RN to Physician interview question

[DO_or_Die]

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Hello all,

I am a pediatric RN with about 4 years of experience that is applying this upcoming cycle. I have an interview with my HPAC committee on Friday and I am sure the whole, "Why nurse to Doctor" question will arise.

I am wanting to make the switch because I want a generally larger breadth of knowledge and autonomy than I feel a career in nursing will allow. I really do love being a nurse because of how intimate a relationship I am able to form with my patients and I don't want it to sound like I am switching due to an inherent problem with nursing.

I really have no idea how to phrase this out loud to where it sounds like a decent answer. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

 

[curbsideconsult]

You have your answer. Just follow that up with a specific instance where you felt you wanted to be the doctor and not the nurse.

 

[Talkbirthytome]

Hello all,

I am a pediatric RN with about 4 years of experience that is applying this upcoming cycle. I have an interview with my HPAC committee on Friday and I am sure the whole, "Why nurse to Doctor" question will arise.

I am wanting to make the switch because I want a generally larger breadth of knowledge and autonomy than I feel a career in nursing will allow. I really do love being a nurse because of how intimate a relationship I am able to form with my patients and I don't want it to sound like I am switching due to an inherent problem with nursing.

I really have no idea how to phrase this out loud to where it sounds like a decent answer. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

You're on the right track. I talked about wanting to do surgery and care for patients who are high risk. If you are worried about demeaning nursing, you're probably not going to do so. It is perfectly fine to say that you want autonomy, a patient panel, full prescriptive authority, ability to manage complex cases etc. 🙂

 

[RNthenDoc]

The question I got most often wasn’t “why medical school,” but instead “why NOT APRN?”

I think they were trying to see if I’d bash on NP’s/breach professionalism or do something stupid like mention compensation.

I think the best reason to expand practice is to be able to understand the patients better via knowing more about the physiology and pathophysiology. You’ll probably see more patients every day as a physician than you would as a nurse (very role dependent of course), but for me seeing a higher number of folks in a day gives more likelihood of hitting that one patient who recharged your batteries, you know?

 

[DO_or_Die]

@RNthenDoc Curious if you applied both DO and MD, or just MD? I would say my GPA is comparable to the average MD matriculant, but I'm a little weaker in the sciences and not sure how well I will do on the MCAT. I'm leaning DO, but will see based on MCAT.

 

[RNthenDoc]

@RNthenDoc Curious if you applied both DO and MD, or just MD? I would say my GPA is comparable to the average MD matriculant, but I'm a little weaker in the sciences and not sure how well I will do on the MCAT. I'm leaning DO, but will see based on MCAT.

I applied both! I had a weak MCAT and thus got more love from DO schools, but I would have happily taken the DO route if it had been necessary.