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Maths GCSE then do Access to Medicine Course? or get 2:1 in Nursing & apply for GEM?

Sam00

Deleted

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 1

shiggydiggy

Original post by Sam00

Hey I am in a dilemma

Medicine as a career greatly interests me more than anything else, but having a very average educational background and not much else Medicine is out of the question for me at present.

I applied to do the Access to Medicine Diploma but was rejected due to having only a C in GCSE Maths, so I was told to retake and apply again in 2015, which would mean if all went well I'd be ok to apply for Medicine for 2016 entry. However having only a handful of GCSE's without any A's, and no A-Levels, would I be wasting 2 years in the hope of getting a place in medicine when people with the best GCSE's and A-Levels are being rejected?

I have a place to study Mental Health Nursing which starts in September but I am in the dilemma of whether to give up this opportunity, work for another year whilst studying for the GCSE, then apply for the Access to Medicine course and apply for Medicine which may never actually happen, I might not do well enough on the UKCAT or the Access Course, and Universities might just reject me on the basis of average academic achievements which I believe happens a lot. So if I was to complete the Nursing Degree I'd probably manage at least a 2:1 and then would be able to apply for 4 year Graduate entry medicine right?

Which option is better, and would funding be more of an issue for the Graduate Medicine Scheme?

Please help

4yr GEM probably won't exist in a few years. It's slowly and quietly being phased out.

Also have you considered studying biomed or similar as opposed to nursing? Seems a little mean to take a nursing spot away from someone when you're ultimate aim is to jump ship.

I think if it were me, I would try for the GCSE and apply for access again, as long as they would be happy with that.

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 2

shiggydiggy

Original post by Sam00

Working as a medical laboratory assistant I am familiar with the roles of a biomedical scientist and I am involved in many microbiological tests, but I am not involved in the identification of the many bacteria species.
If I was to do biomed I would be spending 3 years doing a degree which is geared towards producing biomedical scientists, during the degree I would have no patient contact and id probably not get funding for medicine due to the 27000 accumulated debt, so Im not too optimistic about that route.

I believe that nursing would give me a great foundation for medicine, it would give me loads of patient contact, allow me to develop communication and assessment skills and there is a lot of clinical skills and scientific knowledge to be gained.

I appreciate that medicine is highly competitive and therefore the access route may never get me to the destination, and at least nursing would be a safety net

I'm not really sure about funding these days as it has changed radically since I've been through the system. Are you sure that doing a nursing degree won't harm your funding status for GEM? Especially given that 4yr courses probably won't exist by the time you get there.

Also, many biomed degrees are essentially pre-med courses with a large proportion wanting to go into GEM. When it comes to patient contact, this is experience that you need to be developing as part of your med application anyway. Personally, I worked as a HCA during my undergrad for this purpose, along with various other volunteering roles.

I'm not sure how relevant the clinical skills you learn as a nurse are for medical school/being a doctor. Also I'm not sure how academic the training would be, either. It's a very vocational course whereas you will be competing with applicants on an academic level.

I dunno. Personally I think it's a bit sketchy to be using up a spot at nursing school and accepting all those bursaries only to use it as a stepping stone into medschool.

Reply 3

ForestCat

Original post by shiggydiggy

I'm not sure how relevant the clinical skills you learn as a nurse are for medical school/being a doctor. Also I'm not sure how academic the training would be, either. It's a very vocational course whereas you will be competing with applicants on an academic level.

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It depends entirely on the nurse tbh. I'm quite keen to do as much as possible and as such can do venepuncture, cannulation, catheterisation etc but there are plenty of nurses out there who cannot or will not (as I'm sure you're aware). I'm an adult nurse, I think even fewer mental health nurses will gain those kind of skills.

In terms of the academic side my degree was a p***take. And because of that, and the fact I've been working for three years, mean I am fairly scared about coping with the pace of gem.

Op- I never went into nursing with the intention of doing medicine. It is something that has happened along the way. Personally I wouldn't recommend doing nursing if you really want to be a doctor. They are completely different jobs. nursing is difficult enough and would be very hard to find the motivation if your heart isn't in it.
Plus I imagine it would be quite difficult working alongside doctors when you really want that job but not being able to do it. Since I've gained my gem place I've certainly experienced doctor envy, I couldn't imagine what three years of that would be like.

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