Premed Jobs

mynameistino said:

I am a new pre med student and does anyone know what kind of jobs i should apply for during my undergraduate years so i can get experience about the medical field and might help my chance of getting into medical school?

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Grades and MCAT are more important than jobs.

Getting good grades and good MCAT is your job.

I worked in the ER as a tech for 7 years. While grades and MCAT are very important, you must have clinical experience. How would you ever know this is for you...based on numbers, or based on classroom work? My close friend applied to Northwestern with a 3.8 GPA and a 31 on the MCAT...got rejected because he had absolutely no clinical experience or volunteer work. And that was NWU main argument...numbers are great...but get some work with patients for a year or so, then apply again.

I'm currently an EKG tech, while in college. Lots of direct patient contact.

mynameistino said:

I am a new pre med student and does anyone know what kind of jobs i should apply for during my undergraduate years so i can get experience about the medical field and might help my chance of getting into medical school?

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Get your EMT-B certification and start working at an ambulance service (preferably an ALS one where you will be paired w/ a medic). I recommend that you work there and not volunteer (that is unless it is a volunteer service), in other words try to make sure that you don't just run "3rd person" b/c with that your basically just another person to get in the way. If it's just you and the medic you get much more experience and hands on patient contact. I am a premed student now and I work almost every weekend usually like 20-30 hours in 2 days at a busy ALS Ambulance service and its definitly something I look foreward to every week. In addition to all the great experience, you make a decent wage (for a college student), get to see SOOO Much more than your friends will volunteering at some hospital, and actually get a chance to practice some (although limited) medicine. And let's face it, as a premed student, the chance to actually put down the damn chemistry books and go take a part in what your working towards really helps keep you motivated.

Chachie2682 said:

I worked in the ER as a tech for 7 years. While grades and MCAT are very important, you must have clinical experience. How would you ever know this is for you...based on numbers, or based on classroom work? My close friend applied to Northwestern with a 3.8 GPA and a 31 on the MCAT...got rejected because he had absolutely no clinical experience or volunteer work. And that was NWU main argument...numbers are great...but get some work with patients for a year or so, then apply again.

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I agree 100 percent. To many people these days rush into careers without even exploring whether they truly like it or not. I made this mistake with law school, and I am determined not to make this mistake with medical school. That is one of the reason I decided to get my EMT-B, it seemed like the surest way of being certain that medicine is for me.

Grades are important, but just make sure you know why you want to do this. I am so adamant about this, because before I decided on going into medicine, I went to law school without ever investigating what attorneys really did. take your time, take a deep breath of fresh air and find ways to explore this amazing career path.

Best of luck

viostorm said:

Grades and MCAT are more important than jobs.

Getting good grades and good MCAT is your job.

Click to expand...

mynameistino said:

I am a new pre med student and does anyone know what kind of jobs i should apply for during my undergraduate years so i can get experience about the medical field and might help my chance of getting into medical school?

Click to expand...

Dude, work or volunteer as an EMT. Working in the pre-hospital scene is one of the best ways to experience what it's like to care for patients and have a good idea whether or not healthcare is the correct decision for you. It also will "help your chance" at getting one of those nice acceptance letters in the mail, but if that's the only reason you want to do it, then that should answer your question as to whether or not medicine is the right career for yourself.

How hard is it to find a job after you get your EMT-B Certification? I'm thinking maybe that's for me but I'm worried about going thru that and then not being able to find a job.

For those of you who are techs or emts - How long did your training last? Is it something that I could do over one summer or are these year + programs? Thanks! If theres already a thread and I just didn't search long enough I apologize.

Also, I know there's quite a few people on here from the OSU-COM...Where's the best place to study for your emtb in Tulsa?

bump

As the former Ops Manager for a collegiate EMS squad, it used to irk the sh#t out of me when folks signed up with the squad just to get it on their med school app and then didn't do jack. Plenty of folks get their EMT to fluff their resume. As others have posted, the experience and patient contact is what counts. So if you do it, really do it.

You might try your hand at being a phlebotomist (draw blood samples at the hospital or Drs office). Many places require training, but some will train on the job.

Other things:
volunteer at a homeless shelter
volunteer with a big brother/sister program
teach
work or volunteer with some sort of drug rehab program
volunteer for a rape crisis or suicide hotline
volunteer for senior services (involves a lot of phone work, helping seniors get hooked up with utilities and medication programs and the like)
run for congress


'zilla

bigmike said:

For those of you who are techs or emts - How long did your training last? Is it something that I could do over one summer or are these year + programs?

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EMT-Basic: 140 hours. Usually done part time (4 hours, twice a week) for 4-6 months, with some Saturdays thrown in. May also be done over a summer (4-6 week full time course).
EMT-Intermediate: Varies from one place to another. Usually a few months of part-time training after EMT-B, with more field training required.
EMT-Paramedic: Usually 1-2 years of training after EMT-B. 1200 hours broken up into didactic, clinical, and field time. May require a year of field experience as a Basic for entrance. Full-time training programs are about 6-8 months 8-5 all week plus field and clinical precepting time.

ER Tech: Varies by facility. Some require basic EMT training, others train on the job, some require a paramedic certificate.

Check with the Office of EMS in your state. They will be able to hook you up with EMT classes in your area. Classes are usually run at the local community college or volunteer rescue squad.

As a premed, you may want to see if your school (or one nearby) has a student EMS squad. This is a good way to get your feet wet and they will know where you can get training. Check out the National Collegiate EMS Foundation at www.ncemsf.org for more info.


'zilla

blebl34 said:

I'm currently an EKG tech, while in college. Lots of direct patient contact.

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Hi:

I was wondering if you'd be willing to answer some q's about becoming EKG certified - I'm actually a post-bacc student looking for a good job while in school - would you recommend becoming an EKG - is it a demanding job? time-consuming? physically exhausting? are there jobs needed in the field? etc. I want something to help financially support me while I take my pre-med classes.

Thanks for your help!

holy old thread batman! thanks for doing a search though!

Would taking an online course be a good or bad idea?