Way harder. And you still get tested during the clinicals via shelfs. But honestly, the hardest part will be the science and the background knowledge. You will learn how little you actually know once you get in.
Your wrong, nursing is so incredibly easier that I have to believe you aren't in med school to make this comment. And my nursing program straight up failed out over 40% of students, delayed (via failed courses) 20% and only 40% graduated on time, so not a cakewalk program.
I expected it to be much more work, but I'll still trade this for questions that I feel are "opinion". I argued down many of my nursing school teachers and they could never tell me a scientific reason why my answer was wrong and theirs was right. And many times the "correct" answer is flat out wrong.
I don't mind the study time. I spend every free moment studying as it is. Whether it's Roman history, chemistry, or whatever. I love to learn. What I hated was what I felt like a bull**** education where they're trying to trick you, or it's total opinion. Which I wholeheartedly feel like nursing is in the majority. I was told by instructors that I learned "too much science" and it made choosing the correct answer harder.
No B is correct. Remember the mechanism of transmission for C-diff. That patient is on contact, so in your imaginary perfect world you must gown always first. And supernurses never ask a tech or another nurse to go in.
Nursing is that way, but you get a feel for it. That said I actually did better in some classes in medical school than I did in nursing (hello OB!). You will find that even in medicine you can have some inconsistency and there will be things that you are really wondering why you are studying them right now. I love to learn as well, but I promise you can get bored after enough time.
Sounds much more up my alley. And although people say having nursing experience doesn't help whatsoever, I don't understand how knowing many drugs going in, having several A&P classes won't help at all. I mean I know antibiotic classes, different mechanisms for antihypertensives, etc. made a 100 in pharm.
I wouldn't say that. And I do agree that having memories to tie stuff to can be very helpful sometimes. I am just saying don't expect it to help too much. And trust me the mechanisms you think you know, are actually a bit deeper than you know. Take for instance a B blocker, maybe you even know that metoprolol favors B1 over B2. But thats not enough, you now need to know how a B1 receptor works in the first place, i.e. NE binds to B1 which is a GalphaS increasing adenylate cyclase which increases cAMP which activate Phosphokinase A which opens the Ca channel which allows Ca to activate the sarcoplastimic reticulum which then releases more Ca+ which causes contraction etc etc. We aren't even going into adverse reactions, and Cyp3A4 interactions. There is just more to learn.
I can wash my hands. I'm more worried about my patient falling and breaking a hip. That's IF I touch them. I could easily enter the room and say "DONT GET UP!" Usually works.
I didn't study for any of my sciences in college and made straight As. Studied my ass off, maybe 6 hours 5 days a week in nursing to get Cs. I think my gpa was 3.28.
You guys say it's comparing an undergrad to a doctoral program, thing is with nursing I feel like even if I got my PhD in nursing i wouldn't know anything except a bunch of propaganda or opinion. We literally learned in class that we should join PACs and how to influence politicians to ban smoking, pass gun control, work towards universal healthcare, etc.
Exactly. I'm tired of getting written up because doctors refuse to put patients in restraints, but you have 3-4 of these psych patients on several halls on stepdown and somehow are supposed to keep them from falling out of bed. When you can't get a sitter ordered for them, or the sitter just sleeps all night and they fall anyway. It's funny, our board never gets past "it's been 2 days with no falls"
I couldn't do the ER. When I was a student and did a rotation it was mostly dope seekers, people who didn't know what a primary care provider was apparently, and drama queens. I would like some of the experience but I decided to pass.
I would think any patient with cdiff is at risk for falls. Fluid volume deficiency, electrolyte imbalance, activity intolerance,
And no, the question was straight off my RN to BSN online course.
You would recommend PA over NP? Seems like they get paid less and have less authority/responsibility. And NP would only take me two years.
They get paid the same in similar specialties, and they get paid more in the surgical specialties (where NP's are not there at all). Physicians prefer to hire them as well, and there isn't an online version of PA school. The only pluses of NP is ease of enrollment and possible independent practice, but I would be wary of doing that. Plus NP schools are still full of nursing philosophy BS and are a weaker preparation for the job of a midlevel overall due to reduced clinical hours and 'nursing algorithms' vs medical model. And many NP programs require you to set up your own rotations.
I'm not a fan of nursing in general, especially NP, but it is a very last resort option. Aside from the knowledge difference, I just hate that I'd take a pay cut. I made 108,000 my first year out of school. I don't even know if an NP makes that much. Figures I'm seeing says 70-100k.
You must be in Cali. NP's still make more than RNs even in Cali, and 100k goes a lot further in most places other than California/NY city/Chicago. If you have 100k in Florida for instance, your doing alright. Remember that a surgical PA can get as high as 2-300k in some cases. Especially if you have no family and can dedicate some crazy time early on, the money is there.
Nope, Louisiana. Standard of living is super low. I banked like 5,000 a month. I make 28.75 an hour at my full time job on step down at the regional med center, and double PE pay is 20.00 extra per hour and can grab a couple of those shifts per month. And when I worked PRN at the LTAC it was 45.00 per hour.
Ah the other way. Well your hourly will go up, and I guarantee if you work that much you can see 200k as a midlevel. On the other hand tho, if you are fine with working way too many hours for not that much pay whats wrong with doing it for 7-11 years in medical school?
Oh med school is definitely my first choice. Nothing about the money, I just want the knowledge. That's my number one motivation. Helping people, the money, all of that is secondary.
You're telling me. My back and knees are effed up from lugging a 240b, and full Battle rattle around the desert for 60-90 hours a week for of 33,000 or so. Every time someone bitches nurses don't get paid enough I give em an earful. I'm not messing up my body, getting shot at and rocketed/mortared, and I make a hell of a lot more. And it isn't 145 degrees. Definitely not 145 degrees. That rotor wash was like having an oven turned all the way up and blown at you full force.
Not gonna lie, I am definitely happy for my back that I am not in nursing anymore.
My only concern is homelife as an MD. I have all this time NOW. But pulmonology is a passion I have to learn, but you get woken up in the middle of the night, you're following your patient through their "journey", and many of them are unappreciative dinguses who act like they're owed something because they decided to live a terribly unhealthy life. And the cardiologists I've spoken to are VERY unhappy with their careers and strongly discourage me from choosing that. I keep hearing ER is where to go, but you don't have as in depth of an understanding as the more specialized fields and that's what makes me want to leave nursing right there.
Yep. That's the thought process that keeps me working as a nurse. Americans in general are so clueless. I wish they could go live in a third world country for a year to see how ridiculous their complaints are. A kid on Iraq got ran over by a truck, so an IP blew his brains out right there in the street. Few US soldiers beat his ass, but I explained, in their country, that's a death sentence and he was being merciful. Completely different worlds we live in.
I just feel like as a nurse it's all grunt work. I mean half of the stuff we learned in school were told to not use. Like when I first started, I was spending time trying to figure out abgs, respiratory vs metabolic acidosis/alkalosis. My nurse manager was like "dude what you doing? Are they breathing normal? If not call respiratory. It's that simple." And that's just one of many examples. He also told me not to worry a whole lot about ekg interpretation. Just know the extreme basics. "Telemetry is there for a reason" yeah but the ekg techs don't really seem to know much in my opinion. I'm glad I have a fair understanding of EKG's because I wouldn't trust my patients life in their hands.
Yep. And other nurses say "you'll get on the job trained working with doctors etc. that's what's really important, not the class stuff."
