Clinical Experience Question

[SDSwan]

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I was employed as a physical therapy aide for about 1.5 years and accrued ~1000 hours, which I'm counting as patient experience.

I also spent a year as a research assistant in bariatric surgery, logging ~ 300 hours. I saw a lot of healthcare provider - patient interaction, and interacted with patients, but only in respects to the research they were in, so I'm counting it as research experience.

I've been given an opportunity now to volunteer in PM&R where I would be hosting/assisting in medically based exercise classes & programs, and following exercise protocols recommended by a physician/healthcare provider when applicable.

I notice that I seem to only have patient interactions in a physical fitness/rehabilitation setting rather than a typical hospital (doing the volunteer work they did/offered never really seemed interesting to me...)
Will lacking this sort of typical hospital volunteering/clinical experience hurt my application?

Thanks!

 

[Paramagnetic]

Working as a PT aid is different from the tradition hospital volunteering/scribe/EMT experiences. I say what you've done so far counts, but believe it would be beneficial to you to do something more traditional so it doesn't look like you're a prospective physical therapist who accidentally applied to a med school

 

[RogueBanana]

I was a volunteer at a PT/Rehab clinic and I shadowed an MD for ~200 hours to get in some "real hospital" clinical experience. I haven't heard any negative feedback about it yet. My interviewer brought it up and it was a positive exchange. Just be able to talk coherently about what you did/learned and you'll be fine.

 

[ChrisMack390]

"Why do you want to be a physician, not a physical therapist?"

Can you answer that? If so, you are fine.