Can someone in the Nurse Corps switch over to the Medical Corps? Would they keep their rank or move up in rank?

SPC Private RallyPoint Member — Sun, 24 Mar 2019 00:29:51 -0400

Hello, I am nearing the end if my first enlistment into the Army. I am currently close to getting my associates degree and was wondering, if I went green to gold and became a nurse, could I become a doctor sometime after? I want to become an endocrinologist, but school of course is expensive.

Response by SFC George Smith made Mar 24 at 2019 12:35 AM

SFC George Smith — Sun, 24 Mar 2019 00:35:48 -0400

The Way You Worded Your Question Is Somewhat confusing

Response by LTC Jason Mackay made Mar 24 at 2019 1:30 AM

LTC Jason Mackay — Sun, 24 Mar 2019 01:30:30 -0400

While this is possible, not sure about probable. The link below describes the School of Medicine by the numbers. You might be able to pursue this directly from ROTC.

https://www.usuhs.edu/medschool/matriculation-facts

Uniformed Services University

The mission of the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences is to educate, train, and comprehensively prepare uniformed services health professionals, scientists, and leaders to support the Military and Public Health Systems, the National Security and National Defense Strategies of the United States, and the readiness of our Uniformed Services.

Response by SFC Private RallyPoint Member made Mar 24 at 2019 1:42 AM

SFC Private RallyPoint Member — Sun, 24 Mar 2019 01:42:09 -0400

Don't waste time being a nurse if you want to be a doctor. First, nursing at the BSN level isn't exactly very medical and focuses on patient care and not medicine and diagnosis. Second, it flushes several years down the drain that could be spent preparing for actual medicine.
As LTC Mackay pointed out there is USUHS. It starts out as a LT and graduates as a CPT.
If you really want to be a doctor, finish your BS, apply to the EPMD2 and then to USUHS.

Response by 1LT Private RallyPoint Member made Mar 24 at 2019 3:10 AM

1LT Private RallyPoint Member — Sun, 24 Mar 2019 03:10:55 -0400

Yes it’s possible but, as others have pointed at not likely.
The requirements for nursing and for becoming a doctor are completely different. The pre-requisites for nursing school alone will take a few semesters to a few years depending on what classes you have completed. You also have to take in account the wait list for nursing school which, can take years.
The requirements for MD or DO school are different than nursing and don’t build off of the nursing requirements, meaning you will need to take different bio, chem, math classes than what is required for nursing.
Keep in mind some nurses do decide to go the physician route but, talk about the long and hard road. There is always the nurse practitioner route if you are set on becoming a nurse and then a provider.

I would ask you, why do you want to be a nurse? Why do you want to be a physician? How well are you versed in what doctors and nurses actually do? Good luck! Message me if you have a questions and I will do my best to give you some solid answers.

Response by 1SG Private RallyPoint Member made Mar 24 at 2019 8:25 AM

1SG Private RallyPoint Member — Sun, 24 Mar 2019 08:25:52 -0400

Another factor to consider is the typical courses you take to complete a BSN, would have you short of the normal prerequisites for medical school, specifically:
8 SH Biology w/lab
4-8 SH General Chemistry w/lab
8 SH Organic Chemistry w/lab
3 SH Biochemistry
8 SH Physics w/lab
Some universities have programs that allow non typical students to complete the prereqs. Otherwise, you'd have to be accepted as a non degree seeking student.
Completing this demanding courseload in one year, while active Army is doable, but would be extremely demanding.
Further, most colleges run these in sequence Fall-Spring, which would be another factor to consider.
There's more, but others have covered those in their responses.
You've got more research to do. Best wishes.

Response by SGT Private RallyPoint Member made Mar 24 at 2019 1:35 PM

SGT Private RallyPoint Member — Sun, 24 Mar 2019 13:35:35 -0400

Why spend your money on nursing if your goal is MD/DO? Not all nursing school college credits carry over so you’d probably be doing some additional classes on top of your BSN to be able to apply to medical school.

If nursing is something you want to do, you could go on to get your MSN/NP later on and you then are a provider. You can commission as a nurse and then as time goes on work on your masters/doctorate. But seriously consider one option or the other, but doing both is simply a waste of your time and money.

