I am applying as Nursing major for UC Irvine and I’m stuck on choosing my alternate major: Public Health or Biological Sciences
Which major prepares you more for a nursing career?
I would say that public health prepares you more for a nursing career. Public health is the study of population health; it’s a zoomed out view of health. You learn about how social, cultural, environmental, political, and economic factors intersect with health/medicine/the natural sciences to produce different health conditions. Public health may give you a different perspective on working with your patients, and also may help qualify you for roles like public health nurse or research nurse.
However, biological sciences is a great major, too, if you are interested in it. Having a deeper understanding of biological systems can help a nurse do better in other classes, and if you are interested in things like research or nurse anesthetist these classes may help you prepare.
So really, you should pick what you’re more interested in. Remember that if you are picking this as an alternate major in case you don’t get into the nursing major at Irvine that you need to complete your nursing prerequisites. This will come more naturally in a biological sciences major, but you can do it easily in a public health major if you plan well.
You could compare the requirements for each to the requirements for a typical nursing curriculum. Assuming you would want to later transfer to a nursing program, or do a second degree program later, you can also use your electives to try to get as many required classes out of the way as possible.