<p>I have asked a few people this in person, but most people just say "a nurse is a nurse and a doctor is a doctor." thaat really helps! so here are some specifics which you can go by:</p>
<ol>
<li>type of work that each does</li>
<li>where they work</li>
<li>typical earnings</li>
<li>how much time involvement</li>
</ol>
<p>also, do nurses have to take the MCATs?</p>
<p>1) Nurses do a lot of the basics like preparing patients, administering medicines, taking care of them in between rounds, and generally carrying out physician orders.</p>
<p>2) Many in hospitals, but also can be a nurse practitioner for a specialist or in a nursing home, etc.</p>
<p>3) Nurses make much less than doctors, but also don’t have to deal with things like malpractice, overhead for office space, etc. It’s a very very solid salary though, unless you’re incompetent you will not be fired. I know of hospitals that had hiring freezes, but were still clamoring for nurses.</p>
<p>4) Nurses have hard shifts, 12 hour shifts seems to be pretty common, but at the same time, once they’re off, they’re off. You’re not the one who will have to be paged in whenever you’re needed.</p>
<p>5) No (well, 99.9% sure). I’m not too familiar with the education process for nursing but I have a friend who’s going for her Bachelor’s in Nursing as her 4 year undergrad degree. Not sure what that qualifies you to do though.</p>
<p>The major nursing examination is the NCLEX. No MCAT required, but the NCLEX isn’t a complete joke either.</p>
<p>how much of a difference is there in salary? idk if i would be able to score a good score on the MCATs considering i only got an 1850 on the SATs. although im sure there are some doctors out there who did not do so well on SATs but got into med school. idk how to determine whether i shud do medicine or not</p>
<p>Nurses live comfortably.</p>
<p>
Shadow nurses. Then shadow doctors. Then get your feet wet in some other professions or fields, because there’s more out there than just nurse and doctor.</p>
<p>There are several types of nurses.
A “normal” RN is a person who is at the bedside of the patient; gives the patient medicines, changes his bedpan, and follows the orders that the doctor wrote. But, they give “hands on” care (when they are not doing paper work).</p>
<p>A doctor is a person who examines the patient, orders labs, makes a diagnosis and then writes orders for the nurse to carry out.</p>
<p>A second type of nurse is the “Nurse Practioner”. She/He is like a “physician’s assistant”. They can independently examine and prescribe for patients (under the auspices of a doctor). They have much more training than regular nurses (think master’s degree) but less than that of doctors.</p>
<p>Nurses do get sued as much if not more than doctors - but they are covered by the hospital’s insurance. NP carry their own malpractice insurance.</p>
<p>Nurses also “advance” by career or education to educators and administrators within hospitals.</p>
<p>from the web:
Nationwide Nurse Salaries and Employment Statistics
Below are the approximate number of jobs held nationally by healthcare profession:
Surveys suggest that 86% of Nurses are women.</p>
<p>Job Title
Number of Jobs
Registered Nurses
2,184,000
Physicians (M.D. & D.O.)
688,000
Physician Assistants
104,000
Pharmacists
238,000</p>
<p>Nurse
3+ Years
Starting Base</p>
<p>RN
$47,110
$39,000
Staff RN
$44,200
$37,000
Master Level
$59,600
$49,700</p>
<p>Average Annual Income By Hospital Setting
Setting
Income
National Average
$45,500
Acute Care
$45,000
Ambulatory Care Center/HMO
$44,000
Case Management</p>
<p>$48,000</p>
<p>Community/ Home Health
$44,600
Health Insurance Co/School
$42,000
Dietician</p>
<p>$37,000</p>
<p>LPN</p>
<p>$33,500</p>
<p>Nurse Manager</p>
<p>$65,000</p>
<p>Extended Care/ Psych
$38,500
Physical Therapist</p>
<p>$55,000</p>
<p>Physician’s Office
$36,500
Speech Pathology</p>
<p>$44,000</p>
<p>Operating Room</p>
<p>$45,000</p>
<p>Average Hourly Pay By Specialty</p>
<p>Specialty
Average Hourly Pay
Critical Care
$19.45
OR
$19.75
Medicine/ Surgery
$18.80
Emergency
$18.75</p>
<p>Average Hourly Pay By Hospital Bed Size</p>
<p>Bed Size
Average Hourly Pay
500 Beds+
$21.00
300-499 Beds
$19.85
100-299 Beds
$19.70
< 100 Beds
$17.65</p>
<pre><code> Sources:
Allied Physicians, Inc.
Los Angeles Times
RN Magazine
Rand McNally
</code></pre>
<p>Nurse Practitioner Salary Surveys<br>
US National Averages<br>
3+ Years Experience
$62,000
1st Year
$57,000</p>
<p>Locality
Urban
$63,000
Suburban
$64,000
Rural
$60,000</p>
<p>Degree Separations
PhD, Administration Director
$72,000
Master’s
$60,000
Bachelor’s
$45,500</p>
<p>Part-time hourly rate:
$35.10</p>
<p>RNs in the Boston area (big teaching hospitals) do very well. Many of my RN peers with 20 years experience are making 130-140K per year plus excellent benefits.
You will start out as a new grad in the 60-70K range in these institutions</p>
<p>Contrary to what was stated above only 10% of an RNs time is spend carrying out doctor’s orders.</p>
<p>Momof2:
No “contrary”. Note it was “and” as opposed to a nurse practitioner.</p>