So, I’ve wanted to be a doctor for a long time.
My plan:
- Become a nurse. I want to do this because although biology and chemistry are great undergraduate choices, you learn what you need to know of those in medical school. Nursing would teach me how to care for a patient, the ins and outs of the hospital setting, and a foundation for clinical practice. I hear some medical schools frown on this route, but why? In my opinion, a pre-med biology major and a pre-med nursing major are equally prepared for medical school, just in different ways. FURTHERMORE, if I don’t get into medical school, I can still take care of patients and be involved in medicine, which is what I really want to do.
- Go to medical school, and become a doctor, if my grades, time, experience, and MCAT scores allow for this. I’ve told myself time and time again that nothing will stop me. I will apply and apply and apply and take loans out to afford applying this much until I am accepted somewhere.
- Failing that, become a nurse practitioner. The benefit to this is that it only takes 2 additional years of training. Right?
WRONG. by 2015, all nurse practitioners will be required to hold the DNP degree, Doctor of Nursing Practice. Um, boom, benefit gone. Many doctors and nurses and NPs are strongly against this, as the extra 2 years of training in non-clinical nursing science has not shown to produce better NPs.
On top of that, many medical associations are saying that NPs with their Doctorate should not be called “doctor” in the clinical setting, as it may cause confusion between NPs, MDs/DOs, patients, nurses, auxiliary staff, etc. Well you know what, maybe you associations should have been more vocal about it when they decided that NPs needed doctorates.
If I don’t become an MD or DO, and I decide to become a DNP, you bet your ass I’m introducing myself as “doctor Zachary D.H.”
Maybe when the make nurse anesthetists, NPs, physician assistants, critical care nurses, etc. get their doctorates, on top of having doctorate level pharmacists, nutritionists, dietitians, and physical therapists, and everyone is calling each other Dr. This, Dr. That, their will be a giant paradigm shift to calling MD/DOs Physician This, Physician That, and NPs will be called Nurse Practitioner This, Nurse Practitioner That.
So mad.
