Okay - I'll try to share a little more info.
I never really had any other nurses overtly be mean about the med school thing, but we were the ob site for the family medicine residents, so it wasn't the typical academic setting with all the infighting between nurses and residents. I got nothing but support from both my coworkers and my bosses, but we were a tight knit group and I still email with several of them 4 years out now.
When I decided to go back to med school, I already had my BSN. I only applied in TX. The only courses I lacked that weren't already covered in my nursing degree were O-chem, gen physics and calculus. My A&P and microbiology counted as biology credits - so check with the advisor at your school. I took classes on Tues/Thurs... started out the year working preop on Tues/Thurs mornings so I could work 5a-8:30a then head out for a day of organic chem/physics/and organic lab. In the spring, the physics class changed to MWF so I couldn't take the second semester of it then, had to hold off for summer. Otherwise, I worked 12s on MWF pulling my call on the weekends. When I came around to the summer session, I moved back over to L&D for better flexibility in the schedule - worked every weekend F/Sat/Sun since the summer classes were M-TH. I was PRN at the time so wasn't required to take call in L&D. I took calculus in a night class during the fall that I applied (my only C in undergrad was in precal, so I wasn't wanting that grade on my transcript when I applied
).
As far as transition to medical school, initially it was really hard. The hours I was at the school were much less than I had been putting in while working as a nurse, but the study/reading time was a bit overwhelming, especially with a 2 kids at home. I set up a goal for my studies. Each day, I covered the materials for that day's scheduled classes. I started out trying to make written notes of it all/writing out the answers to the lecture objectives (since that's what you're supposed to get out of the lecture, right...
). I later transitioned to just writing my study notes each day. The way I did it was to get blank copy paper, writing as small as I could while still being able to read it, and wrote down the important things from each lecture (each class had it's own page). Then I would add to it the next day. This way, I could briefly read over the previous material prior to starting the new stuff, and the way I would study for the tests was to carry these notes around and read them over and over again. Med school is a ton of memorization. I'm not a great memorizer, I needed to learn it first, then go over the rote memory stuff until I could spit it back out. So, I'm a really fast reader, and I averaged about 4-5 hours every day studying outside of the classtimes.
I couldn't miss a day, because it got me all off schedule. The benefits to it were - it worked for my grades, it kept my weekends for review only, so I had more time with my family when the kids weren't in school. The downsides - no time for going out with my classmates (who go out a lot!).
I was terrified all of first semester that I was going to fail and be a huge disappointment. I ended up with all As.
There will be times when you are overwhelmed. There will be times when you cry and feel like you've got absolutely no life outside of really boring books. Then my daughter would walk in, hug me and I'd take a break. You have to treat the studying like it's your full time job outside of school. I think non-trads have a distinct advantage in this regard... we know what it's like to work. It's all about time management, setting a schedule, and FOLLOWING the schedule.
Nursing gives you an advantage during your clinical rotations 3rd and 4th year. You already know how the hospital works, you aren't scared to talk to patients or jumpy about the blood/vomiting. You know how to talk to doctors respectfully but not fearfully. I don't think these things come from nursing school per say, more from being out and working a while, having to manage more patients than you want to, being forced to float and charge in areas that you know nothing about (oh, you work labor and delivery... urology floor should be fine for you to charge on... it's nothing but men with kidney stones and I haven't taken care of a man in 3 years!!!). Sorry, I digress.
I hope this helps. If you have any other questions, let me know, I'll try to answer them. Good luck!
