a particular order. You can avoid this by enrolling as a second degree seeking student, which will also allow you to access better loans and financial aid. You don't have to actually finish a second degree; you can take your prerequisites and then stop enrolling once you're done.

There is no such thing as a cardiology residency. Cardiology is a very competitive 3 year fellowship which requires first completing a 3 year internal medicine residency, usually at a highly-regarded academic institution. It can be very difficult for DOs to match into the highly competitive academic IM residencies required for a competitive cardiology fellowship application, and DOs overall match into cardiology at a much lower rate than MDs. If you are serious about cardiology, you should be aiming for the grades/MCAT score required for MD programs.

You also need to have several hundred hours of nonclincial/community service volunteering and 40-80 hours of physician shadowing before you apply.

 

[Newtonian21]

Greetings All,
Thanks for taking the time to read this. I am a 27-year-old RN with 9 years of overall nursing experience (4yrs as an LPN, 5years as an RN). I've worked from Long-term care to CVICU. Through all of this, I knew I wanted to become a physician but was too afraid of failing pre-med classes, so I opted to become an RN. Nevertheless, I still had the yearning to become a DO.
I am in the process of applying to ASU as a student at large to complete my prereqs (BCPM) and take the MCAT. I am hesitant about being a student at large because of not getting priority to enroll in the classes I need. Any thoughts about this? Did anyone experience this?
Interesting story, I completed 1yr of Naturopathic Medical School with a 3.2GPA. Still, during my last quarter, I realized my genuine desire is to become an Integrative Cardiologist, and as an ND I will not have the opportunity to partake in Cardiology Residences.
I am both excited and scared of the journey ahead of me to complete my prereqs and apply to DO school.

Thanks again for your time. Any input will be appreciated.
Best of luck on your journey.

DO a DIY and take your classes at your convenience. Go part time at work if you have to. I was working fri/sat nights while taking classes. I am now M1 going to be 2nd year this year. You'll do fine, by the time you get to med school, you'll see that anyone can literally do it. The hardest part is getting in. Be safe.

Former ICU RN.