Pre-med SO; looking for advice

[Xade]

I'm not really sure where to start with all of this, so I'll just kind of spit it out there and see where it goes.

I'm an RN and I'm dating a guy who just recently decided he wanted to be pre-med (I'm a few years older than he is). He was in school for biology when I met him, but he wasn't doing very well. Just didn't seem inspired and scraped by in his classes. I got on his ass for it because he's brilliant and could have done much better. He did some serious soul searching after doing poorly in his first year (like 2.0 GPA poorly :/) and decided he'd been letting his poor self-esteem undermine him. His original goal had been academia (biology professor), but he spent the summer researching other things and decided he wanted to be an MD. Specifically, an oncologist.

He's now back in school basically repeating his entire first year because he wants to make A's in the classes he'd failed at before. He's doing very well, and I knew he would, but I'm not sure if he knows the reality of what the medical profession is nowadays and I question what the best path for him would be. The science appeals to him, and I have no doubt he could handle med school, but actual patients are an entirely different story. I'm not sure he'll be happy handling patients.

I've thought it'd be a good idea for him to pick up a job in a hospital working as a CNA so that he can see what the health care arena is truly like. When I was a CNA, I got to work with nurses, doctors, PAs, PT, OT, RT, the whole gamut. I took care of all kinds of people. I had the brains, I gained the people skills, and I transitioned seamlessly into being a nurse because of my experience. Now with that said, I know nursing and medical are different. What I'm looking for from posters here is how different they are and whether this kind of experience would help a pre-med student.

The overarching idea is that we will probably move to Texas in his gap year(s) to establish residency there to give him a better shot at getting into med school. Ideally, his hospital experience and the oncology shadowing he's done/will continue to do would get him a job out there either researching something onc relevant or working at an onc center, which I'd think definitely looks good on a med school application.

So, TL;DR, I'm a nurse and trying to help my pre-med boyfriend get real-life experiences related to his chosen interest of oncology.

1. Would picking up a job as a CNA be beneficial when it comes to med school applications?

2. Would the CNA job provide valuable real-world experience that's relevant to an MD?

3. Would spending the gap year(s) working in an oncology center look good on a med school application?

Any and all advice appreciated.

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[Gwenevre]

Hesitant to say this, but have you thought about asking the Allo forum?

 

[YellowTurtle]

1. I'm not sure how long the training is to become a CNA, but if it's more than a month or so he could probably do something else to save that time. Such as scribing. A lot of people in my med school class (including myself) worked as a scribe in a hospital for a year or a few prior to med school. My training was on the job and others only had a week or two of training in a classroom. Usually scribing companies are looking for pre-med students to work for them.
But yes, anything that he does to show that he has had extensive experience working with patients will give him a boost on his application. Med schools like to see that an applicant knows what they are getting into.

2. I've never considered going doing CNA. And as I need to get back to studying soon I don't have time to research it. But patient experience = good.
But grades/mcat are a must. Someone can get into med school with high gpa/mcat, but little patient experience (as long as they have SOMETHING extracurricular on their app), but almost nobody can get into med school with very poor gpa/mcat, but with patient experience. Although a mediocre gpa/mcat + patient experience could do the trick. High gpa/mcat + patient experience is ideal.

3. Depends on what the oncology experience is. Research and patient experience are good. But depending on his numbers at that point he might not even need to do it unless he just wants to. A gap year is a tricky thing. I think more and more people are taking them. If you do absolutely nothing productive it can possibly hurt you. But if you use that time to improve your application or some other important life event, it could definitely help you. I took a gap year and got married/scribed. I told them in my interviews that I wanted a year to confirm that medicine was what I wanted to do (scribing) and that I felt that spending a year to establish a foundation in my marriage was a priority for me. They seemed to like that - got my #1.

 

[Xade]

1. I'm not sure how long the training is to become a CNA, but if it's more than a month or so he could probably do something else to save that time. Such as scribing. A lot of people in my med school class (including myself) worked as a scribe in a hospital for a year or a few prior to med school. My training was on the job and others only had a week or two of training in a classroom. Usually scribing companies are looking for pre-med students to work for them.
But yes, anything that he does to show that he has had extensive experience working with patients will give him a boost on his application. Med schools like to see that an applicant knows what they are getting into.

2. I've never considered going doing CNA. And as I need to get back to studying soon I don't have time to research it. But patient experience = good.
But grades/mcat are a must. Someone can get into med school with high gpa/mcat, but little patient experience (as long as they have SOMETHING extracurricular on their app), but almost nobody can get into med school with very poor gpa/mcat, but with patient experience. Although a mediocre gpa/mcat + patient experience could do the trick. High gpa/mcat + patient experience is ideal.

3. Depends on what the oncology experience is. Research and patient experience are good. But depending on his numbers at that point he might not even need to do it unless he just wants to. A gap year is a tricky thing. I think more and more people are taking them. If you do absolutely nothing productive it can possibly hurt you. But if you use that time to improve your application or some other important life event, it could definitely help you. I took a gap year and got married/scribed. I told them in my interviews that I wanted a year to confirm that medicine was what I wanted to do (scribing) and that I felt that spending a year to establish a foundation in my marriage was a priority for me. They seemed to like that - got my #1.

I said CNA just so people would know what I was referring to. I live in Georgia, and he moved to live here with me. You don't have to have any experience or actual certification to get a job doing what a CNA does. They just call them patient care techs or nurse extenders and still let them clean up crap and take vitals .

As for point 3, that's an interesting perspective. Mostly I think he'd be doing it to potentially benefit from getting Texas resident status so that he could apply to the TX med schools and get cheaper tuition/access to the most in-state bonus seats. It was an idea he got from this forum, I believe. If we were going to get married, which we've discussed and decided is a likelihood for the future, it'd also likely be that year. Putting that kind of spin on it is something I hadn't thought of.

Thanks so much for the reply/advice, and congrats on getting into your #1!