Medical School vs. Nursing School

Many college students interested in working in healthcare find themselves deciding between nursing school or medical school. Nursing school and medical school are very different, both in course material and clinical skills training. And these career paths both offer unique pros and cons. We cover some of the more important things to consider below:

Differences Between Medical School and Nursing School

General Overview

There are a number of different career paths for students interested in working in healthcare. Each of these clinical roles differ in overall education timelines, required standardized exams, and overall tuition costs. Below is a generalized education timeline comparison between some of the more common careers in healthcare that students consider.

Note that “post-graduate training” refers to everything after college undergrad (bachelor’s degree).

1. Education Timelines

The primary consideration for most incoming college students deciding between a career in nursing or medicine is total training timelines.

A career in nursing as an RN-BSN requires a minimum 4 years of school. A career in medicine as a doctor (MD or DO) requires a minimum 8 years of school.

It should be noted that these timelines are for “traditional” pathways. Many students take alternative pathways to careers in nursing or medicine.

Many students enroll in accelerated nursing programs intended for students who already graduated with a non-nursing bachelors. And many students complete a masters program or even a PhD before applying for medical school.

So these are by no means the only pathways to a career in nursing or medicine. But they are the most traditional pathways. Below, we zoom in on the RN-BSN and MD/DO timelines from the graphic above.

Again, in this chart, “post-graduate training” refers to years of education required after a 4-year college undergraduate (bachelor’s) degree.

2. Required National Exams

Another consideration when choosing between a career in nursing or medicine is the number of required national standardized exams. In addition to the lectures and exams required by your university, there are also various standardized exams that students from every program at every university in the US must pass before they can work in healthcare.

For nurses, this exam is the NCLEX. This is a national standardized exam that tests basic nursing material. Every nursing student must take the NCLEX before they can obtain a nursing license and practice nursing.

For doctors, there are technically a minimum of 5 standardized exams students are required to take throughout their medical education.

The first is the MCAT (medical college admissions test), that pre-med students must take before they can apply to medical school. Then, throughout medical school and residency, the USMLE (US medical licensing exam) is broken into 3 separate exams or “steps.” USMLE Step 1 is taken after the second year of medical school, USMLE Step 2 is taken after the third year of medical school, and USMLE Step 3 is taken after the first year of residency. Students must then take the board certification exam in their specialty of choice following residency training.

3. Salaries and Career Outlooks

Another important consideration is salary differences. It is difficult to find a true “average” salary for healthcare workers because pay varies significantly between departments and specialties. Pay also varies by region. It is likely that a nurse working in a private plastic surgery practice in Orange County, California, may make more than a family practice physician in rural Kansas.

But while pay can vary greatly within both nursing and medicine depending on a variety of factors, doctors do generally have higher salaries.

It is worth considering, however, that medical doctors also have significantly more debt. The average medical student graduates with over $200,000 in student loan debt, nearly 10x more than graduating nursing students.

And because the additional 7 years of education, many nurses are already well established in their field with good pay and student loans paid off by the time doctors are just starting their careers.

Final Thoughts

There are many factors to consider when deciding between a career in nursing or medicine, and ultimately it comes down to personal and lifestyle preferences. Nursing and medicine are both incredibly rewarding fields. But both can also be high stress environments. Pay, vacation time, and educational requirements will also vary by specialty or department.

For pre-meds interested in exploring medical specialty options, read more here.