Clinical Experience - Issue

[deleted1040417]

I have a fellow peer who is uncomfortable with being involved clinically with everything going on right now. They applied with a good amount of hours and have received an interview invite already, but are fearful that them not continuing clinical exposure would be very questionable. They did continue extracurriculars that were not cancelled and explored more opportunities that limit too much contact. I suggested scribing (as I applied myself -- waiting to hear back), but they just want to avoid being in the hospital right now entirely. Is this a red flag?

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[LizzyM]

Addressed to your "fellow peer":

Eventually, with proper training on precautions, you will be seeing patients who may have a communicable disease. it could be Covid-19 or drug-resistant TB, or HIV or something we don't even have a name for yet. You will not know which patients have something that could make you sick. You will not have a choice with regard to which patients you see if it would be considered discrimination to refuse patients on the basis of age, race, sex, national origins, etc

Are you prepared to see patients during your training and later as an attending physician? Be very careful how you answer How is what is happening now different than the way things will be later? If someone is profoundly irsk adverse, then medicine might not be a good career..

 

[Goro]

I have a fellow peer who is uncomfortable with being involved clinically with everything going on right now. They applied with a good amount of hours and have received an interview invite already, but are fearful that them not continuing clinical exposure would be very questionable. They did continue extracurriculars that were not cancelled and explored more opportunities that limit too much contact. I suggested scribing (as I applied myself -- waiting to hear back), but they just want to avoid being in the hospital right now entirely. Is this a red flag?

I don't consider it so. the harsh truth is that your health, and that of your family and society, is more important that your medical career right now.

This differs from when you're a doctor. Then, you're expected to run into the burning building.

 

[LizzyM]

I don't consider it so. the harsh truth is that your health, and that of your family and society, is more important that your medical career right now.

This differs from when you're a doctor. Then, you're expected to run into the burning building.

True, but years ago, before antiretroviral drug cocktails, I had a student say that they would never treat a patient with HIV because they could not risk getting infected and spreading it to the rest of the family. The problem is, while we protected students by not letting them scrub in on, or even observe, surgical procedures in patients with HIV, there were going to be times when a patient was not known to have HIV and you'd be expected to be there at the bedside doing a physical exam, etc. There is no picking and choosing in those circumstances.

It's one thing to be a pre-med but someone who aspires to a career in medicine should look ahead and decide if the risks of practicing medicine are worth it to them.

 

[longhaul3]

It may be a detriment to your med school admission prospects, but I don't think it reflects poorly on you or your suitability for medicine. Medicine is all about risk vs. benefit. In this case you are risking exposure (plus using PPE and potentially spreading disease throughout the hospital) for no real benefit to yourself, nor are you providing benefit to any of the patients you see or the doctors you work with/shadow.

Our most important principle is that we do not take action if the risks outweigh the benefits. I don't think you should be punished for acting in line with that principle. But, I do think your med school application will suffer for it.

 

[KnightDoc]

I don't consider it so. the harsh truth is that your health, and that of your family and society, is more important that your medical career right now.

This differs from when you're a doctor. Then, you're expected to run into the burning building.

It is very generous of you to make allowances for us mere applicants (in stark contrast to many of your less forgiving pearls of wisdom), but the harsh truth is that many others are willing to run into the burning building now, just for the opportunity to do so later. The same way schools won't make allowances for applicants with sub par EC hours due to the pandemic (since there are plenty of people with great hours), I would think schools wouldn't be so inclined to make allowances for applicants unwilling to run into burning buildings until they absolutely have to when so many others are currently doing so. JMHO!!

Like others with weak ECs, if the only way to gain the clinical experience is to unacceptably risk your health, or that of your family (society???? - how do volunteers risk the health of society any more than anyone else????), then the answer might be to skip the cycle until things calm down rather than expecting slack from an adcom.

 

[KnightDoc]

Wait, isn't HIV only transmitted through fluid to open wound? Most likely, sexual contact or syringe use. What risk is a physical? And for surgery, if you are in the "splash zone", you are pretty much covered head to toe cause you gotta be sterile for the patient.

HIV in the 80s was viewed differently than today!!!

 

[longhaul3]

Wait, isn't HIV only transmitted through fluid to open wound? Most likely, sexual contact or syringe use. What risk is a physical? And for surgery, if you are in the "splash zone", you are pretty much covered head to toe cause you gotta be sterile for the patient.

The biggest risk of HIV exposure in surgery is a needlestick. Needlesticks are extremely common even amongst experienced surgeons. Sterile gloves and gowns do not do much to prevent them. For the most part we don't let med students scrub on cases with bloodborne pathogens.

 

[Goro]

Wait, isn't HIV only transmitted through fluid to open wound? Most likely, sexual contact or syringe use. What risk is a physical? And for surgery, if you are in the "splash zone", you are pretty much covered head to toe cause you gotta be sterile for the patient.

During the early days of the AIDS pandemic, which LizzyM and I remember all too well, people didn't know how it was spread.

 

[YoungDrummer]

What about working for a hospice?

 

[deleted1040417]

Wow, this thread took off. Thank you all for your inputs. My peer is a pre-PA student, I am being honest it is not about me, which is obviously difficult to prove. I chose to post into pre-MD due to quick response time and the relativity in roles. I mean I tell them to just make an account, but they don't. I will inform them and take note of this myself.

I definitely understand adcoms have such a large number of applicants that do have those clinical hours and are making use of their times right now. Thank you so much!