Clinical Experience Requirements for MD-PhD Applicants

[MaddieLovesDogs]

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Hello everyone,
I am a sophomore biochem (MS/BS) and biology (BS) major at a T30 university. I was wondering how many hours of clinical experience (shadowing/volunteering/working) would be expected of an MD-PhD applicant. Also, is any type of experience preferred? I would assume that clinical experiences were you interact with doctors more closely like shadowing is favored to more clerical work like most volunteer positions. From what I've read, research takes precedence over clinical experience, so I've been mostly focusing on my project in my lab, but I was thinking about getting SPD certified this summer to be a scrub tech. Would that be a good idea? My main concerns are that 1. I wouldn't get hired, since I am young and don't have clinical experience outside high school shadowing (note: one of my friends with similar experience did get hired as a scrub tech) and 2. I would end up just sterilizing stuff and would never get to work any surgeries. What are your thoughts? I'll take all the advice I can get!!

TLDR: How many hours of clinical experience are required for MD-PhD candidates, what types of clinical experiences are preferred, and would it be worth it to get SPD certified to work as a scrub tech?

 

[Hi_I'mPaul]

I am not sure for MD/PhD but I'd assume experiences would be similar to regular MD. Any MD/PhD candidates please correct me if I'm wrong. I'd try to get around 50 shadowing hours (with some primary care), 150 clinical volunteering hours (hospice, hospital, anything with patient contact besides shadowing since that is "passive") [could be "replaced" by clinical job with a lot of hours, but med schools do like to see volunteering if you can], 150 non-clinical volunteering (something you enjoy), 1000+ for research. Besides the research requirement, the rest are "cookie cutter" for regular MD admission. Rather than hours, schools also like to see longevity as well. So, for example, I tutored underserved elementary students in math a few hours a week for 3 years. While I only tutored 1-4 hours a week, I ended up with 300+ hours {non-clinical volunteering} which was plenty.

A scrub tech may be a cool job, but would it have flexible hours so that you can focus on other aspects of your app?