Sorry it took me so long to reply, I've been moving! School starts tomorrow, yikes! Anyhow, here's a response I wrote a few months ago about my experiences as a Patient Care Tech at a large urban hospital:
I graduated from college in '98 with a BS in Bio and I was always planning on going to Med school. But I had the same problem as you-- no experience. Sure I'd shadowed MD's and volunteered, but that crap won't get you accepted! So I spent the entire summer after graduation trying (as you are) to find a GOOD job in the healthcare field to help me gain experience.
I quickly found out exactly what you did, there is very little you can do, other than the CNA thing. I live in a large city with like ten hospitals, and I found that one of them would train me themselves. That was nice since I didn't have to take a state-based CNA course. I will tell you though, whether you take the state course (usually taught at a community college) or are trained by the hospital, the class will be rediculously easy for you! Yes, the people who work as Nurses Aides are not usually college grads like you and I. But actually a lot of them are nursing students.
Anyhow, I took the job, and was sure to tell the Human Resourses office, and my manager that I was planning on going to Med school in a couple years. I though that I should warn them that I was planning to leave (that's only fair). Since I had no previous experience they put me on a general Medical/Surgical floor of the hospital. My job was less than glamorous, but priceless! I was paid a measely $9 an hour, and had to work 12 hour shifts. The job began at 7am, when I met my partner RN for the day, and our 6-10 patients that were assigned to us. I would take thier vital signs every 4 hours, and thier blood sugars as needed. Yes, I had to help all of them take thier daily baths, and when they were unable, I gave them a complete bath myself. When they were incontinent, I cleaned them up. I was taught to insert catheters, remove IV's and NG tubes, give tube feeding, take care of ventilated patients, suction tracheostomies and ET tubes, helped MD's with procedures like inserting chest tubes, spinal taps, central lines, ect, and I changed many types of dressings (including wet to dry dressings on bed sores!). When a patient coded, I helped the team resuscitate them, and when they died, I put them in their body bag. These things are hard, I will not lie to you. but in the 18 months that I worked on that floor, I learned more than you can ever imagine.
I learned how to take care of patients, I mean really take care of their needs. I learned medical termonology, and how a hospital works. I learned to take samples of everything from blood to urine, stool, and wound cultures. I was in the room when patients were taken off thier ventalators and allowed to die, I was there when doctors did procedures, I was there when we rushed people to emergency surgery, and I was there to initiate CPR on my patients when they coded. I also learned the invaluable ability to work with nurses. They are SO important you can't imagine. They can be your biggest ally, or your strongest foe as an MD, if you only treat them the way the deserve to be treated. All of these things I learned in my position as the lowly Bedpan Jockey!
So, what was the result? Well, my GPA in college was less that stellar (3.3/4.0). My MCAT scores were high. But it was my job as a Nurses Aide that got me accepted to three Med schools this year. Every single interviewer asked about it, and they were all extremely impressed! It also gave me a gret personal statement topic. So if you can swing it financially, I encourage anybody whos interested in going to med school, but needs a boost to their resume, get a job at a hospital as a nurses aide. NOT at a nursing home, you will learn nothing there except that nursing homes are horrible. I hope this info helped you! Good Luck
Mango
MS1
