Clinical EC
Started by Fakesmile
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Enough premeds with similar hours are told in post-rejection interviews that they had insufficient clinical experience that I think you should be wary of applying with only 7 months worth of ER volunteering. If the ER was not a quality experience, then check out clinics, hospice, nursing homes, and rehab centers.
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Unfortunately, I've been a ED patient way too much in the last six months so this is coming from experience. I've seen what ED volunteers do (both in the community and academic hospital setting) and I must say, that I do not consider going and getting a patient a towel or cup of water as being 'clinical' experience. You want really good experience? I would say get involved with EMS. I have been involved with EMS for 7 years and I love it. I think it is the best pre-med clinical experience because its you and the patient (if you work a paid service like I do) in the back of the bus with the patient. If the patient codes, you're doing CPR alone until you get to the hospital. Get involved with a good, forward-thinking, busy EMS service and it's the best. If you think about it, there is not much of a difference between the initial assessment of a EMT-B and an ER doc.
LOL at "I do not consider going and getting a patient a towel or cup of water as being 'clinical' experience". That's exactly the kind of things I have done as an ER volunteer. Honestly, I got nothing out of it.
Sadly I've considered a long time ago the option of being an EMT but had to give up because of difficulty finding EMT training in my area. It's also competitive to get a job as an EMS here. I certainly think it would be the best clinical experience but I think most premeds lack such an opportunity.
Everyone's perspective on this will be different depending on the experiences they've had. IMO, average seems to be about 1.5 years and 150 hours and the minimum should be a year. Some applicants get in with less (usually in the presence of other pronounced strengths), but to appeal to the widest range of schools' expectations, sticking with tried and true ranges of successful applicants is a good target.
If you aren't finding your current clinical exposure meaningful, why not try transferring to another department in the hospital?
hey cat, does admitting patients consider to be clinical experience?
Are you interacting with the sick person during the admissions process (rather than dealing with the relative), perhaps gathering insurance information, going through a belongings checklist, etc, asking a review of systems, taking the patient to their room, helping them to get comfortable, then yes. If you are doing paperwiork or computer data entry in the back office, then no. If I didn't cover what you do, then be more specific.
