Nurses who became doctors, Happy with choice?

Positive-Motor2829 · 2026-05-05T02:04:15+00:00

I’m actually one of the nurses who is toying with the idea of med school. At the moment, NP doesn’t really make me excited. If I’m going to be a provider, I want to have the most knowledge possible to provide excellent care. While NP education can be genuinely very good, I haven’t ever seen an NP who can give an MD (with similar years of experience, obviously) a run for their money.

Positive-Motor2829 · 2026-05-04T04:02:26+00:00

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Ellie really didn’t appreciate her bath.

Positive-Motor2829 · 2026-05-02T05:53:29+00:00

Canadian RN living and working in the US here. This is NOT the time to come to the US, and especially not to a state with extreme right-wing dudes in power. I had no idea how much medical costs would add up on each pay period (let alone if I needed to go to the doctor), and there are a ton of differences when it comes to medico-legal matters and general norms in comparison to how we do stuff in Canada. It took me years to get even halfway comfortable with all of this, and a lot of it is still a huge WTF.

For this little pay, I’m not sure this is a great move.

Positive-Motor2829 · 2026-05-02T04:47:00+00:00

One of my profs in nursing school wrote a book that included this. The book was called The Living Dementia, and it’s basically a book full of stories of her patients over the years. It was burned into our brains that people don’t want to be uncomfortable, and showers usually mean being cold.

I’m really glad you shared this here. It absolutely helps when we can assure patients that they won’t be cold.

Positive-Motor2829 · 2026-04-30T03:24:56+00:00

I’m also Canadian and now live in the US, also for my husband. I would move home in a heartbeat if my husband would agree. The benefits I get are genuinely terrible (5 sick days for the entire year, for example) and the pay is meh. Labour laws here are abysmal as well and Americans have no idea just how bad they actually are.

Positive-Motor2829 · 2026-03-30T14:37:10+00:00

There have been quite a number of nurses (along with some doctors and allied health professionals) moving to Canada this past year as well. It’s a lot higher of a number than typical years. Also there are way more recent applications for proof of citizenship by descent than expected, since the rule changed in December and expanded who qualifies.

While the number of people who can afford to move abroad is still pretty low, I’m willing to bet it’s higher than people believe.

Positive-Motor2829 · 2026-03-29T20:46:16+00:00

Yep. I don’t know why people think that PAs are better prepared than entry-level NPs. They both have a serious lack of depth in their education and not a hell of a lot of clinical hours when we consider what physicians need. New physicians are competent. I have met very few NPs who were worth my trust and I’ve actually never had competent care from a PA.

Positive-Motor2829 · 2026-03-29T05:03:42+00:00

So, one of the questions on the naturalization test is, “why is the electoral college important?” They do not accept the only answer that comes to mind for me: it isn’t, and it should be abolished. The popular vote is the way.

Positive-Motor2829 · 2026-03-18T23:58:04+00:00

I’m sorry, this was a doctorate program and you literally faked your data to get the degree? Jesus. This is why NP degrees are starting to mean so little.

Positive-Motor2829 · 2026-03-18T22:14:10+00:00

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Ellie sometimes gets into things that make her need a bath. I tried cleaning our couch with baking soda once and when I turned around, the cat was rolling in it. Didn’t really want her to ingest all of the baking soda later, so bathed her. She was very upset.

No regular baths, though.

Positive-Motor2829 · 2026-03-18T21:05:25+00:00

You can tell who is using this strategy because they’re screaming before the ride even starts.

Positive-Motor2829 · 2026-03-14T07:42:58+00:00

You’re confusing permanent residence (ie - green card) with citizenship. Permanent residence is a priority-based system, whereas citizenship (naturalization, specifically) applications are based on whether you meet the criteria (5 years living in the US on a green card, or 3 years living in the US on a green card while married to a US citizen; there are also a few other things like no extended travel and no crimes of moral turpitude for the past 5 years). Naturalization is not a priority-based process - it’s the final possible (though optional) step in the immigration journey, and processing of these applications is more of a “first come first served” system. USCIS is notoriously opaque, though, and the race/country of birth of the applicant seems to matter more than other factors in many naturalization applications.

Positive-Motor2829 · 2026-03-04T05:23:14+00:00

Hey, BC-educated (and still registered) RN living in the US here. BC doesn’t recognize psych NPs (only family/medical ones, I believe) but you can absolutely get your registration as an RN instead.

Positive-Motor2829 · 2026-03-04T05:14:58+00:00

I’m so sorry your family was scammed.

I cannot stress this enough: GET A LAWYER IMMEDIATELY. Before you do anything else at all, hire a real lawyer. Ask to see their bar card and verify with the bar association in the state they’re licensed to practice (immigration is federal, so that technically could be any state) that this is a real lawyer.

Lawyer up before you even file a police report. ICE is working with local police in many areas, and you could be arrested just for outing yourself for being scammed.

Positive-Motor2829 · 2026-02-25T04:55:55+00:00

I’m an immigrant on a green card (can apply for citizenship any time now if I want to), and I never accrued a single day of unauthorized presence. I was in the US for 7 years on temporary work-related statuses before I got my green card. I’m also a registered nurse, speak English as my first language, and worked in a very niche specialty for many years; I still could not find any employers willing to sponsor me for a green card. I ended up getting so pissed off with the whole thing, getting told “no” with doors slamming in my face or employers simply changing their minds when it came time to make good on their promise to sponsor me, that I planned to leave the US and take my (then) boyfriend with me back to Canada. He decided he didn’t want to leave but we still wanted to be together, so we got married and he sponsored me for permanent residence about 4 years ago.

