I am a physician. I studied outside of the United States, and I have been practicing for quite some time. I wish to become a Nurse Practitioner within the United States. There are many reasons for changing my focus in my career choice while working to stay within the same field, reasons which I hope to address here.
The United States has one of the most stringent regemins setup in the world for training doctors, requiring an undergraduate degree before even considering application to a medical school to start the training process for becoming a doctor, “requiring eight or more years of schooling” (WiseGeek, 2013). One of the countries that has the shortest medicalprograms in the worls is India, requiring only “four and a half years of an undergraduate program” (WiseGeek, 2013). The average amount of schooling worldwide to become a doctor is five years, plus at least one year of residency. Studies have shown that the quality of care that a patient receives is not related in any way to “where the doctor receives his or her education” (Parker-Pope, 2010), however this is not the reason why I wish to become a Nurse Practitioner.
In order to become recertified in the United States, I would need to go through and complete many more years of schooling in order to be able to help people, giving them the same quality of care and attention that I have been providing my patients. “A Nurse Practitioner is a Registered Nurse who has additional education and training in a specialty area, such as family practice or pediatrics” (Kids Health, 2013).
By becoming a Nurse Practitioner, I will be able to provide the same quality of care to patients that I am currently providing, working to decrease the amount of additional schooling that the United States says that I need in order to become registered to keep doing what I am doing. While I realize that this means that I will not be able to do all of the same things that I am currently doing, meaning that it will drastically limit the extent to which I am able to help people, I will still be able to continue doing what I love in a time frame that is much more reasonable to me.
This has the added benefit of being in the country that I would like to be in, specifically the United States. While I am working as a Nurse Practitioner, I may decide at a later point and time that I would like to go back and get certified as a physician in the United States, and at that point I will be able to devote that time to going to school, while still working in my chosen field and doing all that I love to do.
I believe that becoming a Nurse Practitioner, in light of the time frames that I am looking to move to the United States, and the goals that I have, is the most ideal solution for me; it gives me more leeway than just being a Registered Nurse would, meaning that I could work in many of the wellness clinics that exist within pharmacies in the United States in a manner similar to what I am doing now, much like a physician does in their own personal practice; I will continue to assist people in the manner in which I want to assist them, and I will be able to do so on the scale and time frame that works best for me.
Given my previous experience in the healthcare field, I believe that becoming a Nurse Practitioner is the ideal job for me and it will serve as a means of meeting all my desired short term goals for my future.
- Kids Health. “KidsHealth.” What’s a Nurse Practitioner? Kids Health, 2013. Web. 02 May 2013.
- Parker-Pope, Tara. “Doctors Who Study Outside the U.S.” Well Doctors Who Study Outside the US Comments. The New York Times, 12 Aug. 2010. Web. 02 May 2013.
- WiseGeek. “In What Country Is It Easiest to Become a Doctor?” WiseGEEK. WiseGEEK, 2013. Web. 02 May 2013.
