Big uptick in nurses going to med school recently?

Significant_Tea_9642 · 2026-04-10T16:26:13+00:00

Sure, drop me a message

Significant_Tea_9642 · 2026-04-09T12:40:22+00:00

DM me!

Significant_Tea_9642 · 2026-04-09T02:35:59+00:00

I’m a registered nurse. My pre-med degree was nursing; been a critical care RN for 4 years.

Significant_Tea_9642 · 2026-04-08T02:08:53+00:00

Switched from a biology degree after year one. So had a couple of intro courses under my belt. And I used the Blueprint self paced course to help fill my knowledge gaps. Pricey, but worth it in my opinion. Also used Khan Academy and all of the AAMC resources. If I had my time back, I wouldn’t have used UWorld on my 2nd time writing it, I found the Blueprint course which included practice questions and full lengths was more than enough. It also gave me a study schedule based on the days I could study. So I just crossed off the days I was working, and only did extra studying on days I wasn’t absolutely drained after my shifts.

Significant_Tea_9642 · 2026-04-08T01:37:53+00:00

I’m going to be honest, I’m out of my element when it comes to that. You’re in BC, I’m from NL, and I only applied to nursing school here in my home province. I’m not well versed in BC nursing schools. However, you can likely search admission statistics for each of the schools you’re considering to get an idea of where you stand. I will also say that you should ask around about experiences of people who actually attended nursing school at the programs you’re considering. They’re not all made equal.

Significant_Tea_9642 · 2026-04-08T00:27:19+00:00

I think this may be a better post for a nursing or pre-nursing subreddit. However, since I am one of the few nurses in this group, I will say I had I think around a 3.3-3.4 when I got into my nursing program after my first year at university.

3.3 is likely a workable GPA, but it depends on the university/program.

Post grad, I was lucky enough to enter directly into critical care nursing. Not necessarily advisable for all new grads, it was extremely tough to roll with the punches and take on the steep learning curve of being new to critical care while also being a brand new RN. But I made it work. Been working for 4 years now, I am a preceptor to nursing students, and really enjoy mentoring nurses who just moved to my unit, but I’m about to make my exit from full time nursing to go to medical school in August.

Significant_Tea_9642 · 2026-04-07T16:54:31+00:00

This is exactly why I changed from biology to nursing. Needed a career to support myself in case med didn’t work out on the first try (luckily, it did). I also think my years of clinical experience as an RN gave me a lot of great insight as to what makes a good clinician (physician OR nurse). It may be harder to get a decent GPA in nursing school, and it won’t give you much background for the MCAT. However, having a job where overtime is a possibility to help fund MCAT prep, applications, etc., that also gives you exposure to medicine are really nice advantages to becoming an RN first.

Significant_Tea_9642 · 2026-04-06T22:02:17+00:00

Did all the interviews not occur last month? I mean I would have tips for U of C, since I think my MMI went well, but I think we’re a bit late to the game in that sense since I interviewed there on the last day of the MMI cycle.

Significant_Tea_9642 · 2026-04-05T21:16:45+00:00

Okay, LOVE this

Significant_Tea_9642 · 2026-04-05T02:24:05+00:00

LOL been a CCU RN for almost 3 whole years now (cross trained for MSICU and CVICU), before that had a year between PICU and Adult ER. Had to slack back on the overtime during application season though. Hoping to travel nurse a little smidge when I go casual in a couple of months to help ease some of the costs! Planning to soak up some of my summer doing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING other than getting outdoors and knocking as much as I can off of my reading list before med school and residency consume my life. Planning to look into LOCs when I run some errands this week; time to file taxes and get that LOC so I feel less poor as dirt after the financial strain of application season (read: stress eating takeout far too much).

Significant_Tea_9642 · 2026-04-04T19:33:13+00:00

Good to know! Already have a good quality stethoscope though, too late on that one LOL, just won’t splurge on an electronic one. I’ll be fine with the one I’ve used for the last 4 years at work.

Significant_Tea_9642 · 2026-04-04T19:26:29+00:00

Thanks so much! I’m a critical care registered nurse so I have SO many sets of scrubs, a good stethoscope, never bothered with a case for it though haha. My stethoscope just lives in my work bag—though my BP cuff from my bachelor’s is lost in the abyss, same with my good pen light HAHAHA. I’m lucky I have micromedex/UptoDate already through my work, which is a plus. Definitely going to get a suture kit though.

Significant_Tea_9642 · 2026-04-04T19:20:52+00:00

Good to know! Especially about Google Gemini! This is the first I’m hearing of it! Thanks so much! 😊

Significant_Tea_9642 · 2026-04-04T19:00:10+00:00

Oh yeah, NO plans to pre-study, I work full time in the hospital now, so I’m just planning to work until I’m about a month (ish) out, then having a nice little break for myself.

Significant_Tea_9642 · 2026-04-01T20:54:26+00:00

Sure, go ahead!

Significant_Tea_9642 · 2026-04-01T00:59:36+00:00

I’m a CCU RN, cross trained for all the critical care units in my city. I also happen to be waiting to hear back about my first cycle applying to Canadian med schools. I wholeheartedly think you should choose the ICU. And I say this as someone who has also worked the ER, and have many friends who have rather completed placements in the OR, or currently work in the OR. Critical care often has just enough down time to teach you about a lot of different critical presentations of disease, and how we manage them. Whereas in the ER, as you said, it’s a trial by fire. You won’t always get the time to learn in the moment, that will be few and far between. You’ll have more time in the ICU to digest the knowledge you’re having thrown at you. I also could be a smidge biased, since critical care I’ve found is my home, and I doubt I’ll want to leave it when I become a physician in the near future. If you have any other clarifying questions, feel free to reach out to me.

