Medical Is it a big problem that I don't have Sustained Clinical Experience?

[GoSpursGo]

I can absolutely discuss how my experiences have been meaningful, but I am worried about the sheer lack of longevity of each activity...

• 100 hours as a patient support volunteer within a specific department at a children’s hospital (over a single summer)
• ~130 hours as a COVID vaccine clinic volunteer (7 months). I helped out at a few mass vaccination sites, but the majority of the clinics I volunteered at were located at a free clinic.
• Hoping to begin work as a CRC or CRA within the next month or two (finished school in December)

Some of my other not-quite-clinical experiences have also informed my interest in medicine. I have held a more sustained position within a mutual aid organization, where I help people with disabilities navigate insurance, find community health resources, etc. I also completed a virtual summer internship supervised by an MD at a large hospital where I developed patient education materials. 3.95 GPA and expecting a 515-520 MCAT.

I definitely hope to get some more hours in before June through volunteering and work, but I’m not sure how much of a barrier my lack of sustained experience is.

I feel like "sustained experience" is somewhat overrated. When it comes to clinical experience, I think the raw hours is more important.

I don't think that COVID vaccine volunteer is really "clinical" experience since you're working more in a public health capacity than dealing with patients. But that's my opinion, and different people have different views. If you include that experience as clinical you probably have enough hours, otherwise you'd like to get to at least ~150 hours by application time.

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[Question]

Hi all, so far I was doing well in residency, but I receive a 'written reprimand' that was put on my file for issues with 'unprofessionalism' and 'poor communication.' Of course I will work on improving moving forward, but how serious is this? Does it mean I am not in good standing or what? I wasn't suspended or put on probation but just wondering moving forward what this means. Thanks all.

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[Mr.Smile12]

Thank you! That is helpful to hear.

I will have to put more thought into how I want to classify my vaccine clinic volunteering—I was hoping that it would count as “clinical” because I ended up facilitating a lot of physician-patient interactions within a free clinic (when patients were hesitant about being vaccinated, which was quite often in this setting), but I understand that it is sort of a gray area.

Considering we are in COVID-19 time, I'm sure many will give some leeway since you have other clinical experiences too. But I do agree you have to be able to talk about what you observed between doctor and patient (shadowing or scribing) in different hospital settings.

 

[AlteredScale]

Forgot to add that I have ~40 hours of shadowing three specialties (including primary care), so hopefully that will be helpful too. Thank you for taking the time to reply and for your input!

I am not sure shadowing counts as a clinical experience as you aren't directly working with patients. I guess I am wondering, why did you stop after the summer for your volunteering opportunity at the Children's hospital?

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

Shadowing won't count as clinical experience. You have a great app so far. I would not short yourself on something that you can absolutely increase. Get more clinical hours if you can.