 Doctor versus nurse both people care for patients, but which is the better option for you? What are some of the biggest differences and similarities between the two today? We're gonna talk about these differences and similarities between in terms of training grades roles and job satisfaction And as an added bonus at the end We're also gonna talk about some common reasons why nurses have left bedside in order to seek out other careers like going back to Medical school with that being said let's get started in terms of schooling The biggest similarities with doctors and nurses are going to be having to have a high school diploma Some form of secondary education as in some sort of going back to training or going to college and then taking board exams Before you can practice. Other than that the two are pretty different. So in terms of nursing There's a lot of routes you can do to achieve your goals. Some people opt to do a licensed practical nurse Which is an LPN. This is probably the fastest option Usually most programs are about a year and occasionally you can if you want to become a registered nurse There are some bridge options available if you opt to do that. Another thing you can do is something called a nursing diploma This is a little less common than the other options we're talking about, but it's quick You get done with training within two years But unfortunately this training doesn't count towards any college credit If you do want something that counts towards college credit A good option is an associate's degree if you want to do something quick. Associate's degrees take about two to three years and A lot of people ultimately will go get their BSN But the bright side to getting your associate's degree is your credits go towards your BSN if you opt to pursue that route Also, some places will hire you with an associate's degree to be a nurse while you complete your bachelor's in nursing Which is pretty cool. A very common thing is for people just to go ahead and get their bachelor's degree in nursing This is a four-year option and it costs more money However, the trade-off with this is going to be that you're gonna have a lot more options to advance your career So this is a gonna be a very good option for you If you want to do something ultimately like going to pursue becoming a nurse practitioner Once you get done with your schooling before you can practice you do have to take your board exam This is called the NCLEX and once you take your NCLEX You're able to go practice and kind of choose your field that you're gonna go into whether that be the clinic the Hospital surgery or what have you now in terms of medical school? It's very different and the schooling is a lot longer than nursing So after you get your high school diploma you start by going to get your bachelor's degree The really cool thing about going to medical school and going the medical route is that you can get your bachelor's degree in Anything you can get your bachelor's degree in underwater basket weaving as long as you have the appropriate prerequisites You're gonna be able to go to medical school with that degree which is pretty cool However, a lot of people choose to do a science-based major like biology or chemistry Just because most of those prerequisite classes are already lumped into those curriculum So it's a little easier to do something like that once you get your bachelor's degree You can take time off But you don't have to some people want to take time off to get more work experience work with patients a little more do Some research or even travel and all of those are perfectly acceptable as well The biggest thing you'll do with this time off or towards the end of your bachelor's degree Before medical school that is a prerequisite for medical school is taking the entrance exam which is known as the MCAT This is a seven and a half hour test that everybody has to take to be considered for do and MD schools The average score for the MCAT is a 511 out of the people who have gotten into medical school Once you take this MCAT and get your score and you're pretty confident and you're ready You're gonna apply to medical school now There's two different types of application processes depending on if you're going MD or DO or applying in Texas There's three different Software that you have to apply in for those programs So once you apply you're gonna start getting interviews and you have to go do those as well You have to interview for the school and make sure you're a good fit And then once you hopefully get into the medical school of your choice That's another four years of training for you The first two years are going to be a preclinical and the last two years are going to be in the hospital And during those years you are also gonna have board examinations just like our nursing counterparts do So you'll take the USMLE or COMLEC step one and step two during your medical school careers And then usually step three is gonna be done once you're a resident as an intern But I will get to that in a moment So once you're done with your board and you're done with your third year medical school Now's the time that you're gonna start applying to your specialty of choice So you have to apply to residency and have those interviews as well during your fourth year And then you'll match in March of your fourth year of medical school After that you're gonna have residency and the length of training is really gonna depend widely on what specialty you choose It can be anywhere from three years if you choose something like family medicine, emergency medicine, internal medicine All the way up to like seven years if you choose like a specialized surgery Also you can have an extra one to three years if you choose to do a fellowship as well Next we'll talk about the grades you need to get in a nursing school versus the grades you need to get into medical school So in terms of nursing if you're going to go through your associate's degree A typical student who's going into associate's degree of nursing will have a GPA of 2.5 to 2.75 If you're going for your bachelor's in nursing or your BSN You usually need a GPA of 3.0 and then you're able to get in as long as you have the prerequisite classes In medical school the average GPA of an applicant is about 3.7 overall Some schools have different cutoffs for applying but most have a 3.0 to 3.5 cutoff So you have to have above that to apply to that school Plus with medical school you need that MCAT grade as well The average MCAT score was 5.11 like we were talking about earlier So in terms of this you know once you get done with your education Once you're experienced in the job let's talk a little bit more about what to expect with that So in terms of your role nurses and doctors although they both care for patients they have very different roles So one big difference between doctors and nurses is time spent with patients Nurses typically have a lot more time with patients especially if you're working inpatient You're there with the patient you know your whole shift essentially You see the patients from admission to discharge where unfortunately Physicians have a very limited amount of time to see patients due to schedule constraints at high patient loads Also a difference with these roles are going to be your scope of practice You know nurses can do a certain things up to a certain scope You know they have their appropriate training to care for that patient But at a certain point you have to have the physician there as backup And nurses make that call to have their physician counterparts there with them as well Another difference also is the ability to change specialties Doctors don't have the ability to change specialties very freely and easily However nurses luckily do have that opportunity You can work you can start in the ER if you don't like the ER You can always switch to the floor if you don't like being inpatient You can switch to a clinic it's pretty easy to switch freely Let's talk salary as well because there is a pretty big difference in terms of salary of a doctor versus a nurse So the average salary for a nurse according to incrediblehealth.com is about $82,000 a year on a national average That's going to vary widely based on the state you're practicing in And also if you're in the hospital versus in a clinic as well Physician salary on average is going to be about $352,000 Also this physician pay is going to depend on where you're practicing What state you're in and what specialty you're in as well And in terms of job satisfaction this is honestly going to be based on your personal preference So a lot of people are very satisfied with being the ultimate decision makers And that's why they want to pursue becoming a doctor and that's what gives them fulfillment However some other people want to be more hands-on with the patient They're all the time helping them with their activities of daily living Helping them eat and make sure they're okay you know 24-7 And that's kind of where a nurse would be If you feel like that would be something for you nursing may be a good option for you Now as promised let's talk about why some nurses have left the field to become doctors This is actually not all that uncommon I've seen it several times And you'll probably run into someone who has come from nursing and made the switch to medicine A lot of times some people feel like they can do more beyond the scope of their license In terms of like nurses having a little bit more restricted scope than their physician counterparts And they wanted to be able to do more for their patients So that's why they opted to do that Some nurses also want more autonomy as well Which is another reason which kind of piggybacks off of feeling like they can do more beyond their scope Because physicians ultimately have that autonomy that they were looking for Some also feel that nursing is very very task oriented And they want to be the ones performing the procedures Making the treatments plans as opposed to being the person to carry out the tasks for that same treatment plan As you can see although nurses and doctors care for patients And they're both very necessary and very important Their scope and their training varies widely So which is better is going to depend on your preference ultimately I hope this video helped you decide if becoming a doctor or a nurse would be right for you If you found this video helpful feel free to check out this video on the differences between doctors and PAs And also there's another video we have on the difference between MDs and DOs I hope that we're a little bit of help on your medical journey today Until next time my friend