Are some medical students second-guessing themselves?
Now lets say that no matter what you do, you make $30,000/year more than your equivalent NP. You figure that after 30 years of practice (putting you at the nice comfortable retirement age of 66 for those of us that took the direct route) and you’re up $900K. Worth it, right? Well we haven’t incorporated malpractice insurance. Have you ever heard of anyone suing their NP? . . .
. . . Factor in 30 years of malpractice insurance bills, and I’ll promise you it brings you right back to even (not to mention that physicians’ salaries are trending down relative to inflation while all nursing salaries are trending up). Couple that with the hours worked by an NP relative to an M.D. and the paperwork/legal hassles handled by an MD that aren’t worried about by NP’s, and the conclusion is obvious.
Do the same thing for the same amount of money, and have a better quality of life.