My school is partnered with Tulsa Tech (a votech kind of school) where you can spend half of your school day at one of their campuses and take classes there that count towards credit for your overall high school career and GPA and all. They have a nursing class. It is three hours long. So basically I would spend my morning on that tech campus and come back before 4th period and then take AP Lit, AP Calc, and AP Bio. So in total my classes would be nursing, AP Lit, AP Calc, AP Bio. At the end of first semester I would be an official CNA since I turn 18 a month after school would start.
My questions are:
Should I go through with this or let my senior year course load be AP Lit, AP Calc, AP Bio, AP Human Geo, Human Body Systems (a pltw class), and then some other elective?
Would colleges like to see this on my transcript and see that I am passionate about the medical field? (I really want to be a doctor)
Would it give me a leg up on admissions?
If you want to be a doctor I don’t see why you would get a nursing degree
I think it would help.
Hey there!
I’m a first year university student on a pre-MD/PhD track and I had a similar decision to make at the end of my Junior year of highschool.
After a lot of consideration, I decided to do the CNA program.
It probably won’t help much with undergrad admissions. And it certainly won’t help with med school admissions. But, for me, it was really an invaluable experience.
I had never been able to work directly treating patients before. And caring for people and, in many cases, watching them die, helped me understand that I wanted to go into medicine. A lot of pre-med students are unsure about the patient-care aspect of medicine. After bathing 400-lb paraplegic men and helping feeding dying children, I felt much more confident about clinical medicine.
And one of my anecdotes about the death of one of my Parkinson’s patients moved my Harvard interviewer and helped establish a pretty awesome relationship.
Also helped me get a job in the ER as a scribe. The administration said that they love hiring anyone with patient care experience. CNAs do a lot of dirty work, and that doesn’t go unnoticed.
With that said, it’s a minor certification. It probably won’t help with admission. You may not use it after you go through the decently significant amount of time and clinical work it takes to earn it.
And remember, it is a lot of wiping butts and changing adult diapers. And, if you’re male, a lot of lifting heavy people.
But like most things, you can shape it into a unique experience.
Good luck! And feel free to PM me any more specific questions