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Can I major in pre-medicine if I want to become a nurse practitioner?
In love with life asked:
I am applying to the University of Southern California and I just discovered that they do not offer a nursing major but they do offer pre-medicine. If I take on the pre-med major will I still be able to become a nurse practitioner or are the courses for those majors different?
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I am applying to the University of Southern California and I just discovered that they do not offer a nursing major but they do offer pre-medicine. If I take on the pre-med major will I still be able to become a nurse practitioner or are the courses for those majors different?
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You can be a pre-med major. What you want to do is get the course requirements for your major and compare them to some of the schools you would want to apply to to become a nurse practitioner. Many of the courses should overlap if not all of them. I am a Biology pre-med major who can’t afford med school, and am now looking into PA or NP. The biggest difference I have seen is the amount of actual hands-on patient care exerpience that is required. For the schools I am interested in, they require at least 1 year of experience, while it is only strongly recommended for med school.
1If you want to become a nurse practitioner, you first have to become… a nurse. You’ll need a BSN, and that’s a major in nursing.
Nursing and medicine are quite different. A pre-med major is pretty useless, and that is the first I’ve heard of one.
2