From Nursing to Medicine: A Rapid Review of Nurses and Nursing Students Entering Medical School

Nurses and nursing students who enter medical school represent a visible but poorly measured pathway of professional and career mobility. This rapid review maps academic and high-value official evidence concerning nurses, nursing students and closely related health professionals entering medicine, with primary attention to the United Kingdom, Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand and a wider international scan where direct evidence was limited. The evidence base is small and uneven. Nurse-specific qualitative work from Australia and Canada, together with closely aligned Aotearoa New Zealand research on registered health professionals entering medicine, describes motivations including expanded clinical scope, diagnostic reasoning, fresh challenge, hierarchy and professional identity. Australian official data show a small, consistent group of final-year medical students with prior nursing/midwifery degrees, while Aotearoa New Zealand data show that previous tertiary qualification is common but do not identify nursing as a discrete feeder pathway. The literature does not adequately explain why nurses seeking greater autonomy choose medicine rather than advanced nursing or nurse practitioner pathways, nor does it track nurses who continue practising while studying medicine. Reverse movement between health professions is also poorly captured. Nurse-specific application, attrition, graduation and later specialty outcomes remain unavailable. The pathway is real, but under-counted and under-researched, and stronger longitudinal and comparative research is required before confident workforce conclusions can be drawn. Te reo Māori translation Mai i te mahi tapuhi ki te mahi tākuta: He arotake hohoro o ngā tapuhi me ngā ākonga tapuhi e whakauru ana ki te kura tākuta Ngā Ariā Matua E noho ana ngā tapuhi me ngā ākonga tapuhi e whakauru atu ana ki te kura tākuta hei ara nekehanga ngaio ka kitea, engari he iti te inenga. Ko tā tēnei arotake hohoro he whakamahere i ngā taunakitanga rangahau hōhonu, me ngā mōhiotanga whai mana me te uara nui mō ngā tapuhi, ngā ākonga tapuhi me ngā tāngata ngaiotanga hauora whai pānga ka urutomo ki te mahi tākuta, me te aro nui ki Peretānia, ki Ahitereiria, me Aotearoa hei wāhanga o tētahi aronga ki te ao whānui, he iti rawa nei ngā taunakitanga. Nā ngā rapunga o ngā pātengi raraunga hauora, mātauranga, me ngā pātengi tuhingaroa, ngā pūrongo ohu kaimahi whai mana, me ngā mōhiotanga aramahi whare wāhanga hāngai i tautohu tētahi pūtake iti, ōrite kore hoki. I takea mai ngā taunakitanga pakari rawa i ngā rangahau ine kounga o Ahitereiria, o Kānata hoki, e whakaahua nei i ngā whakaaro, i ngā rārangi tūranga mana, i te hōkai o ngā mahi, te tuakiri ngaiotanga me te ngākau-ū o ngā uara tapuhi i roto i ngā whakangungu tākuta. Kei ngā raraunga whai mana o Ahitereiria tētahi rōpū ākonga tākuta tau whakamutunga iti, pūmau, kua whai tohu mātauranga tapuhi, kaiwhakawhānau rānei, ā, ko tā ngā raraunga o Aotearoa kei te whakakite he maha ngā tāngata whai tohu māturanga o mua, engari kāore e tautohu i te mahi tapuhi hei ara ārahi ākonga ki te mahi tākuta. E ai ki ngā taunakitanga kounga ā-ao ka tautoko pea ngā akoranga whai pānga ki te hauora, mahi tapuhi rānei i te pai o ngā mahi tiaki tūroto, ngā mahi e pā ana ki te ao ngaio rānei, engari kāore i wātea mai he putanga e pā ana ki ngā mahi tapuhi, ki te puta, ki te kore ep uta, ki te wehe atu i te akoranga, ki te tū kia tohia, ki ngā wehenga mātanga rānei. Āe he tika kei reira te ara, engari i tēnei wā he iti tōna tātainga, tōna rangahautanga hoki. E hiahiatia ana ētahi rangahau tōroa, tikanga mahi kaha ake i mua i te tāpaetanga kōrero mō te te tokomaha, mō te ekenga taumata, mō te rahunga, mō te pānga rānei ki te ohu kaimahi.