RN to Med School?

Why go to med school? RNs already know more than doctors. Ask any RN and they'll tell you.

It's a good bit less money though.

Yeah $120K as opposed to $200k. Depending on field of study.

not worth the time or expense

Do NP or CRNA

to go back you're looking at 7 years of lost productivity at minimum (assuming you do internal med or family practice)

add a few hundred thousand in costs and you are way behind

between lost productivity and loans/costs you'd need ~500k just to break even

nurse anesthetist


do this and enjoy your adulthood.

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I've read that some med schools don't require all the pre-med courses as prerequisites.

I read where some BSNs were able to get in with their BSN, experience, a decent MCATs, and a couple of additional courses.

This way, it would only be 3-4 more years of school (plus residency)

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the 7 years in my calculation does not include additional undergrad time.

If you even have to consider going back to undergrad first then it would absolutely be a bad decision (at least financially speaking).

All those years of going back to school are years you don't get good, affordable health insurance (like most employed nurses do) and you're not building your retirement accounts.

Now if you want to be a doctor just to be a doctor, then chase your dreams.

I thought you couldn't work while in med school.

My wife's best friend was an RN who went to medical school. She is doing exceedingly well, and seemed to handle residency better than most, being used to long hours.

She's a big muckety muck in charge of a bunch of stuff at a teaching hospital in NC now.

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I was hoping i'd be able to work while I chipped away at med school a little at a time. Not sure how realistic that is, but worth asking.

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There's no way. I have a handful of really good friends in med school right now (1st-4th year) and they put in well over 40 hours a week.

Current 3rd year student here. There are a number of former nurses in my class that made the jump. It's certainly possible.

The biggest thing will be how long you can delay gratification of actually practicing, deal with hoop jumping in school/residency, and go without income. As said above, 4 years of med school + x years for residency (3-8) depending on which residency you intend to pursue. That's a lot of years not saving for retirement. Yes, doctors make a lot in general, but after a couple hundred grand in debt, it takes a while to really start seeing that money unless you're business savvy. If you still have prerequisites to take to even get into med school, that will delay everything longer of course.

Going through advanced practicing nursing would be better financially, but if you really want to be a MD/DO, go for it. Best of luck regardless.
ETA: this isn't something you do part-time. Some days I'm studying from 6-9. Some days only a handful of hours. But always doing something.