AIBU to go from nurse to Dr?

[Greywalls12]

I've been a qualified nurse for a year and a half, so not very long at all. Ever since starting my nursing degree I'd have thoughts about being a Dr but didn't have the required A-levels (science) or think I was smart enough (I had really low self esteem).
I'm now seriously contemplating a career in medicine and completely motivated for the studying etc, but reading so many threads recently about the pressure of junior drs puts me off.
As a nurse i am put under immense pressure and I think Dr's absolutely get the worst of this, and have a lot more pressure than what I currently do.
I can't really talk to my nursing colleagues about this, as one I mentioned it to gave me a hard time about it saying I want to be better than nurses etc, which is absolutely not true.
By the time I finish my a-levels and medical school (if i would even get in), i would have been qualified 7/8 years. I absolutely think i can do this, i got a 2:1 in my nursing degree but was 4 marks off a 1st (frustrating i know). I didn't do as well in my a-levels but I'm confident i could get good grades in biology and chemistry.
If you were in my position would you choose a career in medicine or progress through nursing?
Any advice welcome! Thank you

At your age, I wouldn't think twice.

Always amazed at some of the cautious answers I see on here, you only live once, and even if you fuck up a bit or end up with more debt or whatever, isn't it better than never taking any risks?

I know someone who qualified at 45. They're 60 now and so glad they did it.

With a world wide shortage of doctors I would say go for it

It's doable and I think if you have a passion for it, go for it. Please do however think of what you want out of life long term. You're 23 now, that's another 5 years of studying. Plus then being a junior doctor and getting all the crap shifts. My cousin is now a 3rd year grad, hoping to become a registrar however what she longs for more than anything is a family. Her long hours means she struggles to meet people and maintain relationship. She's 32 now and is quite down about the whole situation, even though we try to remind her than she's not exactly old!!

I would really recommend the book “so you want to be a medical mum” by Emma Hill, it discusses a lot of the issues that you would face.

Like if you are planning on working less than full time, bear in mind that your training will take longer, so you will living with this level of uncertainty and frequent moves for a lot longer. Also (obviously) your pay will be less. Plus you may end up missing out on teaching sessions and feeling like your training is suffering. Then just just things like ward rounds when you don’t know the patients because you weren’t at work over the last couple of days are so much harder.

Another point is that there are all sorts of hoops that you have to jump through (exams, courses, audits, research) in order to progress that are a massive drain on the time you can spend with your family. So it’s not just that you have to work long hours, but even at home your time isn’t your own either.

Again, I’m not trying to put you off, and plenty of doctors have children and manage to balance everything.

My sister went into medice latter on in life. I would contact uni's thato offer medicine and look up pre-requisits. You have a lot more to offer then a 18 yr old who has just finished school.

You could also look at becoming a Physician Associate. I think it’ll become a very big thing in the next few years.

Doctor here, personally I would go for it! I have worked with several doctors in the past who have been nurses/midwives/psychologists/lawyers/musicians and all sorts previously! My feeling (as someone who went in as an undergraduate from school) is that graduate entry medics are really valued, both by universities and also its previous experience/lovely variety in the work place!

Equally, I have worked with many excellent nurse practitioners whose experience and knowledge I continue to hold in the highest regard, particularly when I started out and they had years of experience in junior doctor tasks that even out of medical school, seemed above my head initially.

However, I feel they are different roles. Diagnosis is at the 'bread and butter' of being a doctor. Obviously not the be all and end all by any means (and not necessarily fair), but the salary is higher for doctor of similar years in the job to an advanced nurse practitioner, doing similar working hour patterns.

Good luck with whatever you decide. I can't compare with being a nurse having never been one, but I really enjoy being a doctor and even in the NHS climate as it is, I would really recommend it as a career. Foundation years are very hard, learning curve and hours wise, but it gets better as you get on, particularly if you find a specialty you really enjoy that can work reasonably with your lifestyle.

Can you afford not to be working and to be a student full time?

I know someone doing it. Taught themselves Chemistry and sat the GAMSAT. They managed to scrape a pass and got accepted onto a 5 year course at a medical school miles away from family.
However, whilst student loans available for living, not eligible for loans to cover tuition. They are therefore working bank shifts in order to cover those payments (it does mean they've got to know a lot of the medics before they started their practical sessions).

As a senior junior doctor (!) who’s been working for 12 years I would consider advanced nursing/practitioner roles instead. I think that’s what I would do if I knew what I know now.
The portfolio/exams (self funded and study in your free time)/shifts/understaffing and most significantly moving posts/hospitals every 4-6 months so you have no continuity is soul destroying. You are always new, always in the wrong ‘not how it’s done here’ and commuting or living up to 50/80 miles away from your home.
The job itself is great and I’m really looking forward to finally settling as a consultant but I have missed out so much life to get here.
I don’t want to put you off the job but need to know the reality of training. Good luck in whatever you do!

Yes, go for it! I don't understand why anyone would say not to (as long as you really do go into it with your eyes open). You're young, as long as your finances and commitments can take it, there's no reason not to.

Will you be eligible for tuition fee loan on an UG course? My DD has a BSc Hons Biomedical Science and has just started UG Dental School and is having to self fund. She does get a maintenance loan though so that's something i guess. Post Grad might be your only option.

At 23 with a child, I think if you have to redo A levels then all the years of study then training afterwards (plus cost of doing so) that would put me off and I’d pursue a CNS/ANP training instead. If you can go straight to medicine then I would probably do it.

You can normally get to band 8A max through the CNS, research nurse or ANP routes. Some specialties will have nurse consultant posts on 8C. Problem with SOME ANP roles is you end up in a kind of junior doctor replacement limbo. After that the only route up for nursing is to come out of clinical. Either university based posts, research management, or the dreaded corporate nursing (the latter pays extremely well and corporate jobs are not hard).

