Is paid employment in medical/clinical field important for med school?

[LA_CPA]

Hello all,

I am a "career-changer" and am wondering if it would be wise to leave my current profession as a CPA in order to gain paid employment experience in the medical/clinical field for applying to med school. I have accessed the MSAR and reviewed the med schools' percentage of accepted students with paid employment and noted the percentage for most schools is below 40% (not as important as other factors). So a question for those that have been accepted into med schools: how many of you actually had paid experience in medical/clinical field? How many of you accepted into med school didn't have paid experience? How many rejected were told it was because of the lack of paid experience in the field?

I am just very wary about leaving a decent pay while I am fulfilling my prereqs in order to support my family if it is not truly required or even highly looked upon by med schools. With a career in accounting, if I considered obtaining paid experience in medical/clinical field it seems my only options may be CNA or MA (due to time/money factors) to gain this experience. If I am wrong, please let me know otherwise as I'd love to hear!

Sorry if this is considered an ignorant question(s) for some people, I simply enjoy receiving opinions, etc., from those that have been through the process.

-R

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[thatwouldbeanarchy]

At least as far as I understand, paid experience isn't generally necessary. Most premeds whether they're traditional applicants or not will have very little (if any) paid experience. It's more important that you get some experience prior to applying, however you end up getting it--through volunteering, shadowing (ideally a mix of BOTH volunteering and shadowing), or through paid employment.

If I were you, I'd stick with the job that you have, if it pays well enough to allow you to afford prereqs and make ends meet! Especially since you're a career changer, I think schools are more likely to be lenient in the sense that they won't expect you to have worked as a CNA or a scribe. (These kinds of jobs, while useful, aren't exactly going to make you super unique either) However, they'll still want to see that you know what you're getting yourself into and that you've taken the time to explore clinical settings.

 

[etp123]

I'm fairly certain you do not have to have been employed in a medically/clinically relevant field. Many people have matriculated without having had actual clinical employment before. The important thing is that you have experience/exposure to a clinical setting, period. For some people obtaining a clinical job (scribe, CNA, etc) is useful to fulfill that and financial needs.

If you can do something like a 4-hour volunteering stint each weekend in a hospital, that should be plenty good enough by the time you apply to med schools. No need to leave your job.

 

[bumblebee611]

I'm also a career changer and did not have paid clinical employment and got accepted. I did shadow and volunteer, though honestly not a ton of either--the vast majority of my volunteering was nonclinical and my exposure to sick people came largely from taking care of family members.

 

[DrMikeP]

I had paid experience and it helped. It actually is probably what bumped me into being accepted.

That said, a lot of med students don't have paid experience and most of those who do are doing more low level tasks like transport, scribes, sitters, etc. It's like EC's and LOR's, it's not going to get you in on its own of make up for a horrible gpa/mcat but it could help and show a certain level of commitment.

If the rest of your app is strong then I wouldn't worry about it, but if you are on the edge in some areas it might help or you use the time to fix those areas.

 

[Gibbward]

I had this same question too around a year ago actually. From what I gathered, it's obviously great if you can find a clinically related job, but supporting yourself and making sure you can pay your bills and have food on the table is more important. You can always volunteer and shadow to show your commitment in understanding the field. Plus having a job that pays minimum wage definitely makes it easier to pay for application cycle expenses!

 

[LA_CPA]

Thank you for your responses. Reading all of these truly relieved the tension I had from wondering how in the world would I support my family with a CNA's/MA's salary (no offense to those that are a CNA or MA). Thank you once again everyone!

 

[LA_CPA]

Sorry folks, but I actually had a follow-up for this thread. I obviously plan on volunteering/shadowing, but I always wondered if the volunteer work needs to be hands-on, patient facing work? If so, wouldn't one need to be certified in something medically related, or do schools look at volunteer work within a healthcare setting (clinic, hospital, etc.) regardless of what you're helping with?

 

[etp123]

... if the volunteer work needs to be hands-on, patient facing work? If so, wouldn't one need to be certified in something medically related, or do schools look at volunteer work within a healthcare setting (clinic, hospital, etc.) regardless of what you're helping with?

