Clinical Experience for med school

[NP545]

Is working in a hospital as patient transport fill the med school requirement of clinical experience? As in, would I be able to put that in my med school app?
A brief description is that I transport patients within the hospital and assist in their discharge.

Would this be an alright clinical experience for me to include or does this not fit the criteria med schools are looking for?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[xffan624]

Is working in a hospital as patient transport fill the med school requirement of clinical experience? As in, would I be able to put that in my med school app?
A brief description is that I transport patients within the hospital and assist in their discharge.

Yes. Definitely a valid clinical experience, but you probably want to add some shadowing to see the doctor side of things.

 

[Catalystik]

I agree with xffan624. Also: If you get your clinical experience through the workplace, be sure to get in some nonmedical community service to cover the "altruism" expectation.

 

[kyamh]

Is working in a hospital as patient transport fill the med school requirement of clinical experience? As in, would I be able to put that in my med school app?
A brief description is that I transport patients within the hospital and assist in their discharge.

Would this be an alright clinical experience for me to include or does this not fit the criteria med schools are looking for?

Be sure to talk to enough patients while you help check them out so that you have a couple of interesting/heartwarming stories to share during your interviews...or if you take the advice of the recent explosion thread, make it up

In all seriousness, I did a similar thing while volunteering at a hospital. If you get a particularly chatty patient and you have some time to kill (for example when you wait for their family to pull around) tell them you are considering a career in medicine and ask what they consider to be the most important qualities of a great physician. Their answers may open your eyes a little to patient experiences in our healthcare system and the comments/insights that stick with you are pure gold for your application and interviews.

Edit: I don't mean pure gold as in, plagiarize what they say as what you think, I mean that you can talk about this particular experience and how a patient gave you this (honestly) invaluable insight.

 

[Goro]

Yes, that's a very good experience!

Is working in a hospital as patient transport fill the med school requirement of clinical experience? As in, would I be able to put that in my med school app?
A brief description is that I transport patients within the hospital and assist in their discharge.

Would this be an alright clinical experience for me to include or does this not fit the criteria med schools are looking for?

 

[NP545]

Thanks for all your input!
Would a position with volunteering clinical experience be better as patient transport, patient waiting room greeter, or not matter?

 

[Catalystik]

Would a position with volunteering clinical experience be better as patient transport, patient waiting room greeter, or not matter?

Just my opinion, but I think that the position as a transporter has greater potential to result in meaningful benefit for the patients and be a good learning experience for you. And you'll potentially get to see many departments in the hospital in the meanwhile. YMMV.

 

[274631]

I was a transporter for a while. I didn't really enjoy it because there was a lot of me just waiting around for transport requests to come in. Because I was a volunteer they didn't let me transport people on stretchers and I guess the actual workers got preference for requests as they came in. I did get to transport a lot of new moms though which I really loved and there were a couple patients that were nice to chat with.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

 

[AnthroBro]

Viable experience sure, but you should get something that allows you to interact more on the patient side of things as well as work with the docs themselves. I currently Intern at a hospital as a pre-med, we work hands on bathing patients, taking vitals, and even stretching them out if needed. Most of our patients are post Surgery (acute care), but I'm transferring to ED next cycle. Look to see if any hospitals near you have this sort of program. Plus you get to wear scrubs which is cool lol

 

[AliciaAccepted]

Thanks for all your input!
Would a position with volunteering clinical experience be better as patient transport, patient waiting room greeter, or not matter?

Any kind of clinical experience that you can participate in will be valuable to your application! In fact, the more diversity that you can gain in terms of types and levels of interaction with patients and doctors as well as exposure to different departments will help. Many cities or towns have a community service resource website or handbook that lists all the possible types of volunteer work available from working with children to the elderly. For a strong activities section, not all of your activities have to be clinical experience. It's best to have a combination of leadership, volunteer, clinical, as well as personal hobbies and activities that you enjoy doing and provide stress relief. The more balance you can demonstrate, the better. I am attaching a link to an article with tips for writing about extracurricular activities. I hope this information is helpful!

 

[AlwaysLoca]

Does a volunteer position at a hospital where the primary responsibility is "infant rocking" (newborns) count as clinical experience?

 

[mcloaf]

Does a volunteer position at a hospital where the primary responsibility is "infant rocking" (newborns) count as clinical experience?

Is guns n roses involved?

 

[Catalystik]

Does a volunteer position at a hospital where the primary responsibility is "infant rocking" (newborns) count as clinical experience?

Are they sick or injured patients or mainly healthy newborns boarding at the hospital until their moms are ready to go home? How is this role different from babysitting in the child's home?

 

[AlwaysLoca]

Are they sick or injured patients or mainly healthy newborns boarding at the hospital until their moms are ready to go home? How is this role different from babysitting in the child's home?

They're in the NICU, so there's exposure to that environment and the patients are premature/sick. There's also interaction with the parents.

 

[Catalystik]

They're in the NICU, so there's exposure to that environment and the patients are premature/sick. There's also interaction with the parents.

Then you're good to go.

 

[AlwaysLoca]

Then you're good to go.

Thanks for your input, I appreciate it.