<p>If you apply to medical school immediately out of your nursing degree program without ever having worked as a nurse, you’re going to need a very good answer to the question about why you majored in nursing in the first place. It will be first question you will get asked by every med school you apply to. (HINT: nursing as back-up career is not an acceptable answer.)</p>
<p>Med school adcomms will understand if you want to change your career after you’ve worked as a nurse for few years, but applying straight out of undergrad—that’s not going to looked favorably on.</p>
<p>Ever heard of a nurse practitioner? It’s the best of both worlds-- only six years of school(no med school debt), you have all the powers of a doctor, and make a pretty good amount, although less than a doctor.</p>
<p>The nursing science courses do not always count or do not prepare you in depth for the MCATs. You can go from bio for “premed” to nursing but not the other way around without re-doing a lot of science courses. I know one nurse who after 10 years went to the Philippines for Med school to follow her dream.</p>
<p>Follow your dream and find a school with the smallest debt load that you will enjoy attending.</p>
<p>I second the comment in post #22 about considering a nurse practitioner career.
Some health care organizations (e.g., Kaiser Permanente) use nurse practitioners extensively. I expect that with coming changes in the health care system, there will be a need to expand the use of nurse practitioners in order to meet the need. You could also go the pre-med route, and then decide later whether to go to med school or do an MSN program. </p>
<p>My friend’s D is a nurse practitioner OB/GYN and has her her own practice in her own office. She makes about 80k in a southern state. If she diagnoses cancer or a pending breech birth she refers to a physician. Otherwise she handles everything herself.</p>