Would you count this employment experience as medical for AMCAS purposes?

[M.MD]

I'm starting to put my AMCAS application together for the upcoming cycle, and I could use some quick advice. I was a caregiver for the elderly for a few years in college. 90% of what I did was not what I would consider medical in nature. I would clothe, feed, bathe, and provide general companionship. The other 10% would be pretty basic stuff like measuring blood sugar and administering insulin, and occasionally emptying a urine collection bag or something. If I go with my gut then I would say "yes", that this was medical in nature because I was providing care, even though it was pretty basic. Is this a stretch? I definitely don't want it to come off that way on my AMCAS application.

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[medmedman]

A part of me says yes but a bigger part says no and here's why. Caregivers usually don't provide any medical care to the individual being cared for. It's really the visiting nurses that do that. And again, since part of being a CG is far more non-medical I would lean towards putting it down as non-medical though I don't think you'd get backlashed at all for putting it down as medical

 

[Pacna]

Anything in puke range = clinical.

This counts for sure.

 

[seeinghowitgoes]

I'm starting to put my AMCAS application together for the upcoming cycle, and I could use some quick advice. I was a caregiver for the elderly for a few years in college. 90% of what I did was not what I would consider medical in nature. I would clothe, feed, bathe, and provide general companionship. The other 10% would be pretty basic stuff like measuring blood sugar and administering insulin, and occasionally emptying a urine collection bag or something. If I go with my gut then I would say "yes", that this was medical in nature because I was providing care, even though it was pretty basic. Is this a stretch? I definitely don't want it to come off that way on my AMCAS application.

If it were me, I'd count it.

@Rik1111 said it well haha

 

[aspirantmed]

This is an excellent activity, and I'm sure you'd be able to pretty easily justify it as a clinical experience. Caregiving is an active field of research right now; I might read into it so that you're prepared for interviews - basically, lots of content out there about how caregiving takes a physical and emotional burden on relatives, how hard it is for relatives to find good health information when taking care of their loved ones, etc.

 

[Mad Jack]

In the roughly paraphrased words of @LizzyM if you can smell a patient, it counts. This definitely counts. They aren't looking for proof of your capabilities add a medical professional with such experiences- medical school will train you in that regard. They want to know you have the compassion to actually care for patients, along with exposure to the realities of illness.

 

[iniquus]

It counts. Just be honest of your role in the description.

 

[lobo.solo]

Of course it counts. Be sure to highlight the job/experience well enough sob that adcoms can see it easily.

 

[WillburCobb]

As most others have said, definitely clinical. I worked as a CNA for a little over 2 years on a fairly busy med/surg unit and 99% of what you described is what I did as a CNA.

 

[tmn]

I'm starting to put my AMCAS application together for the upcoming cycle, and I could use some quick advice. I was a caregiver for the elderly for a few years in college. 90% of what I did was not what I would consider medical in nature. I would clothe, feed, bathe, and provide general companionship. The other 10% would be pretty basic stuff like measuring blood sugar and administering insulin, and occasionally emptying a urine collection bag or something. If I go with my gut then I would say "yes", that this was medical in nature because I was providing care, even though it was pretty basic. Is this a stretch? I definitely don't want it to come off that way on my AMCAS application.

My vote is no. It sounds like the experience is akin to babysitting (for lack of a better analogy; no offense intended). You are taking care of non-patients in a non-clinical setting. Just my two cents. However, I doubt you will run into any trouble regardless of how you classify it. Just be prepared to talk about the experience.

 

[LizzyM]

Unless AMCAS has changed, volunteer work is labeled as "clinical" and "non-clinical" but employment is tagged "military" and "non-military". So you've got employment, non-military here. You can certainly describe the work you did. Some schools may give you "credit" for having had contact with the sick/injured/disabled but some may also want to see that you have been engaged in unpaid community service and/or engaged in activities (which might include shadowing) in settings where physicians work.

I've seen adcom members react favorably to similar types of service provided to wheelchair bound individuals who were not elderly but who either lived or worked on campus. It is generally considered more clinical than babysitting.

 

[medic86]

Unless AMCAS has changed, volunteer work is labeled as "clinical" and "non-clinical" but employment is tagged "military" and "non-military". So you've got employment, non-military here. You can certainly describe the work you did. Some schools may give you "credit" for having had contact with the sick/injured/disabled but some may also want to see that you have been engaged in unpaid community service and/or engaged in activities (which might include shadowing) in settings where physicians work.

I've seen adcom members react favorably to similar types of service provided to wheelchair bound individuals who were not elderly but who either lived or worked on campus. It is generally considered more clinical than babysitting.

Now I have to ask:

When I was in the military, much of my enlistment were in clinical settings. Because of my clinical experience, I've decided not to shadow (but still do some non-clinical volunteer work, of course). Does this absence of entries under "clinical volunteering" constitute a red flag in this case?

Thanks!

 

[LizzyM]

Now I have to ask:

When I was in the military, much of my enlistment were in clinical settings. Because of my clinical experience, I've decided not to shadow (but still do some non-clinical volunteer work, of course). Does this absence of entries under "clinical volunteering" constitute a red flag in this case?

Thanks!

The absence of anything tagged "volunteer, clinical" won't always be a red flag.
We are looking to answer these questions: does this person have any experience (paid or not) in clinical settings? does this person have any experiences that demonstrate altruism? does this person have any research experience? does this person have any team membership/leadership experiences? The answers to these questions don't neatly line up with the tags that can be assigned to experiences on the AMCAS form.

 

[medic86]

The absence of anything tagged "volunteer, clinical" won't always be a red flag.
We are looking to answer these questions: does this person have any experience (paid or not) in clinical settings? does this person have any experiences that demonstrate altruism? does this person have any research experience? does this person have any team membership/leadership experiences? The answers to these questions don't neatly line up with the tags that can be assigned to experiences on the AMCAS form.

Thank you very much for the quick response, LizzyM.

 

[tmn]

I've seen adcom members react favorably to similar types of service provided to wheelchair bound individuals who were not elderly but who either lived or worked on campus. It is generally considered more clinical than babysitting.

I wasn't implying that the experience won't be looked upon favorably. I was just expressing my opinion that the experience is non-clinical because the people that OP is taking care of are not patients and are not in a clinical setting.

I'll defer to your expertise, though.

 

[M.MD]

Thanks for all the replies!