The Answers to Your Stupid Questions Thread

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Quick question:

Will schools notify you if you don't meet their pre reqs on things such as english? If so, when do they notify you?

Reason I'm asking is because I'm not totally sure on whether some classes will fit certain schools requirements - although I believe it should. What's the best way to make sure? Call them before I submit my secondaries?

Thanks!

I'm asking this here because I'm sure it has been asked before, but:

What type of hospital volunteering is best? Should I definitely be aiming to get clinical experience, or is non-clinical volunteer time also valuable (if I'm planning to shadow)?

Are there particular volunteer roles that I should be looking to fill (especially ones that will allow for clinical experience)?

Originally Posted by Premed Colorado

I'm asking this here because I'm sure it has been asked before, but:

What type of hospital volunteering is best? Should I definitely be aiming to get clinical experience, or is non-clinical volunteer time also valuable (if I'm planning to shadow)?

Are there particular volunteer roles that I should be looking to fill (especially ones that will allow for clinical experience)?

If I understand SDN logic, it is important to get clinical experience...as per LIzzyM - an adcom member, if you are close enough to smell the patients it's clinical.

This clinical experience can come about as a result of volunteering in a hospital or some other kind of healthcare environment or from a paid job. You can kill two birds with one stone and choose the volunteer position which also gives you clinical experience.

You should do a search with the words "value" and "volunteering". Thats should give you some interesting threads to look at.

Non-clinical volunteer time is also valuable. Basically if you can fill the clinical experience slot in some other way, then your volunteering activity can be whatever you enjoy...

Originally Posted by Left2right

Quick question:

Will schools notify you if you don't meet their pre reqs on things such as english? If so, when do they notify you?

Reason I'm asking is because I'm not totally sure on whether some classes will fit certain schools requirements - although I believe it should. What's the best way to make sure? Call them before I submit my secondaries?

Thanks!

Not 100% sure about this, so hopefully some one will correct me if I am wrong but I highly doubt they will. Likely they will screen you out. Think about it, there will be hundreds of other applicants who have met those requirements and they probably will want to get things going for those people. Calling people who didn't meet requirements would be low on the priority list.

Best to call them ASAP and find out if those courses meet requirements.

Originally Posted by Freesia88

If I understand SDN logic, it is important to get clinical experience...as per LIzzyM - an adcom member, if you are close enough to smell the patients it's clinical.

This clinical experience can come about as a result of volunteering in a hospital or some other kind of healthcare environment or from a paid job. You can kill two birds with one stone and choose the volunteer position which also gives you clinical experience.

You should do a search with the words "value" and "volunteering". Thats should give you some interesting threads to look at.

Non-clinical volunteer time is also valuable. Basically if you can fill the clinical experience slot in some other way, then your volunteering activity can be whatever you enjoy...

Thank you I'll read through those. Are there particular volunteer roles in a hospital that tend to have clinical exposure / interaction with patients that I should be on the lookout for?

Originally Posted by Premed Colorado

Thank you I'll read through those. Are there particular volunteer roles in a hospital that tend to have clinical exposure / interaction with patients that I should be on the lookout for?

I'm afraid I'm not the best person to answer that question as my clinical experience was not from a hospital. There are others however, who can and I am sure those threads will give you ideas as well.

However, you could be proactive and ask the volunteer coordinator at the hospital if you could be assigned tasks which put you in contact with people. Maybe handing out bottles of water, wheeling patients around, talking with waiting family members, answering general questions...you don't need to be handing the surgeon the scapel in the OR for it to be clinical. Be nice to people, ask the hospital employees questions and show interest.

Also, remember it is what you get out of it, more than what you did. Even if you are assigned the most brain numbing task, try to look at it from the perspective of "How does this task help keep the machine that is this hospital running?" and "How best can I do it such that this machine runs smoothly?"

If things do not pan out at a hospital, look at nursing homes and assisted living facillities, free clinics etc. If you want marketable skills, take a first aid course and get certified

Good luck! .

Originally Posted by Freesia88

I'm afraid I'm not the best person to answer that question as my clinical experience was not from a hospital. There are others however, who can and I am sure those threads will give you ideas as well.

However, you could be proactive and ask the volunteer coordinator at the hospital if you could be assigned tasks which put you in contact with people. Maybe handing out bottles of water, wheeling patients around, talking with waiting family members, answering general questions...you don't need to be handing the surgeon the scapel in the OR for it to be clinical. Be nice to people, ask the hospital employees questions and show interest.

Also, remember it is what you get out of it, more than what you did. Even if you are assigned the most brain numbing task, try to look at it from the perspective of "How does this task help keep the machine that is this hospital running?" and "How best can I do it such that this machine runs smoothly?"

If things do not pan out at a hospital, look at nursing homes and assisted living facillities, free clinics etc. If you want marketable skills, take a first aid course and get certified

Good luck! .

Thanks again. I think I have a better understanding now of what constitutes clinical experience (i.e., direct interaction with patients). I'll try at hospitals and free clinics in the area first and see whether they have any available spots.