Physician, CRNA, Nurse Practinioner, or Physician Assistant?

Parent Cafe
1

I’m posting this here (rather than in the graduate school forum) because I want responses from people who have experience in these things or have good advice to give out, so I figured parents would.

Okay, so I’m a high schooler applying for college next year, and I’m thinking about where I want to be in the future (because it impacts what my major will be). Deciding a major is something that I feel requires ALOT of thought, which is why I’m thinking now!

So, I really want to study medicine. It’s not until now that I’ve been looking online and seeing SO MANY negative things about being an MD that I’m like “Oh no!!” So I’ve come up with a few alternatives so that I don’t feel like I HAVE to be a physician.

My alternatives are nurse practitioner, CRNA, and Physician assistant. The problem I have with becoming a physician is the debt, the age I’ll be when I actually start actually working, the taking over your life aspect, and the “wasting your twenties” (as many on forums have said). However, despite all this, I still want to do it!!! However, I’m thinking, in my late 20s/early thirties I want to have a family, and do all that mom stuff, and I’m just scared that being a doctor won’t work well with this lifestyle (esp a doctor with so much debt).

So, I feel like being a CRNA, P.A, or N.P, would allow me to have a good family life. But, I also feel like these professions also require as extensive amount of schooling (though not as much as an MD), and I would still have a large (though not as large) amount of debt from getting these degrees, so why not go the extra mile to become an MD (which is what I really want).

What do you guys thing? What have been your experiences as an MD, CRNA, N.P, or P.A? Or do you know of someone else’s experience?

2

I became really interested in becoming a physician the summer after freshman year, when I attended a health careers exploration summer camp. And if I were to do pre-med, I would be a Lit, English, or history major. The alternative professions mean I would do nursing. During this summer, my interest in going to medical school have really strengthended to the point where I’m positive it’s what I want to do. However, I do know that a lot who start out pre-med don’t end like that!

The only other major I can think of doing is CS and engineering, but I think I would be bored to death of I had to do that. I want to do something I really enjoy, which is why I feel a career in health would be best for me.

3

Do what you want in life.

You are going to college. You can change your mind, but if you don’t change your mind, go for it. It’s your life. You won’t meet your goals if you don’t try.

4

OP, You are still young. It is quite possible that you may change your mind several times (even in college already) before you settle down in one career path.

Work hard on whatever you have to do right now, and keep several options open until you REALLY know what you want to do.

I mentioned “working hard on whatever you have to do right now” because the option may not be there if you are not “ready for it” (which includes being good enough compared to those who are also interested in the same career path.)

A story that I heard before and I would like to repeat here: A few years ago, a student at Emory Universty posted here about a talk of the dean from BCM (Baylor College of Medicine) at his college. The dean was talking to a group of freshman or sophomore college students (premed club at that college.) When a freshman student asked whether he needs to do ECs related to this career path early in college years, the advice from this dean is: Concentrate on your academic work first, before spending too much of your time/energy on “premed ECs” or “healthcare exploration” related activities. More likely than not, students may fail to get into this career path because they do not do well enough academically than anything else - especially before their sophomore year in college. This could apply to any career path, not only just healthcare related career paths like medicine, PA, Nursing, or dentistry, etc.

(This could be an outlier case. But I think DS really did not fully decide his career path until almost his senior year in college! Before that, he only paid attention to his academic work on a daily basis and tried to be a well-rounded and good student.)

5

The major you put on your application doesn’t matter at all. It’s not the be all and end all of what your actual is going to be. As long as you apply to the correct COLLEGE (within a particular university if that university has subcolleges), you will most likely be able to change your major later.

Also, what makes you think you’ll be bored doing CS/engineering? If you choose one of these majors and choose to juggle pre-med at the same time, I think you would be the exact opposite of bored.

As for which path to take, if you care more about work/life balance and having a decent salary, but not necessarily about respect/prestige per se, then MD is probably not going to be your best option. The others are way less stressful and require significantly less schooling (actually, I think a lot of Masters of Nursing programs can be completed online).

6

@absentions I meant bored as in, it doesn’t interest me. Not really a fan of computers in that way, and I couldn’t imagine doing all that number crunching lol. And IF I do decide to do premed, or PA(you can do any major w/ that also), then CS/engineering would leave my gpa pretty low

Thanks, those who have replied so far!

7

Many specialties in medicine could be very stressful.

Just imagine that you happen to be the doctor referred to in the following link, how would you not feel the stress everyday? I guess he has been trained for the past 20+ years for this specialty. In another related report, it is said that it is really not his “fault”; it is the system’s fault. To be an OK surgeon in this specialty, he or she and his/her team need to do much more operations, on a regular basis, every year, just to keep up his and his team’s skill. In other words, either you work in an extremely demanding environment for very long grueling hours, or you may not be able to do it at all. And, you had better be lucky and excellent enough to be the “star” doctor in a busy, large hospital in a large city where there are hundreds of patient cases every year:

http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/01/health/st-marys-medical-center/index.html

There may be less demanding specialty though, I guess. But many specialties could be quite demanding as well.

@absentions, I guess you have been further along in this path - and you seem to be more knowledgeable now than when you were first graduated from high school (not insisting on having a medical volunteering trip to Africa right after high school any more? LOL).

Wish you to be successful in whatever path you decide to take in the end, medicine or not.

8

You don’t need to decide at this point because, frankly, you’re too young to really know.

Go off to college, take the classes that leave all options open, and shadow some people in the various professions. By the time you’re a junior in college, you’ll likely know.

