<p>I am planning to go into health but do not know which career path to choose Nurse Anesthetist or Physician. Any comments on which one is better for the future. I am a Junior</p>
<p>Anesthesiology is the longer and much more expensive career path. (4 year undergrad + 4 years med school + 4 years of residency)</p>
<p><a href=“http://residency.wustl.edu/CHOOSING/SPECDESC/Pages/Anesthesiology.aspx”>http://residency.wustl.edu/CHOOSING/SPECDESC/Pages/Anesthesiology.aspx</a></p>
<p>Nurse anesthetist requires an APRN degree (4 year BSRN + 1 or more years as an acute care nurse + 3 years accredited CRNA program)</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.aana.com/ceandeducation/becomeacrna/Pages/default.aspx”>http://www.aana.com/ceandeducation/becomeacrna/Pages/default.aspx</a></p>
<p>Job outlooks for both career paths are strong. </p>
<p>Anesthesiologists have higher earning potential than do CRNAs, but also have a longer training period & incur larger debt.</p>
<p>Anesthesiologist handle more complicated cases while CNRAs only attend routine, uncomplicated cases. CNRAs always work under the supervision of a anesthesiologist.</p>
<p>Which you choose depends on what trade-offs you find acceptable. </p>
<p>Ok thanks for the input @WayOutWestMom</p>
<p>You need to have a BSN to become a CRNA, but you can also apply to medical school with a BSN as long as you have done the pre-requisites for medical school.
Since you are undecided, you could start in a BSN program. If you wish, you could take the additional classes you might need for pre-med or take them after you graduate if you change your mind.
Once you are in college, spend time volunteering with both, see what they do, see what you like. You can also ask them directly what the pros and cons of their careers are.
You might even change your mind along the way and discover you like something else.
Undecided is OK for now, just work hard, keep your grades high.</p>
<p>Ok thanks for that option @Pennylane2011. I will take that option into consideration.
can you chance me?
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1616504-what-are-my-chances-of-getting-into-these-schools-for-m-d.html#latest”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1616504-what-are-my-chances-of-getting-into-these-schools-for-m-d.html#latest</a></p>
<p>One caveat about majoring in nursing then apply to med school–</p>
<p>At some colleges, nursing students take science coursework (bio, physics, chem) designated for “health profession” majors. Generally these are not accepted as med school pre-reqs. You must take science coursework intended for physical & biological science majors.</p>
<p>You will also need to have a very well reasoned answer for the question: if you want to be doctor, why did you major in nursing? Because you will be asked this at every single med school interview you might receive.</p>
<p>You can certainly apply to college as an undecided. (Actually at most colleges, you cannot declare a major before midway thru your sophomore year.) Take coursework that fulfills both your preliminary nursing and pre-med requirements during your first year while getting some shadowing experience for both nursing and medicine to see which you prefer.</p>
<p>Wayoutwestmom is correct that in some colleges there is a difference between some courses for pre-meds and majors in biology, chemistry, math and physics, and some for other health professions. Be sure to choose the ones that are applicable to both, and the additional ones for medicine if you are considering both.
I looked at your chance thread and this is not the place for chancing, but you are a top candidate- now it is just the same unknown chance for all good applicants. What is relevant here is that with the top stats that you have, you are well prepared to take the rigorous classes that are required for med school, and nursing school should also accept them as prereqs.
Once you are at college, I think it would help to meet with advisers for both,to be sure you are on track. While you can be questioned, many college students are undecided. Some return later to take the additional classes needed for med school or nursing school. I think the important part is to have a well grounded answer, based on your experience which you will get. What they might wonder is if you went into nursing school with the purpose of attending medical school, which might not sound genuine to them, nor would it make sense. It would also be deceptive to the nursing program, and that would not be acceptable to them. However, some people honestly do change their minds, and there are people in both medicine and nursing pursuing second careers, although it is rarer.
As way out west mom suggests, uou can enroll as undecided if you are considering nursing 2+2 programs ( 2 years general college, 2 years nursing).</p>
<p>@MBenz23</p>
<p>There is a forum just for people applying to BA/MD programs: </p>
<p><a href=“Multiple Degree Programs - College Confidential Forums”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/multiple-degree-programs/</a></p>
<p>If you want to assess your chances for 7 year combined programs, you may get better feedback there.</p>
<p>@WayOutWestMom and @Pennylane2011 thank you both for sharing your knowledge. I have learned a lot of options that I was not previously aware of.</p>
<p>Go with medicine because a plethora of specialties would be available to you beyond anesthesia. Who knows how your decisions will fluctuate in the near future as you progress through college and life.</p>
<p>OK frugaldoctor</p>
<p>There are a plethora of specialties available in nursing, too, and respecializing in nursing is (I think) actually easier than respecializing in medicine. APRNs who wish to respecialize can do certificate programs specifically intended for that - so if you become a nurse anesthetist and decide a year later that you hate it and you want to do family practice, you can do a FNP post-master’s certificate program part-time; it’ll probably take you 1.5 years while you’re still earning a full-time nurse anesthetist salary ($109,000 is the average) and then poof, you can practice as a family nurse practitioner.</p>
<p>As a physician…what do you do when you want to respecialize? Do you have to go through residency again? I genuinely don’t know, so it may be worth looking into.</p>
<p>Nurses can do a lot of things - they can go into research and teaching; they can go into health care administration (including roles like chief nursing officer); they can do public health and epidemiology; they can do healthcare consulting and insurance. Not that physicians can’t do all of those things too - I actually don’t have an opinion on this either way - but it’s just that a lot of people don’t realize the tremendous flexibility within the nursing field, as most of the time they are only familiar with med/surg hospital floor RNs.</p>
<p>One of the advantages of nursing is that generally the program is fewer years. It also does NOT require licensing in every state, so if you are licensed in one state you can usually be a traveling nurse when you are interested in travel and practice in other states. </p>
<p>Since you are still young and undecided, I agree it’s best to keep your options open by taking courses that would meet your requirements for both fields rather than locking yourself in too soon. </p>