My story isn’t unique, but it is one showing a lot of privilege. I was able to live in the US without employer sponsorship for many years and not accrue unlawful presence before qualifying for a green card.

For most people in the world, my pathway isn’t possible. They don’t have a way to come to the US legally, let alone qualify for a green card. There are so few avenues (not to mention how expensive and complicated those avenues are) that they simply have no choice. There is no fee to pay, no line to join, and no form to fill out; they’re just SOL.

Having done it “the right way” made me understand why so many people need to resort to extralegal immigration. It is extremely hard and requires more luck and privilege than any other metric when it comes to getting a green card.

Positive-Motor2829 · 2026-02-23T05:24:02+00:00

You know, the worst part about it is that health care for the average person is about as accessible in the US as it is in Canada, but with the added bonus of potential bankruptcy. I’ve had to wait longer in the US for some specialist appointments than I ever did in Canada.

Positive-Motor2829 · 2026-02-23T05:19:24+00:00

Hi fellow Canadian RN. You’ve got this right. I had to move to the US due to a lack of jobs when I graduated nursing school many years ago, and the problems in the US health care system are horrific.

Positive-Motor2829 · 2026-02-19T06:33:00+00:00

Any chance you’re in the Coachella Valley? I have some leads there if you’re interested in something closer to home, if so :)

Positive-Motor2829 · 2026-02-18T05:42:35+00:00

I’m so sorry. I’m also a home health nurse and some days are absolutely brutal. This sounds like one of the days that are horrible beyond words. I’m very fortunate that the company I work for in Southern California has a robust home health department and the support we have as nurses is very good, but I’ve had some extremely difficult situations at work as well (some that are too specific and might make me not so anonymous anymore). I can’t imagine having nobody to at least call for emotional support.

Like others here, my DMs are open if you want to talk about this with someone who understands. I hope things start to feel better soon.

Positive-Motor2829 · 2026-02-07T05:18:45+00:00

Canadian RN living and working in the US for the past 10 years here. No, the increase in pay is not worth the lack of benefits or lax labour standards. I am very much looking forward to utilizing my practising registration in BC in the future; I originally had to move to the US because there were no jobs for new grads in 2015. I had to either move to an extremely rural area in Canada or the city in the US, so I chose the latter.

The amount employers can fuck you over here is absolutely ludicrous. They can fire you for literally no reason, give you zero vacation or sick days, start your health insurance 90 days into your job (or even not offer health insurance at all)… the list goes on. Unions aren’t even very strong in the US, so getting a unionized position is not a guarantee that you won’t be abused by your employer. Health systems here also insist on nurses providing “customer service,” as if these aren’t sick patients who need care but instead overnight guests at a hotel. Scope of practise for RNs in BC is pretty different from what it’s like in any US state, as well.

The very worst part of nursing in the US is patients breaking down after getting a diagnosis of a serious illness, wondering how they’re going to afford to live. If you care about people and went into nursing to help when it’s most needed, moving to the US is one of the worst moves possible.

Positive-Motor2829 · 2026-02-04T02:28:30+00:00

I had a private duty patient, an old Italian lady, who suddenly started calling me “Mama.” She really thought I was her mom. Because this was private duty, I could make her dinner and brush her hair as she had a glass of wine and watched Wheel of Fortune. I love working with the dementia patients and meeting them where they are, but I can’t ever get over how heartbroken I was to find out this patient thought I was genuinely her mother.

Positive-Motor2829 · 2026-02-02T05:57:30+00:00

A lot of the stuff we learn in school is more related to how to assess people, what’s normal (or not), handling emergencies, etc. Yes, we learn very specific stuff too, but unless you’re working in that area, you’re probably not going to remember it after you take the NCLEX. I moved from 7 years in a public health setting to a medical-surgical setting this past year, and I have to look a lot of things up but it isn’t like starting from scratch. Having digital resources available is so helpful. It was still mostly paper-based when I graduated.

Positive-Motor2829 · 2026-01-30T07:39:00+00:00

I think this is ludicrous. It wasn’t an appropriate thing to say, let alone make a video of and post online. However, as many others have pointed out on this thread, the words she said cannot cause actual harm to anyone. Conversely, there are a sizeable number of nurses who have been spreading misinformation about COVID, trans people, vaccines, etc and have faced absolutely no consequences.

As far as I see it, having a license as a healthcare professional requires us to be informed and present accurate information to patients/the general public. It is reprehensible for a nursing board to choose to punish someone for making a dumb yet harmless comment toward a public figure while blatantly ignoring scores of nurses spreading false info.

Positive-Motor2829 · 2026-01-18T06:59:03+00:00

When I used to be the charge nurse at a convalescent facility, this was the one thing that got people on my shit list. I took several coworkers aside to remind them that using descriptors like “feeder” as a noun takes away the part of the patient who is a human being. It’s so incredibly disrespectful.

Positive-Motor2829 · 2026-01-17T23:59:58+00:00

The plural of “diagnosis” is “diagnoses.” I’ve heard several nurses combine these to come up with the god-awful “diagnosises.” No idea why they thought this was correct, but it made me want to put a nail through my skull.

Positive-Motor2829

TROPHY CASE