When my son’s GF was in high school, she wanted to be a pharmacist. Sometime after frosh/soph year in college, she thought that she might want to be a MD. Her grades were med school worthy, but alas, her MCAT was not. So, she spent another year thinking things over, took the GRE, did well, applied to PA schools, and she’s starting this fall.

The point is, that she took the classes that would work for any of these medical professions, so she was able to switch gears almost seamlessly.

9

@mom2collegekids FYI that would not work for OP if they want to be an NP or a CRNA, unless they go to one of the very few direct enry programs and they take 5 years I believe. CRNA is a very very very selective program too.

<–NP

10

There are so many directions you can take without going to Med school. Physical Therapists are always in demand. Occupational Therapists…Music Therapists…my three closest friends are married to Doctors and they are lamenting constantly about the stress in medical care these days…1 is a Primary Care Physician and 2 are Specialists…they are all hurting with so much pressure these days…my nephew wants to be an eye doctor and he is studying Financial Economics and Pre Med in college…there’s also Public Health Policy, advocating for Health issues…Pharmacy…Social Work can even have medical specialties…Speech Therapy is another avenue…you are too young to have so many stresses about what to study! If you want to study Lit or English or History, do that! :slight_smile: Take some Science electives if you want…a Dental Hygeanist (sp?) studies medicine but it isn’t as intense, I think…great for mom hours…

11

“because it impacts what my major will be”

  • I am not familiar with the requirements other than pre-med. As a pre-med, though, you can have any combo of majors)/minor(s). By ANY, I mean absolutely any your heart desires, including (as few examples) graduating from the Conservatory of Music or being English major, any business major, you got the pic… Adcoms of Med. Schools do not care about your major, as long as you took all classes required by Med. School, you can be any major. They do care a lot about your college GPA (better be at least 3.7), MCAT score, medical EC’s and somewhat social personality.
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@mcat2 Wow, that memory though.

13

Health care is stressful. Regarding the above article, being a neonatal cardiac surgeon is not for the faint of heart, or those looking for work life balance. There are other ways to do that with medical practice, choosing your specialty carefully, Some family practice and internal med certified physicians end up as hospitalists for precisely that reason. Intense time in the hospital, but then after the notes are completed, you have a stretch of days off.

Try to spend time in a hospital or clinic environment in your college summers. Get certified as a CNA, volunteer, or whatever, to observe what goes on. My hospital has a competitive summer internship program, and the students learn about many facets of what happens in a hospital. Hospital RN here, who wanted to be an NP. Life got in the way. Enjoy college, complete those pre requirements for med school and keep your eyes open.

It is a slightly longer path, but there are RN degree completion programs if you do graduate with another degree and then want to follow the NP rather than PA or MD tracks. PA programs are very competitive, so keep your grades top notch.

14

@kandcsmom If the student wants to keep nursing/NP as an option, then why can’t they start college taking the premed/PA prereqs? I’ve never heard of BSN programs that won’t accept the higher level Bio/Chem/OChem/physics classes. I know BSN students who’ve “kept options open” by taking the premed prereqs, and then sophomore year they decide whether to apply into the nursing program (clinicals). Some even complete their BSNs and then apply to med school…or PA school…or go on to become NPs.

15

@mom2collegekids that’s an idea but if its a school that direct admits into the nursing major as opposed to one where you have to compete for a seat, all the seats are assigned on the first day of freshman year. So for all intents and purposes you’d be waiting for someone to flunk out to take their seat or when you decided to change to nursing you’d be applying with the incoming freshman for a seat, leaving you behind. All the NPs I know went to grad school after a BSN, I don’t know any PA’s who were nurses previously but I’m sure that’s possible.

16

I think you’re right to be thinking about this now.

CRNA, NP - need to become an RN first and in the case of CRNA, work for a few (couple?) of years as an RN. Nursing programs are structured undergraduate programs that will not allow for pre-med/pre-PA classes.

PA, MD - some overlap in prerequisites and can major in “anything.” Often, however, pre-professional majors like accounting, nursing, some types of engineering, are difficult to complete on pre-med/pre-PA tracks.

I am a medical student who started as a nursing student in undergrad, and then transferred to the College of Arts & Sciences to major in psychology. I have given all these options a fair amount of thought, so feel free to message me.

17

My wife is an NP and does not recommend it. She has all the work and responsibilities of an MD for about half the pay. That said, if you want to pursue NP please, please, please get an RN and work in the field first. She no longer precepts for NP students who have no patient care experience.

If your dream is to be a doctor, pursue that first. The fallback plans will still be available to you. Your grades, especially in upper level sciences, will be key.

Docs who want the low-stress lifestyle go into dermatology, all the pay, never on call, 9-5 job looking at rashes and doing Botox injections.

18

If personal goal is to avoid stress, then you better lay on a couch day in and day out and do not worry about any college or career or having your own family for that matter, The last is the most stressful of them all, if you want to think about it this way. For many others, life without challenges is not a life, but some boring existence. It is up to a person to choose. But if one has an example of any job position that does not involve a challenge, please, provide it. I do not know a single one. Just thinking, flipping hamburgers is probably one of the most stressful jobs out there. There is no way I would be able to handle that one.

19

The OP’s question is valid. All jobs are stressful, yet there are only 24 hours in a day, and the American workplace is often demanding of far more than the 8 hour work day. Asking this question early makes sense. Even the dermatologists I know are traumatized by the amount of sun damage they treat on a daily basis.

20

OP may also consider the dentist as a possible option. Good pay and better hours than many MD’s. For what it’s worth, it is rated as No.1 of the 100 best jobs according to USNews:

http://money.usnews.com/careers/best-jobs/rankings/the-100-best-jobs

My daughter is in a dental school and her boy friend is in a medical school. She is happy about her choice.