Is this considered clinical?

[solitarius]

Hi all.

I'm looking at volunteering at the hospice in my town. They run a few separate programs, but the one I'm interested in is the support group for survivors who have lost loved ones. Is this clinical? Or does hospice service have to involve working with the actual patient who is dying to be considered clinical?

I already tried to search SDN for the answer. Thanks.

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[Catalystik]

Clinical experience involves interaction with sick people. It is still a community service/nonmedical to volunteer your time with a support group. That it is medically relevant makes it more desirable.

 

[ryno]

Doesn't seem like clinical experience to me. But still a good experience. Unless you can classify the grieving family as patients.
To me, seems kind of analogous to working as a minister at a hospital, without patient contact. In that you are a 'layer' away from the patient.

 

[sweegersweet]

It may not be clinical experience by definition but you will learn a lot about yourself and also the grieving process that many families go through. These are experiences you can talk about in your PS and in your interview. I did hospice for 2 years before going to medical school. Though it may not prepare you for what you'll see in the hospital or clinic, it will provide psychosocial experience with death and dying that is invaluable to a future doc. I highly recommend hospice to any pre med student that wants to broaden their experience before moving on to med school.

 

[foofish]

Hi all.

I'm looking at volunteering at the hospice in my town. They run a few separate programs, but the one I'm interested in is the support group for survivors who have lost loved ones. Is this clinical? Or does hospice service have to involve working with the actual patient who is dying to be considered clinical?

I already tried to search SDN for the answer. Thanks.

The program you describe doesn't really count as clinical, but it does sound like a great program and more broadly would enhance your application. More importantly, it's something you're interested in doing on it's own, so definitely do it in addition to something more clinical.

You might want to let the hospice know that you're a premed and that you'd like to be involved in the support group but would also like to do something with patient contact...there might be a way to do both. If you can't do both, perhaps you could do the support group and then also get more traditional clinical experience at a clinic/hospital/etc. Don't think of it as an either/or, but rather the support group can supplement your other volunteer work.

I did some hospice volunteering as a premed and it was fantastic (both inpatient and outpatient visits), and highly recommend it. It was a wonderful, enlightening experience in it's own right, and it now has also definitely helped me in my M3/M4 in how to handle end-of-life issues and conversations...it's a really tricky area to navigate, and a large part of what makes it easy/difficult is the clinician's own comfort level, so my time with hospice was invaluable.

 

[Sammich117]

I'll agree that it's not clinical, but still a great program to get involved with.