Response by SFC Clark Adams made Mar 24 at 2019 7:07 PM

SFC Clark Adams — Sun, 24 Mar 2019 19:07:31 -0400

Your MOS / Branch does not matter if you attend Medical School and become a physician! I've served with many physicians who were Combat Arms Officers prior to attending Med Schol.

Response by MAJ Ken Landgren made Mar 24 at 2019 7:15 PM

MAJ Ken Landgren — Sun, 24 Mar 2019 19:15:19 -0400

Look into military scholarships.

Response by CPT James Corr made Mar 24 at 2019 9:19 PM

CPT James Corr — Sun, 24 Mar 2019 21:19:28 -0400

I would guess that you could. Doctors seem to one the fields that is always in demand. You might have to complete your obligation as a nurse first though but as a lot of other posts have said why don't you go straight to becoming a doctor if that's your long term goal? Another issue is actually being accepted into a medical school.

Response by MAJ Private RallyPoint Member made Mar 25 at 2019 8:00 AM

MAJ Private RallyPoint Member — Mon, 25 Mar 2019 08:00:45 -0400

Why not just go straight to Medical School. Take the ROTC Scholarship, ask for an educational delay after you get accepted to a Medical School (either USHSU or a Civilian School), apply for the HPSP scholarship and you’ll be good to go. No need to “step advance”. Unless you think nursing will give you and edge? Also, have you looked into the IPAP (Physician Assistant)?

Response by SFC Clark Adams made Apr 16 at 2019 2:06 AM

SFC Clark Adams — Tue, 16 Apr 2019 02:06:56 -0400

I have worked with physicians who were nurses prior to attending Medical or Dental School even a few who went to PA School after Nursing School. If you desire to become a physician, just concentrate on meeting the requirements for Medical School which are very different from nursing school requirements o prerequisites. There are many medical schools out there MD(allopathic) or DO (osteopathic), both in the US and abroad.

Response by Capt Daniel Goodman made Apr 16 at 2019 9:10 AM

Capt Daniel Goodman — Tue, 16 Apr 2019 09:10:14 -0400

https://search.aol.com/aol/search?q=military%20program%20to%20encourage%20enlisted%20to%20go%20for%20medicine&s_it=loki-tb-sb