Short answer, yes! It does matter and generally want to actually be close enough to the patients that you can see, hear, and smell them. Even better if you're assisting alongside caregivers. If you're working behind a nurses desk putting together packets and paperwork for them, that's not as great, but at least you're in the environment and something is better than nothing.

Surprisingly, no you do not have to have special certification to interact with patients. You will typically have to go through interviews, HIPAA training, and several-hour long modules on patient/hospital safety though. There are "internships" at some hospitals that give pre-med volunteers hands-on clinical experience doing relatively simple things like assisting with changing, positioning, feeding, etc. I've seem them usually called "clinical career extender" programs. Googling will give you a number of results in the socal area, I myself just completed one a few months ago. Absolutely great experience and usually they require at minimum 4 hours a week for about a year or something.

 

[LA_CPA]

Short answer, yes! It does matter and generally want to actually be close enough to the patients that you can see, hear, and smell them. Even better if you're assisting alongside caregivers. If you're working behind a nurses desk putting together packets and paperwork for them, that's not as great, but at least you're in the environment and something is better than nothing.

Surprisingly, no you do not have to have special certification to interact with patients. You will typically have to go through interviews, HIPAA training, and several-hour long modules on patient/hospital safety though. There are "internships" at some hospitals that give pre-med volunteers hands-on clinical experience doing relatively simple things like assisting with changing, positioning, feeding, etc. I've seem them usually called "clinical career extender" programs. Googling will give you a number of results in the socal area, I myself just completed one a few months ago. Absolutely great experience and usually they require at minimum 4 hours a week for about a year or something.

Awesome! Thank you for this feedback, etp123, as I truly appreciate it. I agree with everything you said here. I also didn't know there were "internships" that gave this hands-on experience to pre-med volunteers so I will research this program. Have a great night.

 

[thatwouldbeanarchy]

Awesome! Thank you for this feedback, etp123, as I truly appreciate it. I agree with everything you said here. I also didn't know there were "internships" that gave this hands-on experience to pre-med volunteers so I will research this program. Have a great night.

Just want to add that you may not get to do much that's "hands-on" (in the sense that you actually get to touch patients) without some certification (although there are some things you can do like basic vital signs, EKGs, blood pressures). But any position that allows you to talk to patients is really valuable! Hence why so many people around these parts recommend things like volunteering at hospice or a nursing facility where you may not do much that's medical but where you see the more human, face-to-face contact parts of medicine.

 

[LA_CPA]

Just want to add that you may not get to do much that's "hands-on" (in the sense that you actually get to touch patients) without some certification (although there are some things you can do like basic vital signs, EKGs, blood pressures). But any position that allows you to talk to patients is really valuable! Hence why so many people around these parts recommend things like volunteering at hospice or a nursing facility where you may not do much that's medical but where you see the more human, face-to-face contact parts of medicine.

This makes sense, "thatwouldbeanarchy," as I also agree with your statement. I can see the differences between what type of volunteer work I should be and shouldn't be doing. Thanks for your advice!

 

[Goro]

Not required, but very helpful if you're actually touching patients.

Hello all,

I am a "career-changer" and am wondering if it would be wise to leave my current profession as a CPA in order to gain paid employment experience in the medical/clinical field for applying to med school. I have accessed the MSAR and reviewed the med schools' percentage of accepted students with paid employment and noted the percentage for most schools is below 40% (not as important as other factors). So a question for those that have been accepted into med schools: how many of you actually had paid experience in medical/clinical field? How many of you accepted into med school didn't have paid experience? How many rejected were told it was because of the lack of paid experience in the field?

I am just very wary about leaving a decent pay while I am fulfilling my prereqs in order to support my family if it is not truly required or even highly looked upon by med schools. With a career in accounting, if I considered obtaining paid experience in medical/clinical field it seems my only options may be CNA or MA (due to time/money factors) to gain this experience. If I am wrong, please let me know otherwise as I'd love to hear!

Sorry if this is considered an ignorant question(s) for some people, I simply enjoy receiving opinions, etc., from those that have been through the process.

-R

 

[LA_CPA]

Not required, but very helpful if you're actually touching patients.

Thanks for the comment, Goro!

