<p>Advice Please!!!
I plan on getting a masters degree in epidemiology but want a degree in medical field as well. I have been considering MD or Nurse Practitioner. I'm having a hard time deciding which to choose since it seems in some cases a nurse practitioner is certified to do just about anything a doctor can do (specialities aside). However, Doctors seem to think that NPs are undertrained to be allowed so much responsibility and NPs seem to think that doctors have horrible patient relations and don't do sufficient evalutation before diagnosis. I just want to be knowledgeable and effective, thus capable of giving patients the best care possible, being a good diagnostician and able to inform and guide public health workers and their programs. Which do I choose?</p>
<p>I would like to keep my doors open to as many career opportunities as possible, such as work abroad as an international health consultant, expert health advisor to NGO programs/projects, with the UN, health ministries, training developing countries nurses, midwives, and doctors, and possibly even practicing abroad. Although I'd like to keep my options open to practicing in the states if I so choose. Would I be overqualifying myself for these opportunities with a Med or NP degree?</p>
<p>I don't think you'd be overqualifying.......just perhaps go into college with these ideas in mind, and you'll get more set in stone while there...</p>
<p>hmmm, well, there's the problem. I already went to college. I finished a degree in sociology and I'm trying to decide where to go from there. Thank you for responding though.</p>
<p>One of the big considerations is how long you're willing to wait to do all these things. An MD will require a post-bacc program, med school, and then a residency in, for example, infectious diseases - adding up to perhaps as much as nine years, or more if you further subspecialize. Adding an MPH would take another year.</p>
<p>An NP probably doesn't take that long - my suspicion is that you'd do a brief post-bacc, and then nursing school, which probably runs you a total of four years. I don't know this path in detail and couldn't vouch for this, but you're saving yourself a lot of time/money.</p>
<p>Thanks mike, you're right. I don't mind the time and money, as long as there is a definitive difference in the end result. Competence in care and diagnostics, knowledge of the human system, diseases, symptoms, prevention, and medicines, and lastly, career opportunities. Which one will provide with me the most and is the difference substantial enough to validate spending that much more time and money?</p>