Trust me, look at all of these, if you hadn't seen it, you'll obviously want to dive into it...it didn't exist when I'd wanted to go...further, look at the osteopathic (D.O.) vs. allopathic (M.D.) schools, as well as what's termed the USPHS Commissioned Corps COSTEP, the USPHS analogue to ROTCs, as well as USMC platoon leaders course (PLC)...you may know about USUHS (not USPHS, that's the separate svc I'd just mentioned), the svc med school that also has doctoral-level nursing, either a Ph.D. or DNP, I'm unsure which at the moment, as well as Ph.D. programs in basic biomed sciences, neuroscience, microbiology/immunology, physiology, they've changed around (they're also for civilian, as well as active duty)...also, you could try for the Army intersvc PA program at Ft. Sam Houston, then seek to transition, USPHS also takes typically much older, up to 44, I've seen...i'm doctoral allied health, I was supposed to have gone med, I got sick, I couldn't do it, one of my attendings for doctoral allied health was O-6 USPHS, I'd really wanted to go back in that way, I just became too ill, I'm afraid, I'm total perm disabled...look also at the USCG Auxiliary, I have no clue if you'd be allowed to spend time with them while active duty in another svc, they're what's termed an "instrumentality" under the Geneva Conventions, as opposed to Civil Air Patrol (CAP), which, while real, isn't at that level, though both are svc auxiliaries, of course...the reason I'm suggesting you look at USCG Auxiliary is that, apparently, they let licensed clinicians, incl RNs, as well as sevl other fields, assist them at USCG facilities...look up USCG Auxiliary Health Svcs, you'll see the site, promise, it's there, I've been wanting to volunteer with them for a long while now, I just reached 10-yr statutory noncombat 100% disabled vet the end of las month, I might be able now, I'm unsure, you'd get good exposure in an environment you "might" be allowed to do, just don't just do it without asking, ask first to be sure, svcs tend to encourage that sort of volunteering, however, I merely mention it, as many are unaware USCG Aux has it...USCG also uses their own PAs, I'm unsure if they train at the army intersvc PA program I'd mentioned, you might ask...also, USCG, as well as Indian Health Svc (IHS), for the Indian reservations, as well as NIH, CDC, FDA, AHRQ, Bureau of Prisons (BOP) of Justice Dept., all use USPHS clinical staff...the O-6 I rotated under was senior allied health for what I'd trained for at a reservation clinic near the doctoral program I'd gone to, I'd always wanted to go over there with him to train, I never got the chance...finally, USPHS also has an intersvc agreement for psych-related clinicians, in mult fields, to serve with Army, Navy, USAF, in 3-yr tours, there's a site for it, I've seen it, I'll try to send you more when I have time, just trust me, I've been where you wanna go, promise, I just didn't know what I was doing then, and hadn't handled it right, I'd wanted bioengineering, I should'v gone USAF Biomed Sci Corps (BSC), rather than line engineering for USAF, I was an idiot, and didn't take the time to ask the right questions, the USAF OTS recruiter who processed me tried to warn me, I was a jerk, and didn't listen, out of pure benighted ignorance, I assure you...elaborate for me, if you can, about your training, associates, bachelors, grad school ambititions, cause you're gonna have to IMMEDIATELY go masters level if you go commissioned or warrant, it's DEFINITELY expected, REGARDLESS of field, PROMISE, been there, done that (BTDT), I can also most definitely assure you, I've been around a good many bureaucratic and academic blocks, if you'd care to chat more...further, DO NOT discount going dental...look up what's termed orthognathic surgery, the highest level of oral and maxillofacial surgery (OMFS), in dental...since the 70s, they've had a little-known back door that'd take a LONG time to explain, to short-circuit the normal med application process, for BOTH M.D. AND D.O....do NOT discount D.O. schools, they're TOTALLY separate from M.D. schools, few know of them, they're BOTH med schools, also, look up http://www.iuhs.edu, as well as http://www.uhsa.ag, on St. Kitts and Antigua, I know more about the first, it had an agreement with one of the doctoral allied health schools for what I trained for, to allow their doctoral allied-health students to go for M.D. while doing the clinical allied-health doctorate, I learned of that while a resident with that school, that was NOT the one I trained at, somehow, I never quite learned how, ECFMG, look it up, http://www.ecfmg.org, allows IUHS and UHSA, I've checked and am fairly certain, to do the first half of an M.D. online, to sit for USMLE Part I, analogous to NCLEX for RN...now, whether the svcs would take it or not, I honestly don't know, however, I HAVE researched that whole thing VERY extensively, promise, and can assure you, after chatting with MANY others, that somehow, that possibility apparently DOES evidently exist...I'm here if you wanna chat...the USPHS website is http://www.usphs.gov, the USUHS website is http://www.usuhs.edu...if you'd be willing to switch from endocrinology, which I've trained a good deal in for allied health, to dental, and go for craniofacial reconstruction, you could get possibly, the following, M.D. or D.O., DDS or DMD in dental, there are two identical versions of the dental degree, and a Ph.D. in either oral biology or dental materials, the closest dental gets in the latter case to bioengineering...look up the NIDR or whatever it morphed into at NIH, the Natl Inst of Dental Research, or whatever the name is now, it changed recently, just trust me, if you give me GPAs, specific STEM coursework you've taken, all the rotations you've done, clinical exposure you've had in painstaking detail, I genuinely can suggest things for you, that you wouldn't typically find from others, as I hope is evident at this point, if you wanna chat, I'm here, if you send a link to me, we can also chat that way on here, as well, OK? No rush, whenever you want, I'm here, I'd send the sites if I had more time, and will try later, I just thought explaining everything this way would be quicker, you're not exploring other allied health doctoral level options, that could also be very serious possibilities you're simply overlooking, as I did, also out of ignorance, just trust me, OK? If you wanna look at my profile, go ahead, you'll see what I did before the disability, I genuinely can help you find things you wouldn't have considered till now, as I'd said, I'm here anytime if you wanna yak more, hope that all helps, OK? USPHS also has a toll free recruiting phone, the one I remember if it still works, is [login to see] , I think there's another one now, look it up...also, I've seen stuff on here, and researched it, you can do ROTC, as well as USMC PLC, and also USPHS COSTEP, not just for undergrad, but also for grad level, in both academic, as well as clinical fields, in the case of the ROTCs and USPHS...USCG also has scholarship programs, I don't know if they'd cover PA, you could ask...trust me, I've been around the whole block you're trying to circle since before you were born, lemme help you, OK? I'm here, as I'd said, anytime, if you wanna yak more, OK? Enjoy....

