Can I Be a Stay-at-Home Mom and Get into Medical School?

Session 103

Can you be a stay-at-home mom and still get into medical school? Will admissions committees look down upon you for staying at home as a mom?

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[00:32] Question of the Day

Q: “Would being a stay-at-home mom be looked down upon by medical school committees?”

Whether you’re a stay-at-home mom, you work full-time as a EMT, or as an executive in a business, at the end of the day, getting into medical school is all about doing the things you need to do to get into medical school.

A: Our student says that she has lived in three different countries. She recognizes the cultural difference among her home country, her husband’s home country, and here in the United States. So given the cultural difference, she’s wondering whether some personal qualities would be given more credit for and not so much for others (ex. maternity leave, etc.)

Our student today says she’s been a stay-at-home mom for the last six years. Prior to that, she worked as a nurse here in the U.S. for about eight years. And she’s been from graduate nurse to a nurse clinician who’s like an assistant nurse manager. Then when she gave birth, they went back to her husband’s home country. And given the child care system there, she decided to stay at home. Now, she’s wanting to go back to being premed and wondering how schools will look at her premed journey.

“At the end of the day, getting into medical school is all about doing the things you need to do to get into medical school.”Click To Tweet

[02:54] Improving Your Application

She explains that being a mom has given her this whole new dimension in life that she could never have had. But being a stay-at-home mom doesn’t give you clinical hours for the most part. It doesn’t give you shadowing hours. So you will have to make time for clinical experience and shadowing. It’s still going to be a long road ahead of your journey.

Being a stay-at-home mom right now really has no effect on your application. Where do you go from here now that you’re making the decision to be premed is to take your prereqs. Look into which area you’re showing your passion for, whether that’s in a hospital setting, volunteering, or getting paid to work.

If you’re ready to take that step, you’re going to need some time to build up experiences around that.

“Being stay-at-home mom is not a hindrance at all because it's giving you this completely different outlook on life and all these other experiences that a lot of us don't have.”Click To Tweet

As a mom, you’re going to be very much an asset. You’re going to be the “mom” of the cohort at medical school who’s going to take care of everyone else.

[05:48] Volunteering vs. Paid Nursing Job

Q: “I mentioned that I have about eight years of nursing experience, six years ago. Now, as I’m trying to show the medical school committee, that I’m ready to make the shift towards being a physician, do I have to bring my nursing career back to the same level? Because I do have nursing licenses.

I have been doing the continuing education and everything. But before, during my nursing career, I was doing everything. I was a graduate nurse in the beginning, and I went up to nurse clinician I was taking part in this nurse-initiated committees like education committee and shared governance Council and whatnot in the States. And I did preceptorship. I was mentoring my colleagues.

So now, I do have the license. But then if I go back and not take a paid nursing job, and just do volunteering few hours a week, so that I can focus more on my courses and those things, is that fine?”

A: Volunteer or paid, or not going back to nursing just because you have your nursing license and everything else is not a problem. Instead, focus on what you need to do to succeed.

Forcing yourself to be a nurse at this point just because you have that license could only potentially set yourself up for failure. Since you’re note dedicating enought time to your classes and those other stuff as you should be doing. All because you think you should be a nurse. So don’t worry about that. Don’t don’t go back there if you don’t want to. If you want to, great. But if you don’t want to, and you don’t think you have the bandwidth for it, then don’t.

[08:16] An Associate’s Degree in Nursing

Q: “I do have Associate’s Degree in Nursing. I do not have a bachelor’s. By 2020, all nurses are supposed to have bachelor’s. So if I go back and pick up a paid job, then I might have to take the time to get bachelor’s. They are taking nurses right now but you have to commit to getting a bachelor’s degree within five years of employment.”

A: I really don’t want you to waste your time on that. There probably will be role. It probably will be state-to-state dependent. There probably will still be a role for associate’s nursing degrees, just not at the same capacity that maybe you were used to. And so maybe it’s more of a higher level medical assistant or something like that.

[09:25] Research

Q: “Back in 2012 and 2013, when I was doing the premed courses, I took two semesters of undergraduate research. I wish I had taken cell bio genetics, those kind of things before I took that undergraduate research. But I definitely got something out of it, including one of the publication on commentary. It was a first author commentary, but it was not a research article or on my project. So I’m here in New York, and you know how research-heavy these New York schools are. I have heard you saying that research is not required. And given my background, what should I do in terms of research?”

A: If you like to do research, then go look for some clinical research positions. Many big institutions are heavy in research. But that doesn’t mean they only accept students who have research.

'What they're looking for are students who are inquisitive, who are trying to challenge the status quo, who like to ask questions, and who like to find answers.'Click To Tweet

Having done some research in the past doesn’t mean that you have to go continue to do it. And if you’re more interested in the clinical research side of things, great. That’s still research. That still involves asking the questions and doing the investigation. So that’s just as important.

Get out of the minsdset that you can’t check the box or that you can’t do research. From this point forward, obviously, you need to take the classes to get into medical school and to succeed on the MCAT. And then everything else that you should be doing should be there to fulfill the passions and enjoyment that you have. But also continue to validate why you want to be a physician.

[12:51] Taking the Prereqs

Q: “I did some prerequisite classes in 2012 and 2013. I have not decided if I’m going to retake it or not. But if I need to retake it, do I need to retake the labs also, or just the theory?”

A: Just worry about the theory side of it, then the classroom side of it, if you want to retake it. Remember that the majority of prereqs don’t expire.

'Most medical schools don't have an expiration date for prereqs.'Click To Tweet

The most important thing to think about as you’re going through this journey, is where is your level of knowledge. Is it enough to do well on the MCAT? Do you still have that foundational knowledge to crush the MCAT? Or do you need to go retake some of these classes to build up your knowledge again, so that you can do well on the MCAT?

And if you think your knowledge is great, then go take upper-division classes, and you’ll probably be fine as well.

[14:52] Access to Electronic Medical Records

Q: “Can premed students do research in electronic medical records remotely?”

A: Most electronic medical record systems are set up to do remote access. If you mean you’re going to use the electronic medical records as your conduit for getting the information that you need to pull.

A chart audit is similar in that you’re using the electronic medical records to access data. But you’re looking at different endpoints for each of them. So I assume if you find any sort of research going on, and you can contact that PI and get involved, then you’re going to have to go through HIPAA training and everything else. But I don’t think there’s any reason why you can’t do that remotely if you can go through all those other steps.