@twinsmama outlines an important point. Physicians (MD & DO) run everything medical in a hospital environment, and they ar the only ones who can perform surgery. Many hospital based NP’s get very frustrated with their lack of authority. There are also a lot more career paths (research, administration, teaching, etc. ) than for a PA or NP.
Thanks I will check with his high school and community college for further testing/clarification on fields to pursue and focus on the differences between the nursing and MD field. He has a passion for the research end of it but also the personality where he really wants to interact and help people
We really appreciate the comments/insights it really helps!
Your S does not need to decide now. My D is a high school senior, and is at this time planning on being a PA. She will study either exercise science or kinesiology, depending on the college she decides on (if she ever decides!!). After that she will apply to PA school. She did not want any direct admit PA programs because while she is fairly sure, she would like to have the option of changing her mind.
She likes PA rather than MD because, as others have said, the shorter training time, the lower financial investment, and the work/life balance the profession affords. We have a friend who is a PA in a DC emergency room who loves the challenge and excitement even if she is not the ultimate decision maker.
Our high school has an internship program for seniors, and my D spends half of her day in an orthopedic group. She shadows doctors and the PA. She really enjoys it and it has helped confirm her plan.
OP- there are lots of different kinds of “research”. I have a friend who is an RN who works for a big pharma company recruiting and supporting patients who participate in clinical trials. That’s research. Then there’s what most people think of-- a PhD in neuroscience or MD doing early stage research on drugs, cellular level stuff. There are clinical psychologists who work with teams of people developing robotic limbs (that’s research) and speech therapists working in hospitals with patients recovering from maxilofacial surgery developing better protocols for swallowing and avoiding pneumonia (that’s also research).
So just liking research isn’t going to help… and frankly, I’m not sure that knowing exactly where he wants to land is helpful right now.
He should take all the bio and chem that his HS offers (and statistics) and do as much math as your curriculum offers. That will build a base which will keep him in good shape regardless of whether he ends up in PT, OT, speech, nursing, med school, or something entirely different but life sciences related.
I second statistics. He will have to take it in college and it is good to have some background in it.
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My H and I just don’t want him to spend a few years at college spending a lot of money without having a really good idea of what he should pursue.
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I don’t think this should be your big concern. Taking the GenEd/Core and the prereqs for MD, PA, etc would certainly not be a waste of time or money.
That said, professional school is expensive. My kids accepted large merit scholarships from their undergrad, and it hardly cost us anything. Younger son is graduating from med school in 4 weeks, so those four years have been the pricey ones. 
Post #17 is so correct! Your kid will figure out his path with more years and experiences. College includes many breadth requirements and no learning should be considered a waste. Freshman year will take care of many degree requirements regardless of his final choice. Do not expect him to make up his mind now. Let him learn more about possibilities in college. Who knows- he may discover something totally nonmedical related is of more interest to him. Please do not limit his choices. Encourage him to explore all facets of himself.
In my DIL’s pediatric group practice in Manhattan, the NP takes calls, but she has many years of experience.
OP, your son will probably change his mind on his career many times before he graduates high school, let alone college. Just make sure he completes all the required classes and gets high scores.
H is an MD, but none of our two kids were interested. They are earning much more than H with less years of education.
@cbreeze there is call and there is call. I doubt she is admitting patients to hospital while on call, but probably covering for an outpatient practice. If NP’s could do call, they would do all of it!
@WISdad23 I am a certified nurse-midwife in DC and practice independently. I have admitting privileges. Many of our patients do not see an MD their entire pregnancy. Laws vary from state to state and even from mid level to mid level provider. Many ortho PA have hospital privileges for example.
@WISdad23, yes the NP takes outpatient calls as do the pediatricians in the group. Hardly any physicians admit patients to hospital anymore. They have hospitalists to do that now.
I am a NP and have been one for many years, and no way do I have the knowledge or experience of physicians.
^ You can change that if you want. The NP we go to has been in the business 40 years. There is a big difference between a new doctor and a new NP. After that, it becomes about state laws, the practice environment, and individual personalities. She takes call, does surgeries (not the big stuff, obviously, surgeons do that), has admitting and hospital privileges. She is also a naturally curious person. I would put her knowledge of complex medical cases up against any primary care physician. Education stops defining you once experience takes over.
