RN to MD?

I am a registered nurse with a bachelor’s degree seriously considering changing my career to that of medicine- particularly trauma surgery. Is there anyone else who has experienced a career in nursing before medicine? Any advice? And is there any advice as to how this is seen by acceptance boards, other medical students, professors, and physicians training students/residents? thank you.

You’re in the right place to ask that question. Our current chair of OPM went from RN to MD.

Well that is awesome! I would definitely love some advice from her!

I am a registered nurse with a bachelors degree and a pre-med student. I have been a nurse for 7 years now. From all the people I have talked to from medical school advisors, committees, nursing staff, medical students and physicians, all have stated a nursing background is a plus. Having a solid medical background and patient care experience can make your application stand out. Nursing is much more than passing out medications and giving bed baths which medical schools realize. I have received nothing but encouragement with nursing and medical staff during this journey. Although your experience is a plus, many other factors are just as important (gpa, mcat scores,etc…). My cousin graduated medical school from LSU in August 2008 and doing her residency in anesthesia. During her time in medical school, the nurses who were in her classes did very well especially the first year. That gave me a lot of encouragement. Since your a nurse and have access to patients labs, tests results, progress notes (especially) and orders, use it to start thinking like a physician. Ask why is this being ordered, why is he using this medication or this IV antibiotic or fluids? By being hospital staff, you can shadow a physician easily and observe major surgeries just by a phone call. If you have a good relationship with a physican on staff ask for a recommendation especially if your in direct care of his own patients. Hope this encourages you.


L J, RN, BSN

I was a nurse a loooooong time before I decided to switch to medicine. At the time I made my career change, I actually hadn’t practiced as a nurse in several years, and was contemplating going back to do advanced-practice nursing. When I looked into it, I found that there was too much emphasis on theory and administration, and not enough on the in-depth WHY things work the way they do and what you need to do about it. So I went for medicine, which I hadn’t had the guts to do when I was eighteen.


I would have to disagree just a little with the notion that a nurse is going to do well in year one of med school because of his/her background. The depth, intensity and speed with which you cover the basic sciences (biochem, anatomy, physiology, neuroscience) is nothing like anything you would have seen in nursing school. Where I DO think a nurse has an edge is in relating to patients. One of the really awkward uncomfortable things about MS-1 and MS-2 is those early patient encounters, when you know darn well that you really don’t have anything to offer, and yet you’re supposed to talk to the patient, find out what’s wrong with them, and come up with some ideas. (most med schools offer early clinical experiences to some degree) Nurses have an edge here because we are used to talking to people.


After many, many years of talking to other nurses going into medicine, I believe that the key is to be very clear about why you are shifting gears. Nursing is not “Medicine Lite” (nurses know this) and you need to show that you appreciate the different perspective of medicine. Good luck!


Mary

I was a nurse a loooooong time before I decided to switch to medicine. At the time I made my career change, I actually hadn’t practiced as a nurse in several years, and was contemplating going back to do advanced-practice nursing. When I looked into it, I found that there was too much emphasis on theory and administration, and not enough on the in-depth WHY things work the way they do and what you need to do about it. So I went for medicine, which I hadn’t had the guts to do when I was eighteen.


I would have to disagree just a little with the notion that a nurse is going to do well in year one of med school because of his/her background. The depth, intensity and speed with which you cover the basic sciences (biochem, anatomy, physiology, neuroscience) is nothing like anything you would have seen in nursing school. Where I DO think a nurse has an edge is in relating to patients. One of the really awkward uncomfortable things about MS-1 and MS-2 is those early patient encounters, when you know darn well that you really don’t have anything to offer, and yet you’re supposed to talk to the patient, find out what’s wrong with them, and come up with some ideas. (most med schools offer early clinical experiences to some degree) Nurses have an edge here because we are used to talking to people.


After many, many years of talking to other nurses going into medicine, I believe that the key is to be very clear about why you are shifting gears. Nursing is not “Medicine Lite” (nurses know this) and you need to show that you appreciate the different perspective of medicine. Good luck!


Mary

I wasn’t implying that ALL nurses in the first year does well because of their background. My statement comes from a comment from a relative who been through the program. She struggled a great deal to graduate medical school. She often wished she would have had more direct patient care or hospital experience which would have been one less thing to develop while in school. Your definately an inspiration to all who are older (and with a family) and pursued a career medicine. Are you happy with your career decision? If given a choice, would you do it all over again? I am single with no children of my own. If I had a family, I couldn’t develop the mental stamina and physical energy to tackle so much responsibility. I am in awe of anyone who can juggle both and succeed.

Thank you so much for the helpful responses. It is so refreshing to hear from RN’s who have already experienced what I hope to accomplish, and who are an inspiration. I work on a truly phenomenal unit that does trauma response, trauma & surgical critical care, and we train for every certification you could imagine and have a wonderful physician staff. We work very closely with physicians and have an enormous amount of independence in our practice, decision making, and are given the opportunity to do one on one rounding with our attending trauma surgeon on and work together to make patient care decisions. We are expected to know what to do, why, how etc and this experience has made me want to learn even more and pursue a career in trauma surgery.


Although I am highly motivated and excited to go for this, I do have some concerns (as anyone probably would). Being on a very intense critical care unit with a lot of independence and responsibility ( we only take orders from attendings and dont work even have med students rotate on our service), Im nervous to be a medical student/resident for so many years and be back at the “bottom”, if that makes sense. I feel as though it will be very frustrating and i definitely know I will miss nursing. Also, I am nervous as to how professors, preceptors, etc will see me bc I have a past as an RN- would they always assume I am thinking nursing and not medicine? will they think differently of me in a bad way? Has anyone had experience with these issues?


thank you again for all of your responses!

Also, do not only attempt this path to be a “x or y” specialty. You never know what you will be a “able” to match into and you may change your mind.

understandable, and good advice. But my interest is trauma and surgery, and the reason I want to go to medical school is to do trauma surgery, not to just “be a doctor”. Ive been a trauma nurse and love trauma and critical care. ive had experience in other areas- none of which give me motivation to be involved in. Trauma is a general surgery match and a critical care/trauma fellowship, if I cant match surgery then I might as well quit medicine and be a freelance cake designer