What are my chances and what do I need to do to maximize them?

[nfdfiremedic]

I am turning 27 in a few days. I currently work full time as a registered nurse in a busy emergency department trauma center. I have been working in this capacity for three years. Prior to this, I was a medic working in an urban 911 setting which I did for six years before becoming an RN.

I always wanted to be an emergency physician but I foolishly decided to accept a full time job on the fire department rather than follow my pre-med dreams right out of high school. I was young and dumb and nobody could talk me out of it. In a way I believe some of these experiences have helped me; I now have experience working in the health care arena and I know beyond the shadow of a doubt that this is the field I want to work in for the rest of my life. I couldn't imagine myself doing anything different.

For a while I thought I would go become a nurse practitioner, but then I realized what I would eventually be faced with. My passion is emergency medicine. I don't have a shred of interest in working in any area other than acute and critical care. the mid-level providers in most emergency departments are given the sore throats and twisted ankles to take care of so the physicians can work on the gunshot wounds and STEMI's. the reason I love what I do is because of those critical cases... I abhor being stuck working in the "fast track" department even when it's only for 8 hours. I can't stomach the idea of being relegated to a career of giving kids scripts for Augmentin and telling nurses to apply ACE wraps. I want to dive in to life and death situations the way I do every day in my current capacity, except I want to be the one ordering the tests, interpreting the results, and determining the proper treatments for the very acutely sick and injured. I want to be an emergency physician.

I am faced with a difficult path if I am to pursue this goal. Currently, I am two classes away from a Bachelor's degree..... in nursing. A BSN, specifically. My GPA in this track is a 3.4 and I have two electives left to take (could take underwater basket weaving if I wanted to, but I think that would be a waste obviously.) My RN to BSN program did not include a lot of "hardcore" science courses and, as such, I have very few such classes on my transcript. I have taken organic chem and inorganic chem but neither one included a lab portion. I got an A in statistics which I am told is a class that looks good for a med school applicant. I have not taken (and am a bit worried as a result) Bio, any Chem with a lab, Physics, or Calculus.

So, what is my best bet? Does my life experience help me in spite of my lack of academic experience? I know I should select a Bio course and maybe a Chem of some sort as my final two classes to finish my BSN, but would it be wise for me to do some post-bacc coursework as well so make me seem more qualified for med school admissions? Does someone like me even stand a chance at earning a reasonable MCAT score with my background or lack thereof?

I find myself in the unfortunate position of being an over-achieving RN that has every certification known to man and lots of very good experience which I feel makes me a formidable med school candidate, but not a lot of the "nuts and bolts" background that most pre-meds spend four years learning about. What should I do to work towards achieving my dreams?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[DrMidlife]

Cumulative undergrad GPA is the most interesting thing in general, and a 3.4 is not bad at all. If you show strong work in the prereqs (say, 3.7+) then you're in fine shape. Nothing wrong with a degree in nursing, so finish up.

You have 1-2 years of full time schoolwork before you're ready for the MCAT, after which you can apply. Pick a June (2012? 2013?) when you want to apply, do great on the MCAT the April before, and figure out if you can get the prereqs mostly done by that April. Obviously a big piece of this puzzle is how much you have to work while getting prereqs done.

I suggest that you find an opportunity to get exposed to non-ER medicine, by shadowing or taking on some clinic hours. Such as oncology in a different hospital.

I suggest that you start working now on letters of recommendation. You need faculty members to vouch for your abilities, so you need to make a strong positive impression with every "candidate" professor. You can use faculty from your nursing degree.

There are dozens of threads in this forum about moving from nursing into medicine, and I encourage you to look for them and pay attention. IMHO there are aspects of nursing that are no help at all in gauging your potential for medicine - it's more about who you are, how you work, and how the exposure of being a nurse has informed you about your capabilities and tolerance. Can isn't should.

Best of luck to you.