Career change from public health

[phcareerswitch]

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I'm a current public health worker and am looking into applying to med school in a couple years. I've come to realize that I still want to work in public health, but will need to be a physician to accomplish my goals in the field (and I also have an interest in treating patients, ideally want to work at a rural health department where I can do both).

I want to make sure I'm on the right track with ECs. During college (many years ago), for volunteering I mostly did tutoring at a low-income/rural middle school (only around ~70 hours) and then volunteering with animals (around ~300 hours). I also worked part-time in a non-clinical/non-health related job and did various public health internships (no patient/public interaction). So unfortunately I don't have anything great from college.

After college I started working in public health and also did quite a bit of volunteering. All of my paid/unpaid work was done in very underserved communities.

• Health education events where I did health education activities (nutrition education, tobacco cessation counseling, linkage to community resources). At these events I also did basic health screening (took blood pressures/cholesterol, sometimes did other health screenings) did very basic counseling/linkage to care depending on the results and if the person had a medical home) - would the health screenings count as clinical? They were just community members so not a patient really - Approximately 500 hours paid and 400 volunteer
• Naloxone training and distribution. I did this under our physician's license. Sometimes she was on-site and in the room with me and sometimes she wasn't. I did it sometimes at events for community members and often times I would go to medication assisted treatment clinics and dispense it to the patients there. I am guessing the naloxone events for community members is non-clinical and the training/dispensing for patients at the medication assisted treatment clinics is clinical? - approximately 800 hours, all paid
• Organized immunization events and worked at the events registering patients - all paid, around 100 hours (time at the actual clinic while patients were there, not planning)
• STI clinic. This has to be clinical I am sure? - approximately 300 hours, unpaid
• Adult literacy tutoring- approximately 40 hours
• Several thousand hours at my current and previous public health jobs, working on serving the underserved, but paid, not directly interacting w/community and doing non-clinical activities!

I had to change to a different public health job in a different location (no interaction with public/patients now) three years ago and for the first year was unable to do any volunteering (clinical or not, this was when I first started considering medicine) due to caring for a family member and then when I finally had time to start again, COVID hit and I was working on the response 16+ hour days for 6/7 days a week, but things have calmed down again!

Now I'm looking to getting back into volunteering and building up clinical experience. I am wanting to do adult literacy tutoring again (maybe GED tutoring instead), and then for clinical experience I am hoping to volunteer at an ER (I want to do STI again but my new city has nothing!) and I also need to shadow. Also thinking about volunteering as a nutrition educator at a local food bank. I am hoping to get advice on if there's any other ECs I need to do or if I should focus more on the clinical volunteering rather than other types of volunteering! I am still working full time so really only have maybe 15-20 hours per week max to devote to volunteering/clinical experience.

 

[Moko]

I want to make sure I'm on the right track with ECs.

• Health education events where I did health education activities (nutrition education, tobacco cessation counseling, linkage to community resources). At these events I also did basic health screening (took blood pressures/cholesterol, sometimes did other health screenings) did very basic counseling/linkage to care depending on the results and if the person had a medical home) - would the health screenings count as clinical? They were just community members so not a patient really - Approximately 500 hours paid and 400 volunteer
• Naloxone training and distribution. I did this under our physician's license. Sometimes she was on-site and in the room with me and sometimes she wasn't. I did it sometimes at events for community members and often times I would go to medication assisted treatment clinics and dispense it to the patients there. I am guessing the naloxone events for community members is non-clinical and the training/dispensing for patients at the medication assisted treatment clinics is clinical? - approximately 800 hours, all paid
• Organized immunization events and worked at the events registering patients - all paid, around 100 hours (time at the actual clinic while patients were there, not planning)
• STI clinic. This has to be clinical I am sure? - approximately 300 hours, unpaid
• Adult literacy tutoring- approximately 40 hours
• Several thousand hours at my current and previous public health jobs, working on serving the underserved, but paid, not directly interacting w/community and doing non-clinical activities!

You are definitely on the right track and have already built a compelling narrative.

• The naloxone training/distribution and STI activities are clinical in my book.
• You mentioned that the immunization events were at an actual clinic and that you were interacting with patients; if these were not random people in the community who incidentally had medical comorbidities, then that would be clinical too.
• Some may not see the community health education events as clinical for the reason you mentioned. However, many applicants have categorized similar activities as 'clinical', and at least at my school, no one has quibbled over their designation. You may be better served by categorizing this as 'non-clinical' though so that you have both types of volunteering well-represented in your extracurricular summary.

I agree with your plan to pursue volunteering in the acute setting to complement your current and prior experiences. You do not need to devote 15-20 hours per week on extracurriculars. Even 5-10 hours per week will result in ~500-1000 additional hours by the time you apply.

Since you are many years out from college, do note that many medical schools require or prefer to see evidence of recent coursework; something else to consider if you haven't already. Just my thoughts and best of luck.

 

[phcareerswitch]

You are definitely on the right track and have already built a compelling narrative.

• The naloxone training/distribution and STI activities are clinical in my book.
• You mentioned that the immunization events were at an actual clinic and that you were interacting with patients; if these were not random people in the community who incidentally had medical comorbidities, then that would be clinical too.
• Some may not see the community health education events as clinical for the reason you mentioned. However, many applicants have categorized similar activities as 'clinical', and at least at my school, no one has quibbled over their designation. You may be better served by categorizing this as 'non-clinical' though so that you have both types of volunteering well-represented in your extracurricular summary.

I agree with your plan to pursue volunteering in the acute setting to complement your current and prior experiences. You do not need to devote 15-20 hours per week on extracurriculars. Even 5-10 hours per week will result in ~500-1000 additional hours by the time you apply.

Since you are many years out from college, do note that many medical schools require or prefer to see evidence of recent coursework; something else to consider if you haven't already. Just my thoughts and best of luck.

Thanks!! I’m going to have to take ochem and physics for prerequisites (I may do these at a community college as it can be really hard to take those classes as a non-degree seeker at the four year here) and am also likely going to start an MPH this spring too so do you think those combined will be ok for more recent coursework?

 

[Moko]

Thanks!! I’m going to have to take ochem and physics for prerequisites (I may do these at a community college as it can be really hard to take those classes as a non-degree seeker at the four year here) and am also likely going to start an MPH this spring too so do you think those combined will be ok for more recent coursework?

Yes, those classes will be more than sufficient to demonstrate recent coursework.

I would recommend looking through the admissions websites of schools that you are interested in applying to. Many schools explicitly state a strong preference for prerequisites to be completed at a four-year institution. You may or may not be given some slack as a non-traditional student. If it is unclear, contact their admissions office for clarification. Before enrolling at a community college, make sure that you will get credit for the work you put in. Just my thoughts.