In my previous blogs, I wrote my arguments for and against general education requirements and the amount of schooling vs. salary. Within those topics, no path is wrong, there are just advantages and disadvantages of them. With an associate’s degree, the salary is less, but the course usually last 18 months to two years which is significantly shorter than any other pathway into nursing. The correlation between years of education and salary is significant, displaying a positive trend as education increases. Especially for nurses with a bachelor’s or above, a questions is raised by others not usually in the medical field: why not just become a doctor? Obviously, one can receive their doctorate in Nursing, but they mean a medical doctor and there are numerous reasons to receive higher education in nursing, without becoming a M.D.
The obvious reason to not become a doctor is the rigorous schooling. While a similar path can be taken as a nurse, there are multiple paths that can be taken dependent on the person: associate’s (2 years), bachelor’s (4 years), master’s (6 years), and doctorate (+4-6 years after master’s) (1). Education can range from 2-12 years. Some paths are more difficult than others, but in the end every path is a registered nurse or better. Additionally, a nurse can work at a hospital while receiving higher education and most hospitals will pay for some or all of the schooling. This is due to the high need of nurses, especially for Master’s and above. Most hospitals have tuition reimbursement and if met requirements will pay for past schooling and future schooling (have to meet certain requirements).
Within these programs are some drawbacks: a nurse is required to work for that hospital for X amounts of years or they will lose the reimbursement. Additionally, there are government (non-military) run programs that a nurse can work for 2-3 years, but are required to work in “critical shortage health facilities in the United States.”. The military programs can reimburse up to 33% of one’s tuition and an additional hiring bonus up to $30,000 (3). There is an additional mandate that a nurse must serve X amount of years with this program regardless of active duty or reserves.
Becoming a medical doctor has a different path. Whereas nurses can slowly move up from each educational step, MDs have their schooling back to back to back. The basic layout includes an undergrad (4 years), medical school (4 years), and residency program (3-8 years) to equate to 11-16 years of schooling (2). All of these steps are required to become a MD, whereas after 2 years of education in nursing, higher education is optional. While doctors make much more money than a nurse does (median salary in PA is $205,919), the amount of schooling is considerable greater and more densely centered during the early 20s (4). The demand for doctors are high, especially with the drawback of the amount of education needed and repayment programs are available, most being similar to nursing programs. While the demand of this jobs are similar, the role of a doctor vs. a nurse is considerably different.
Many people outside the health industry assume that all medical jobs are the same, just differing amounts of education and salary; while the last statement is true, the jobs are not all the same. The role of the nurse is much more focused on the patient and maintaining a one on one relationship is key in the nursing field. Nurses are “task-oriented and patient-oriented,” whereas doctor’s see the patients less, but must sign off on treatments and perform necessary procedures within their specialty (5). Nurses must known the medical jargon while managing the physical/mental treatment of their patients. Additionally, patients interact more with nurses than their doctors, with doctor’s having standards rounds X amounts of times a day (patients see resident more often than attending depending on severity of care needed) vs. nurses who check in multiple times and answer the call button in the hospital room.
One is not better than the other, but people must recognize these differences, especially when deciding their future career. Doctor’s focus more on the science and problem analysis, whereas nurses must develop stronger relationships with the patients while interpreting and maintaining patient care plans. While there is overlap between the careers, there are strong cases for either depending on the person, what they want out of their career, how much schooling, the type of caretaker/patient interaction, student loans/repayment options, and salary.