Clinical Experience

[gildas]

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I volunteered the last 2 summers at St Joseph Hospital in Phoenix, but I was not having any direct contact with patients. I was working in the supply processing department for surgery. I was wondering if adcoms will ignore it, or not give it any weight.
Thanks.

 

[G-Dubya]

I volunteered the last 2 summers at St Joseph Hospital in Phoenix, but I was not having any direct contact with patients. I was working in the supply processing department for surgery. I was wondering if adcoms will ignore it, or not give it any weight.
Thanks.

Some might give it weight, others not...depends on the adcom. I'd say do whatever you WANT to do....attempts to impress an adcom are usually pretty transparent and don't forget, you don't "need" to volunteer at all to get into med school. Do what you have a genuine desire to do, don't worry about how an adcom will view it, and you'll be in better shape strangly enough.

 

[uclakid]

Some might give it weight, others not...depends on the adcom. I'd say do whatever you WANT to do....attempts to impress an adcom are usually pretty transparent and don't forget, you don't "need" to volunteer at all to get into med school. Do what you have a genuine desire to do, don't worry about how an adcom will view it, and you'll be in better shape strangly enough.

I don't think it matters what you do, really--as long as you've done something! Don't worry about what they think...the fact is that you spent your FREE time in a hospital. I'm sure you learned something from your summers there. Don't worry.

 

[benelswick]

First of all its not clinical experience if your not in a clinical setting participating in the healthcare of patients. If you've got that kind of time on your hands you might as well get a job in healthcare. Nothing against the notion of voluteering but to do it for your resume it remains insincere and a waste of time.

 

[dave613]

Some might give it weight, others not...depends on the adcom. I'd say do whatever you WANT to do....attempts to impress an adcom are usually pretty transparent and don't forget, you don't "need" to volunteer at all to get into med school. Do what you have a genuine desire to do, don't worry about how an adcom will view it, and you'll be in better shape strangly enough.

Uhm, I would seriously disagree here. Actually, it is almost certain that you do need to volunteer, and I've read about many cases of students who had fabulous stats, but ended up on waiting lists, and not getting accepted to any medical schools,all because they didn't volunteer at hospitals etc. In short, if you want to go to medical school, your volunteer experiences were more than enough.

 

[velo]

yeah, i'd say volunteer more if you really have an interest in it, not for any other reason

 

[benelswick]

I'm skeptical of some uniform idea that volunteering is necessary. Volunteering is a luxury option for the full-time student who doesn't work. There'd be no easier way to jive an adcom into thinking you're a selfless individual than volunteering a couple of hours a week somewhere. I myself would be impressed only if the applicant demonstrated a history of volunteer work and really built something out of this work, but this type of commitment is both rare and not very possible for many of us.

 

[gildas]

Thanks y'all

 

[Pinkertinkle]

I'm skeptical of some uniform idea that volunteering is necessary. Volunteering is a luxury option for the full-time student who doesn't work. There'd be no easier way to jive an adcom into thinking you're a selfless individual than volunteering a couple of hours a week somewhere. I myself would be impressed only if the applicant demonstrated a history of volunteer work and really built something out of this work, but this type of commitment is both rare and not very possible for many of us.

I thought the point of volunteering was to see what medicine's really about and validate your interest with real world experience. Not necessarily to do something really cool or show you're this crazy selfless person.

 

[benelswick]

I thought the point of volunteering was to see what medicine's really about and validate your interest with real world experience. Not necessarily to do something really cool or show you're this crazy selfless person.

yeah I guess you're right you could use it for that. Maybe I'm over thinking it because I just don't have any time for it and I always hear about trips to the third world for medical service or hundreds of hours spent at a comunity clinic on these forums and I'm like...who the hell could make time for that....peace

 

[velo]

I thought the point of volunteering was to see what medicine's really about and validate your interest with real world experience. Not necessarily to do something really cool or show you're this crazy selfless person.

yeah, but the same can be accomplished with shadowing experiences...actually shadowing is probably better for getting an idea of what a physicians job is all about as you're actually with a doctor all day. Many volunteering experiences don't really yield much substanitive exposure....just a lot of busy work. Don't get me wrong, volunteering is great, but its by no means "necessary."