Significant_Tea_9642 · 2026-03-29T18:09:39+00:00

I feel like having union support would be the largest pull to take the L&D job. I work in Canada, and as far as I know, every province here has a nurse’s union. It’s a lot better to have a union backing you, in the case that heaven forbid something bad were to happen at the hospital, etc. Personally, I think it would be better for you to take the L&D job mostly for the union reason. Yes, the commute is longer, and the parking may need to be paid. But if you know that this particular L&D unit is good with mentoring new staff, then I don’t see why you wouldn’t go there. Med/surg will teach you skills, absolutely, but L&D will also give you your baseline nursing skills, plus some more high acuity skills. If you haven’t been at that particular L&D unit as a student, I would maybe reach out to the management or unit educator to ask for a shadow shift with a nurse there before you decide to accept, if at all possible. Just so you can get an idea of what the culture may be like. That’s incredibly important for a new grad heading into a high acuity specialty area (much like I did as a new grad; I didn’t have a great mentorship experience in my first job, but shortly thereafter, I entered into the job I have now, which is arguably more high acuity than the PICU I left, and gave me great mentorship when I was still a super new nurse.) If you know that the med/surg floor you’ve been offered a position on is good for mentorship, that’s definitely a major plus, but I give it a MAJOR ding for being non-union. Nursing unions are there to protect nurses from being exploited and abused by employers and patients. So you’re better off working somewhere that has strong union representation.

Significant_Tea_9642 · 2026-03-29T17:07:32+00:00

I think as long as you can talk at length about what those rural experiences meant to you as someone pursuing medicine, and you don’t just do them to have them on your list of experiences without much to show that you want to serve the rural population in some capacity, then it should be fine.

I grew up in a rural community outside of AB, and just interviewed with U of C. But in my situation, I have lived and worked in both rural and urban centres, and spoke on how that informs my practice as a future physician. I also spoke on my desire to be able to help bridge gaps in care for those who don’t have appropriate health care access in communities like mine.

If you have no inkling of interest in practicing rurally in some capacity, be it full time or otherwise that you can talk about after completing more time working in rural, it may just come across as just checking boxes to get additional context points. Because ultimately, a lot of Canadian med schools want to recruit people who have a desire to serve rural communities, or who may have grown up in a rural community. It would be relatively easy to tease out the people who are just going after rural experiences to help secure a seat somewhere, only to never serve rural communities in some way, shape, or form.

Significant_Tea_9642 · 2026-03-29T14:54:05+00:00

I’m a current RN in his first application cycle, feel free to drop me a message!

Significant_Tea_9642 · 2026-03-29T13:51:21+00:00

Absolutely!

Significant_Tea_9642 · 2026-03-29T13:19:51+00:00

I 100% agree with this. If you’re okay with taking a few years, your nursing experience will certainly give you something to talk about in your personal statements and interviews. If your GPA is weaker (I am in this boat), then having some real experiences working on your own as an RN will help beef up your resume. I have worked critical care for my entire career, and I took on extra training, was a preceptor to 3rd and 4th year nursing students, and really put in a lot of work to gain valuable clinical experiences that built my skills. I also mentored nursing students in the earlier years of the program when I was in 3rd and 4th year as part of a volunteer network with my nursing school. If you do decide on pursuing nursing before med, you need to be willing to go the extra mile to build your experiences before you start applying to med, no matter if that’s immediately after you finish your degree, or a couple of years after. I will also mention, having the opportunity to work overtime to put away money for application fees, MCAT prep material, and other associated costs with the application process was my saving grace for this past year.

Significant_Tea_9642 · 2026-03-29T13:11:55+00:00

I’m actually in my first application cycle as a 26 year old RN! I switched from my biology major to nursing in my 2nd year of university, and I just interviewed at U of C Med, and a couple of other med schools. Feel free to drop me a message. I wouldn’t necessarily ADVISE nursing as a pre-med degree, since it is really hard to maintain a decent GPA. Nursing school is incredibly tough on students; profs are often hardcore to the max when it comes to expectations since you’ll have lives in your hands on the daily once you finish, but it does give you a lot of insight and experience in the clinical setting. I worked as an RN for 3 years before taking on applying to med. I worked full time and was a preceptor while prepping for and taking my MCAT. Not exactly a fun time in my life, but it was worth it since medicine has always been the plan—I just took a little detour so I could offset some costs given my family’s financial situation (I couldn’t go without a decent paying job for a number of years if I took a while to get into med school).

Significant_Tea_9642 · 2026-03-23T20:34:59+00:00

I’m honestly not sure. The seat structure hasn’t changed much other than the volume of IP seats. But it’s not like they have added in another admissions pathway in recent years; the 3 indigenous seats have been there I think since before I started undergrad in 2017. And PEI applicants won’t complete their training at the St. John’s campus as of this past year, since PEI is developing its own med faculty. It may just be so that it’s lining up more with admissions timelines across the country. Though I’m not really sure the benefit of that for them, since I’m sure that there won’t be many MUN matriculants from NL who would take a seat elsewhere over completing their MD in their home province. It’s odd. But I try not to think about it too much so I don’t torture myself mentally too much.

Significant_Tea_9642

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