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Response by Capt Daniel Goodman made Apr 16 at 2019 9:10 AM

Capt Daniel Goodman — Tue, 16 Apr 2019 09:10:46 -0400

http://www.excelsior.edu

Call them about nursing, trust me, OK?

www.excelsior.edu

Response by Capt Daniel Goodman made Apr 16 at 2019 9:11 AM

Capt Daniel Goodman — Tue, 16 Apr 2019 09:11:04 -0400

http://www.tesu.edu

Them too, they also have a DNP at doctoral level online....

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Response by Capt Daniel Goodman made Apr 16 at 2019 9:11 AM

Capt Daniel Goodman — Tue, 16 Apr 2019 09:11:21 -0400

http://www.charteroak.edu

Them too as well....

www.charteroak.edu

Response by Capt Daniel Goodman made Apr 16 at 2019 9:11 AM

Capt Daniel Goodman — Tue, 16 Apr 2019 09:11:40 -0400

http://www.usuhs.edu/gsn

Look at this....

Uniformed Services University

Response by Capt Daniel Goodman made Apr 16 at 2019 9:11 AM

Capt Daniel Goodman — Tue, 16 Apr 2019 09:11:58 -0400

http://www.usphs.gov

And this....

www.usphs.gov

Response by Capt Daniel Goodman made Apr 16 at 2019 9:12 AM

Capt Daniel Goodman — Tue, 16 Apr 2019 09:12:11 -0400

http://www.ocsfoundation.org

And this....

OCS Foundation

SERVICES FOR: Candidates Alumni Officer Families

Response by Capt Daniel Goodman made Apr 16 at 2019 9:12 AM

Capt Daniel Goodman — Tue, 16 Apr 2019 09:12:37 -0400

When you want more, just ask, I can virtually drown you in this stuff, promise, OK?

Response by MAJ Ken Landgren made Apr 16 at 2019 3:49 PM

MAJ Ken Landgren — Tue, 16 Apr 2019 15:49:02 -0400

You need to seek out a medical recruiter.

Response by CPT Bobby Johnson made May 12 at 2019 9:10 PM

CPT Bobby Johnson — Sun, 12 May 2019 21:10:27 -0400

Yes you can and the military can help you. If the Army paid some of your way for Nursing then you would likely have to finish the time you owe to the Army Nurse Corps. Once you get all your prerequisites in order and do well enough in undergrad and MCAT, you can either apply for Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU) “USCHUS” or HPSP. USU is the Military’s triservice medical school. You get military pay and benefits as an active duty officer O-2-O-1 or what ever rank you had from the ANC. You owe 7 years of active service to the Army afterwards but this includes your 3 year medicine residency and 1-2 years in Endocrinology Fellowship so it works out.

The pay is great being a student and you just owe the military your hard work and time.

HPSP (Health Professional Scholarship Program?) is another option if you want to attend medical school outside of USCHUS. A majority of military doctors come from this program. You go through med school paid mostly by the military and you get a stipend to live on. Just not as much as active duty pay. In turn you owe I think 4-5 years of active duty service which includes you residency. Remember your pay coming out of the military will be substantially more than when you are an active duty board certified staff physician but the military tries a little to give specialty pay to docs but it still doesn’t match.

Many docs with more than 10 yrs of time in service stay for retirement.

I hope this helps.

Response by MAJ Private RallyPoint Member made Apr 1 at 2020 6:48 AM

MAJ Private RallyPoint Member — Wed, 01 Apr 2020 06:48:05 -0400

I’ve met one nurse who went on to DO or MD via USUHS