If I did it all again (I would not work in NHS again) I would have opted for medicine over nursing as the training pathway, protected time for non clinical and end rewards are much better. For some nurses who progress to corporate level (it’s more a choice than a talent) financial rewards are good, comparable to hospital consultant pay.

You’ll never know if you can do it unless you try!

If you don’t get into medical school or decide you have changed your mind, you can always continue with your nursing career and progress up to a senior level.

My GP was previously a nurse. I think you should at least put out feelers out to find out if there is anything you need. No point thinking about it for another year to discover that you could have been working towards a qualification.

Im a nurse practitioner in a specialist area, I admit, diagnose, discharge, prescribe etc, its a good job and I earn a very good wage compared to your average band 5 staff nurse, comparable to a mid level registrar. There is the opportunity there if thats a side of nursing you want to pursue. However if you have it in your heart that you want to be a doctor you may find that hard to shift. The one thing I would say is think carefully about the practicalities. The docs I work with are regularly rotated miles and miles away from where they live, it seems to be hard to balance work & family for some, however this is just while you train so would not be forever. Good luck with whatever you decide

@MrsFionaCharming you're right! I went to an NHS seminar recently (I'm an NHS Director) and they were discussed a lot. A few years ago I'd have said no way, I didn't understand the point in the physician associate role, but the NHS is now clearly encouraging people into this role.

You should definitely look into the finance.

When I looked into this, (some years ago) if you already had a degree you weren’t eligible for the same bursaries/loans as an undergrad studying medicine, and the amounts were eye watering.....

My wife is currently a band 6 nurse! She is currently doing her masters degree to become a nurse practitioner!
She was picked by a team of doctors and the man that runs the trust ti do the course, the course is being paid by the trust aswell so she wont have have a student debt!
She has only been a nurse for 6 years, the money she will earn once she is qualified for us is bloody amazing!
I would say follow your heart, you only have one life

You can definitely do graduate entry with 2:1 in nursing. What I think you need to think more about is how the study and early years of qualification will fit into your family life as you have a child.

I'm not a dr but do some teaching to medical students. As I understand it they get no say in where their hospital placements are not as students nor as junior doctors so you could end up with massive commutes or lots of house moves. Which may be ok if you have someone to rely on for childcare.

If that works for you, go for it, especially if you ate interested in the diagnosis and problem solving. I trained in allied health as a mature student and although I love my job if I had been 10 years younger I'd have considered doing medicine afterwards.

I’m married to a doctor, we were together all through university, albeit he qualified 20+ years ago now and things have changed. There were mature students in their thirties on his course. One was a nurse. The nurse struggled a lot with the science and only scraped by in her end of year exams every single year. It was really, really stressful for her but she was single and without children. She did qualify in the end.

So I’m wondering what your partner thinks? What they do for a living? As the wife of a medic, I’ve struggled with constantly picking up the slack, change of jobs every six months for many years (fortunately he became a consultant when our eldest child turned four). My own career is very much second place, I have to work part time to give him the ‘freedom’ to work as the job requires. My career has suffered - I am never considered for promotion due to having to work part time.

He had to pay for all of his post grad exams and the associated study course, often totalling thousands of pounds with of course no guarantee he would pass. I lived with a lot of his stress for many years and had to plan all holidays around his exams. We once had a very cold holiday in the West Country in March because he had an exam later in the year so wouldn’t go away in summer.

He spends weekends on call, which is hard on us as a family. When the children were much younger, I couldn’t leave their side while he was on call - hugely restrictive - so I might have to drag two small kids around Sainsbury’s while he sat at home in front of the TV waiting for a call. I am never confident that I can join in with weekend activities - I always have to check what his plans are first. That does wear very thin.

As a consultant, we get his rota every ten weeks. Effectively, we don’t know when he’s on call until the rota is published, so we might not know what he’s doing the week after next. He has to give six weeks notice to book annual leave. He has to book whole days or half days leave (in my job, I can book hours) which means he frequently misses school events. It also means I have to go to all school events and parents evenings.

We are restricted in where we can live - he has to be 30 minutes driving time away when he’s on call. If we lived further away, he would have to be ‘resident’ on call for the whole 48 hour weekend (ie sleep in the hospital).

There are of course many advantages. The pay is ok, he can earn extra money through private work (though he’s whacked for tax and insurance so it’s not as attractive as you might think). His job is pretty secure, terms and conditions good. Pension not what it once was.

Lots to consider from a family viewpoint - much of which is only apparent if you’ve lived with a medic. And that’s after medical school.

Have you looked in to being a Physician’s Associate? I believe a lot of the courses accept a nursing degree and you go on to post graduate study

I didn't suggest PA because I work with one every day who finds it so incredibly frustrating to have to pass everything with any red flags over to a GP. I have a feeling that isn't what you want.
I was in a similar position to you OP in that I wanted to study medicine but didn't have the confidence.
After doing various other things I'm now in an NHS management role. I can honestly say I'm excellent at it (much more confident now), I love my job, and I just fell into the NHS rather than aiming to work in healthcare in the end, but I do have regrets.
At almost 40, it's too late for me to do anything about it.

I know someone that did this much later on, with two kids to complicate things. Go for it!

I didn't see you had a child... I'd think very carefully about your planned speciality. My dh was placed 4 hours from home for 2 years. We had to pay for a flat etc as expenses were cut drastically. We delayed having kids as a result of the travel and uncertainty. Then when I had 2 very small kids he had to take a job almost 2 hours away for 18months. This was for surgery. It might be better in areas like London, where placements closer together.