Another neurotic premed thread - clinical experience and where you obtain it

[loveoforganic]

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I go to school out of state. My only clinical experience thus far is volunteering with occupational therapy in a mental hospital from my home state. So far, I'm loving this experience, and I get to do loads more with the patients than I'd get to in a general hospital. When I go back to the state where I go to school, I could volunteer with a general hospital, and I've already submitted an application for that opportunity. However, there's a mental hospital in the area of my school as well, and I'm now considering pursuing a volunteering opportunity there instead of with the general hospital.

Would clinical experience coming exclusively from mental hospitals be frowned upon or looked upon as less than the mixed experience?

 

[loveoforganic]

🙂

 

[OncoCaP]

I go to school out of state. My only clinical experience thus far is volunteering with occupational therapy in a mental hospital from my home state. So far, I'm loving this experience, and I get to do loads more with the patients than I'd get to in a general hospital. When I go back to the state where I go to school, I could volunteer with a general hospital, and I've already submitted an application for that opportunity. However, there's a mental hospital in the area of my school as well, and I'm now considering pursuing a volunteering opportunity there instead of with the general hospital.

Would clinical experience coming exclusively from mental hospitals be frowned upon or looked upon as less than the mixed experience?

No, I don't think it would be frowned upon. You should be fine either way.👍

 

[loveoforganic]

Thank you! Would anyone else care to weigh in?

 

[URHere]

Would clinical experience coming exclusively from mental hospitals be frowned upon or looked upon as less than the mixed experience?

I think that depends on what you say on your applications and in your interviews. If you talk about how your life passion is to become a surgeon, but you only have mental health experience, that will raise a few eyebrows. On the other hand, if you talk about an interest in psychiatry and mental health, your clinical experience is exactly in line.

If you are interested in mental health, by all means take on a second similar experience! However, if you think your interests in medicine may be in a different field, I really suggest at least shadowing someone practicing in that field before you apply.

 

[loveoforganic]

My central interest is definitely psychiatry, and psychology would be what I'd go into were medicine made impossible for some reason or another. I do plan on shadowing whatever fields doctors let me, however. Hopefully EM since that's my secondary interest

Thanks for the reply.

 

[bkz]

Not sure what state you are in, but many states have at least one government nonprofit or religious mental health organization that uses volunteers. I think it would be worthwhile to find an opportunity that demonstrates experience in more than one field of medicine--maybe while finding ways to interact with the population that interests you. Hope that helps, clearly I'm not an adcom 🙂

 

[Food]

I think volunteering at a mental health institution would be good for your app. It's relatively unique and would make an interesting topic for the interviews. I would thoroughly be prepared for questions on it.

 

[apumic]

Actually, I'd suggest getting a paid position. I really don't think there's any reason to settle for a volunteer position. If you have a psych-related degree, especially, you could probably get a job as a mental health tech or residential counselor pretty easily. Those jobs are the bottom of the mental health food-chain but they are actually really good and interesting experiences. In some states, you may even be able to do such things as administer medications to the psych px as an RC or MHT.

 

[loveoforganic]

I don't have a psych degree (yet), and actually originally pursued a job as a psychiatric aide. I was turned down because they wanted more than a worker for the summer. However, that's an avenue I'm going to pursue if I fail to get in first cycle.

Thank you all for the advice.