@Magnetron
Exception not the norm, but yes we never stop learning.
The 9500 vs 1500 clinical hours alone is astronomical!!
(My wife is a NP too) she very humbly says no comparison and will grill the DNP model up and down.
re post #32. I disagree with you entirely. Your NP never learned the same stuff the MD did- you only see the tip of the iceberg. Experiences are different- we see things and learn about so many things not routinely expected to be seen that a nursing education does not cover. All of us physicians got the same medical education to become MDs, then added specialized knowledge. NPs got nursing degrees, without the same knowledge base of physicians. Routine office practice is a lot of repetition, most often the rare stuff is never encountered. Also, women have been giving birth outside of hospitals for thousands of years, routine deliveries are straightforward. Dealing with the unusual and complications is a good reason we have physicians.
We do live in a specialist-rich area where primary care providers would never use the breadth of education given in the med schools. Still, the docs at her clinic made her medical director. She has worked in internal medicine, OB/Gyn, and two years independently in a Spanish-speaking country, plus other places. She sees the most difficult cases and finds things that have been missed for years. You know why the death rate goes up in July in teaching hospitals? Because what happens after the education is more important than what happens during it. For a patient, it is the only thing that counts. I absolutely agree with your assessments in general, but they do not apply universally.
One of the best design engineers I know never went to college. My mother’s lawyer never went to law school. She read the books and passed the bar. She was arguably the smartest person in my hometown which included a research university.
It is much different in the medical world than law or design. Medicine is a hands on experience where everything cannot be learned from books/computers. All physicians use the same breadth knowledge in subtle ways. Those in primary care will be up on the drugs and doses more than specialists perhaps but we all have the understanding of the pathology and ramifications of it and treatments- importantly what needs to be known (and looked up) given the circumstances.
July is notorious in teaching hospitals because the residents are all new in their positions and still learning. Not the same as in practice beyond training. btw it is called the practice of medicine for good reasons.
Back to the OP’s concerns. So many variables and much tooo soon to plot out your son’s career. In HS he should be taking the college prep type classes- in all areas, not just STEM. He will need to choose colleges that include potential majors- eg nursing and PA programs et al. Any school if his intention is premedical. If he is premed he needs a major that interests him. He will need to take the required classes and plan on a career outside of becoming a physician since so many who start with medical school intentions do not go. Nursing is a parallel field and NOT the default if he doesn’t get into medical school- different personalities are attracted to each way of taking care of patients. If he chooses nursing he will have many years before he becomes a subspecialist- he must like it to tolerate the work (RNs also show only the tip of the iceberg in their daily routines and need to do so much that doesn’t require the degree- if no one else does it the RN makes sure it gets done).
I would love to hear more about this
“Nursing is a parallel field… different personalities are attracted to each way of taking care of patients”
Would you mind elaborating on that last part?
@cbreeze, yes many hospitals have hospitalists. But most people here I suppose live in larger cities. In smaller hospitals, there are no hospitalists so there is a traditional model of call. Also, it depends on the specialty. I am a psychiatrist and I have been doing call for 25 years. I can tell you that I (and most like me) hate call. Some specialties have made it disappear (e.g. with hospitalists) but it still exists. In states that allow non-MD’s to admit patients to hospitals - I’m not familiar but good luck with that. There is no way, I presume, that this happens without MD backup which means that the admitting person is a proxy.
But to the point, high school aspirations to be a doctor are by nature idealistic. Time and experience will hone the reality.
@Magnetron not sure I follow completely but I think you are saying that an OB/GYN group appointed an NP as their medical director. That is fine but I can tell you that they would change that in a flash if the medical director position paid more than clinical work. In multi specialty groups, it is fairly uncommon to see a radiologist or a dermatologist take a 70% pay cut to be an administrator. This happens in mental health all the time to the detriment of psychiatry. In any publicly funded mental health system you will likely find a non-psychiatrist running it, so often in fact that it is peculiar.