Are different forms of clinical experience more valuable to ad-coms?

[sealfriendo]

For instance, does working at a student run free-clinic count? Would working in the ER be more valuable? Is it all about how you articulate your experience? Thank you very much to anybody who provides insight!

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[TheRealBatmanMD]

Direct/meaningful patient interaction > stacking glove boxes in the hospital and answering phone calls.

 

[DrFortiusNatando]

The best clinical experience to an ADCOM is the one that you would actually enjoy doing and that makes sense with who you are and where you have been and where you want to go (figuratively). And one that you will light up about when you have your interviews.

Even if you are mostly stacking glove boxes and answering phones, you are playing an important, but very small cog in the wheel of the bigger hierarchy in medicine and you will learn what it is like to be the low person on the totem pole. That in itself may be very humbling and helpful later in your career when you become the big shot. By watching and paying attention to how people deal with you when you are working in a low place in the hierarchy, you will learn what works to motivate people and inspire them and what doesn't work. You will also learn to anticipate the needs of others and all kinds of other things that will help you grow and learn.

 

[Goro]

For instance, does working at a student run free-clinic count? Would working in the ER be more valuable? Is it all about how you articulate your experience? Thank you very much to anybody who provides insight!

I have a very high opinion of people who work with most vulnerable patient populations, especially those that put you up close with our mortality.

Think nursing homes , hospice, children's wards , camps for sick kids, the mentally ill or disabled.

 

[DrFortiusNatando]

I have a very high opinion of people who work with most vulnerable patient populations, especially those that put you up close with our mortality.

Think nursing homes , hospice, children's wards , camps for sick kids, the mentally ill or disabled.

Working with veterans is also a great "feel-good" opportunity for applicants that Adcoms can't help but like. From my own time spent at a VA Hospital, as well as what I hear from colleagues currently staffing VAs, the patients are always very thankful too.

 

[Goro]

Working with veterans is also a great "feel-good" opportunity for applicants that Adcoms can't help but like. From my own time spent at a VA Hospital, as well as what I hear from colleagues currently staffing VAs, the patients are always very thankful too.

I have to add that to my list!!!

 

[givesumacceptpls]

Goro, what does the avg adcom think about answering patient bedside calls?
I answer 100% of patient calls on my floor but I don't know if that's even considered clinical.

 

[Goro]

Goro, what does the avg adcom think about answering patient bedside calls?
I answer 100% of patient calls on my floor but I don't know if that's even considered clinical.

What does LizzyM say about smelling patients?????

 

[candbgirl]

Working with veterans is also a great "feel-good" opportunity for applicants that Adcoms can't help but like. From my own time spent at a VA Hospital, as well as what I hear from colleagues currently staffing VAs, the patients are always very thankful too.

This! This! This! Volunteering at VA hospitals is needed and so appreciated. And talk about a humbling experience yet so uplifting at the same time.

 

[LizzyM]

What does LizzyM say about smelling patients?????

Answering patient call buttons certainly fits the definition if it involves trotting over to their bedsides. Answering from the nurses' station, with some patients that might be "close enough...".

 

[Walter Raleigh]

What does LizzyM say about smelling patients?????

Not all clinical experience is created equal; LizzyM herself said that ambulance corps service wasn't a central example of clinical experience. If all an applicant has is 500 hours on an ambulance, that isn't viewed as favorably as 500 hours of ER volunteering.