I am an RN, and honestly I get frustrated with such posts. Not because you are necessarily insincere; but because the research was not put forth into learning the strong differences between medicine and nursing--beside what one thinks is obvious.
Are you a practicing RN completing a BSN? Have you worked for more than a few years in acute or critical care nursing? (It's not that other forms of nursing don't count; it's just that the meat and potatoes of what goes on in healthcare is best seen when working in those areas.)
The frustration is in a lack of insight re: physician versus nursing-- knowing the distinct differences--again, beyond the obvious. But how can you even begin to compare and constrast if you are not even, as yet, a practicing RN?
Educate yourself in the strong differences and decide which fits you best. If you are not an experienced RN, get some experience--preferably in acute or critical care and make it full-time. That's hard to do while going back to school and trying to make the nice A grade in the prereqs.
It also frustrates me to hear people say "They have always wanted to be a doctor." (This is not a personal affront on you. It's just my own gut reaction when I hear it or read it. I usually just brush over it, but seems like I have heard it too much lately.) Really? A vast majority of kids think it's great to be a doctor. This is probably also true for the vast majority of adults. But until you get more into the nitty gritty, below the surface stuff, you won't really have a solid clue if this is what is right for you or even if you are geared or talented toward medicine--and this goes for nursing as well.
Finally, there IS NO quick route to medicine and in medicine. At least I haven't seen one in the US. It's all one huge and incredibly long and demanding road. So if you don't truly enjoy medicine--what it is--at least enough to tolerate the other massive amounts of garbage thrown your way--it's a wasteful killer of 10+ years--and the + extends to the rest of your life, b/c unless you are wealthy, you won't be able to afford walking out on it after putting in such a huge investment of time, money, and energy. It's like people used to say about marriage--it's not something you should enter into lightly.
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I think one of the best things a pre-med can do, although some would disagree with me, is to read the threads of those that jumped through all the many hoops, finally got accepted to med school, got through residency or are going through it, and realized it is totally not for them. Those threads give a sense of reality beyond what is idealized.
Also, nursing can be idealized. I have met plenty of nurses that went into nursing with fantasy-land thoughts and pink, rosy glasses, only to feel frustrated b/c it was not for them.
The difference, however, with nursing is that it is MUCH easier to walk away from it as compared with medicine. I say this, and for the most part, I have genuinely loved much of my work as a critical care nurse. Yes, if you have $60,000-$75,000 in debt from your college nursing program and can't find a job or don't want to work in nursing, that may suck, but not as badly as $200,000+ debt plus many years loss of a fair income you would have made through the pre-med, MS, residency, and early-establishment years in medicine.
The many costs of medicine are incredibly high, and they must be seriously considered before the dive.