 

[futuremdforme]

Volunteering looks better than paid work IMO -- it shows that you can manage your time, that you care enough about helping others to sacrifice your personal time for them, etc. Keeping your job as a CPA instead of taking a lower paid one also shows some level of responsibility -- this one is debatable, but realistically I think it's a bit silly to sacrifice a good job if you don't have to! (Obviously if you are taking a formal post-bacc, or are unable to do well on the mcat with a FT job, that's a different story.)

 

[wholeheartedly]

@LA_CPA

I think you've gotten some great answers.

I'm going to tack on a response I made awhile ago regarding what types of things you need beyond academics, not just for you but anyone else who might be reading this thread with a similar question.

"Instead of trying to classify everything (clinical volunteering, etc), it might help to think in terms of why you need things and then use that to determine if you've got things covered. I'm not an adcom, but this is how I look at these issues.

Things you need to show a medical school outside of solid academics:
1.) You're an altruistic person who likes helping others
2.) You've interacted with patients and have seen the crappy parts of medicine in some direct capacity
3.) You've had exposure to physicians and have tried to gain a realistic view of what being a physician entails.
4.) You're well rounded, reasonably sane, and have other interests to help you socialize with others and have balance in your life outside of medicine.

How do you show a medical school those things (by number)?
1.) volunteering of some sort, non-clinical volunteering (coaching, tutoring, animal shelter, social work volunteering, mentoring, crisis line) AND/OR clinical volunteering (hospital or nursing home volunteering, etc).
2.) immersing yourself in some capacity in a healthcare setting. this could be as an employee, as a volunteer, or some other capacity that gets you up close and personal with patients and with parts of medicine that suck. If you haven't seen parts that suck, you probably haven't gotten enough of this. You don't need to provide direct care to patients yourself necessarily, though it certainly helps, just have some level of direct interaction with them.
3.) shadowing and talking with physicians. ask them about the challenges of their roles, ask how they handle those challenges, ask what they find rewarding, watch all of what they do including the unglamorous stuff.
4.) hobbies, non medical activities like chess club or marathons or kickboxing or astronomy club, whatever floats your boat.

So you take what interests you, what you're passionate about, and what is available to you to meet those four requirements in some mix of above types of activities."

 

[LA_CPA]

@LA_CPA

I think you've gotten some great answers.

I'm going to tack on a response I made awhile ago regarding what types of things you need beyond academics, not just for you but anyone else who might be reading this thread with a similar question.

"Instead of trying to classify everything (clinical volunteering, etc), it might help to think in terms of why you need things and then use that to determine if you've got things covered. I'm not an adcom, but this is how I look at these issues.

Things you need to show a medical school outside of solid academics:
1.) You're an altruistic person who likes helping others
2.) You've interacted with patients and have seen the crappy parts of medicine in some direct capacity
3.) You've had exposure to physicians and have tried to gain a realistic view of what being a physician entails.
4.) You're well rounded, reasonably sane, and have other interests to help you socialize with others and have balance in your life outside of medicine.

How do you show a medical school those things (by number)?
1.) volunteering of some sort, non-clinical volunteering (coaching, tutoring, animal shelter, social work volunteering, mentoring, crisis line) AND/OR clinical volunteering (hospital or nursing home volunteering, etc).
2.) immersing yourself in some capacity in a healthcare setting. this could be as an employee, as a volunteer, or some other capacity that gets you up close and personal with patients and with parts of medicine that suck. If you haven't seen parts that suck, you probably haven't gotten enough of this. You don't need to provide direct care to patients yourself necessarily, though it certainly helps, just have some level of direct interaction with them.
3.) shadowing and talking with physicians. ask them about the challenges of their roles, ask how they handle those challenges, ask what they find rewarding, watch all of what they do including the unglamorous stuff.
4.) hobbies, non medical activities like chess club or marathons or kickboxing or astronomy club, whatever floats your boat.

So you take what interests you, what you're passionate about, and what is available to you to meet those four requirements in some mix of above types of activities."

This is a great response, wholeheartedly! Thank you for your feedback. What you mentioned sounds "simplistic" - I suppose I always think "there's more to it!" It's a trait I have where I like to make things more difficult for myself haha. Hope you have a great rest of the day!