Update/more newb advice

Nontraditional Premed Discussion
1

Hello!


I introduced myself a little over a year ago on this post: http://www.oldpremeds.org/fusionbb/showtopic.php?t…


Update: I’m 28 almost 29. I just finished my BSN with a 4.0. I have been working in an Medical-Surgical ICU for a year and a half. My experience in the ICU has been a roller coaster. While I am very appreciative and honored to be a part of the nursing profession, I want to be a surgeon. I thought taking care of the type of patients I wanted to do surgery on would be enough for me to be happy. It’s not. I work night shift, which is boring as hell, when we do get action it’s amazing. I have been trying to get a day shift position, so that I can take more surgical patients and get more exposure. I was told I was going to get one; however, several night nurses resigned and we were short-staffed so my transfer was rescinded.


I am well liked by upper management. I do numerous volunteer work with the hospital. I’m also on the Nurse Leadership Council along with the ICU’s Nurse Practice Council.


One of our intensivists, an excellent physician, but does not support my endeavors of becoming a physician later in life. He states it’s not worth the investment for me. Since, I work so closely to him, I started to have doubts and I have been extremely busy learning a new job and finishing up my BSN. Then this past Thursday happened…


I had a patient who was being admitted for ischemic leg, who was facing possible emergent amputation. The surgeon comes upstairs and we start prepping them for the OR. While I’m doing the paperwork, we start chit-chatting and somehow my medical school aspirations were brought up. As he’s working with me, he starts telling me I should go to medical school. I start asking him questions you ask here and he’s answering them amidst this craziness. Mind you he’s about to cut open this person’s leg to find the clots and try to save the leg, which he eventually did. There were some post-op complications, which I had to inform him of, and when he calls in the morning to check in and give me some orders for the next shift at the end of the conversation I say anything else? And he states, you to go to medical school. I can’t stop thinking about what he told me. So here I am…taking the next step of reaching my dream. So here are my new questions:

  1. I just need my pre-reqs. While my BSN portion is 4.0, my ADN and nursing school pre-reqs were a 3.6 and I have 4 W’s and 3 F’s with 2 make-up A’s from 2003-06 from my original pre-med route. Is doing a post-bacc program better for me? I am going to be paying out of pocket, so I was thinking I could go UT at San Antonio and do my pre-reqs and then apply to medical school? Is this the DIY way?

  2. Do I need to shadow since I’m already in the medical field? How do people ask physicians to shadow?

  3. Will my volunteer work with the hospital count towards my medical school application?

  4. Along with my pre-reqs and MCAT prep, what should be my next focus to make sure I am an excellent candidate for medical school?

  5. Lastly, I do not want to inform my co-workers of my medical school aspirations. Frankly, most of them would not be supportive. How do you deal with negative comments?


    Thanks in advance. This forum is the best for information.


    Naomi
2

My $0.02:

  1. I think in your situation I would just take the remaining prereqs vs a full program. If you want to retake a class, that’s fine but unnecessary depending on where you’re applying. My prereqs spanned 2000-2013, so I just couldn’t apply to places that say “must be completed in last x years”. I did get accepted to a school that recommends last 10 years, so they do make exceptions… I ended up taking biochem as an “additional hard science” to prove to them and myself that I can handle a class above the freshman/soph level. You may consider doing something similar, but not necessarily required. They should look favorable on your experiences and trend in grades. I would look at both DO and MD schools if you’re interested in both philosophies of medicine.

  2. The UW SOM FAQs required physician shadowing even for current health care workers, but that’s just one school’s policy. Doing so could possibly show you some side of the physician’s role that you may not already see? I dunno… I asked my PCP if I could shadow him in the ER and he was very open to it (multi shifts/50 hrs). I ended up having to go through the hospital’s volunteer office to get all of the training/documents in order before I could start.

  3. Definitely. So will your paid gig… Just have a good, logical reason for wanting to make the transition. You seem to already have one…

  4. You seem more well rounded than I was (no volunteer, min clinical, no research). Focus on what you enjoy, maybe try to take on a leadership role in whatever you’re involved in. I relied heavily on my experience in the military, and you should definite highlight the fact that you have a stressful job yet still find time to do other things. Someone else can probably give you a better answer to this one.

  5. Most of the negatives I saw were phrased in the form of questions, so I gave them the same answer I gave myself when I asked myself at the start of my journey. YOU have your reasons for doing this, and YOU are the only one that needs to be satisfied with your decisions (obviously consider all aspects of life). I used the negatives as a motivator, reflected on my choices, and pressed forward. You’re never too old to pursue what you want to do. You only get one life to do everything you can. You’re not even close to being the oldest person on the forum to choose this path. They have the courage to throw their hat in the ring, so you can too. Find a good mentor that you can fall back on when times get hard, can help you with an LOR maybe, and can proof your essays.


    When you write up your apps, you need to sell yourself. Everything you’ve done in your life has led you to this decision, and that’s what you have to show adcoms. If you can’t think of how your experiences have affected you, take some time to reflect on how what you’ve done has prepared you to be a doc.