Nursing and Pre-med?

Pearl
Sun, 06 May 2007 22:30:14 +0000

I’ve also heard the controversy. Probably your nursing advisors clearly won’t want to invest a lot of time training a nurse that they know is likely to move on to medical school so you may face some hostility there. (It also takes a spot away from another nursing student who may stay in the field longer, so if the admission dept knows your ultimate goals they might not accept you to the program anyway.).

And, I’ve heard that nursing majors are slightly less likely to be accepted into medical school - however, it is not impossible and it may have more to do with their MCAT scores than anything else.

If you want to major in nursing, go for it. But take your premed classes just like you would with any other major - you might also run into some scheduling problems or end up having to take extra classes because some colleges have courses like “chemistry for nursing majors” and this wouldn’t do for your premed chemistry requirement. A stubborn nursing dept. might make you take double chemistry rather than accepting the “chemistry for science majors” as the chemistry for nursing majors requirement. Does that make sense?

And as far as your nursing professors, maybe keep it on the down low (so to speak) about your intended future plans (you can alway indicate that you intend to seek a nurse practicioner certification - which is clearly along the same lines as a physician in that they are providers just like the MD only with less experience. Use your summers to get whatever volunteering and research opportunities that you can - this all could work toward whatever post grad degree you seek. You might find that you will be happier as an NP (predicable hours, decent money - just not the same as an MD, direct patient care as a provider ). Your nursing advisors (and professors) don’t have to know all your hopes/dreams/plans.

Personally I think nurses make better physicans because the listen to their patients more and they are aware of the problamatic logistics behind some “ideal” treatment plans (MDs have a tendency to write orders and walk away without realizing that “Mr. X can’t lay flat for that scan because of his back pain” or “Mrs. Y shouldn’t be sent home with home care because she lives alone and has no one to help care for her”. - I think nurses are more aware of the whole picture and that combination of medical training and people training could be awesome together if done properly).

Ok, off my soap box now.