I suppose you could get a degree in nursing, but to be honest it isn't that common…..the people who go to med school with nursing degrees tend to be people who started out wanting to BE a nurse and later decided they wanted to become a physician (and it was too late to change majors….usually because that happens once the person is actually out working as a nurse). Nursing is a very different skill set….not better, not worse, just different, so it's not as much of a natural fit as you might expect.

Also, when it comes to admissions, you're definitely going to get the question about why you're not going into nursing, why you changed your mind (which they will assume you did), etc. All applicants, regardless of major, need to prove to med schools that they're entering into the profession with both eyes wide open….that you're aware of the realities of being a physician in 21st century America. So then the inevitable questions will be….well, why aren't you becoming a nurse? What is it that turned you off from becoming a nurse that you think will be so much better in becoming a physician, and so on. Not insurmountable, but personally the process is painful enough without adding to it.

If your goal is from the outset to become a pediatrician, you'd be better off getting a liberal arts or science degree (and a more well-rounded education). That said, you *can* major in anything and get into medical school as long as you take the premed prereqs….and these days it's as (if not more) common to get in with a degree in a non-science (eg back when i was going through the admissions process, the dean of Dartmouth Med told me there were more History majors in the first year class than any other major). So I guess that would include a bachelor's in nursing. But the point is that schools are looking for people with passion and academic excellence in their field, which might be harder to prove with a more technical/professional degree.

If you're looking for patient contact and communication skills, any premed these days has to do volunteer and/or shadowing work with physicians (going back to the proving you don't have a romanticized view of medicine thing). So regardless of your major you will receive that piece.

Also (and of course, I'm sure there are exceptions), the schools that give you the biggest edge in getting into medical school tend not to be the schools where you can't even major in nursing in the first place.

ladyroo is right. i would also like to add that a major in nursing won't give you all the pre-reqs required for med school.