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Clinical Experience
Started by NUPE
what's wrong with staying in your own country? you don't have any hospitals nearby?
You do NOT have to go to a 3rd world country to get clinical experience.
The best ways in my opinion to get clinical experience are:
1) Education: get licensed as an EMT, CNA, or some sort of RN
2) Volunteer: call around and see if anyone will let you volunteer your services. look for smaller doctor's offices.... or even better yet, free clinics.
3) Shadow: nothing like being in the room w/ the doctor
4) Get a job: apply to work in a hospital or doctor's office doing anything possible
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Going to another country is overrated. If you really wanted to, you could actually fund yourself (it's been debated on sdn.) I'd say the best clinical experience is to volunteer at your local hospital or university hospital. At first, you'll get the crap jobs, but the longer you stat and the more you talk to the coordinator, you'll find some pretty good positions open up. The biggest thing here is to talk to your volunteer coordinator, they will know of positions that open up.
2
211519
The internet is your friend.
Make a list of specialties you might like to see in-action, and Google practitioners in your area.
Once you get a decent list, send letters, email or call them to ask if you could shadow one of their doctors for a day or a week. More than that is often difficult to get (although some docs actually like to have random premeds follow them around).
Personally, I sent out letters and emails, and I got about a 25% return on "okays" to come shadow.
This is also the time to call in favors. If your parents have a friend that's a doctor, ask him/her. Same goes for friends with doctors as parents.
Remember that shadowing a DO is an excellent way to get a DO letter of recommendation, which is required for some osteopathic schools.
Make a list of specialties you might like to see in-action, and Google practitioners in your area.
Once you get a decent list, send letters, email or call them to ask if you could shadow one of their doctors for a day or a week. More than that is often difficult to get (although some docs actually like to have random premeds follow them around).
Personally, I sent out letters and emails, and I got about a 25% return on "okays" to come shadow.
This is also the time to call in favors. If your parents have a friend that's a doctor, ask him/her. Same goes for friends with doctors as parents.
Remember that shadowing a DO is an excellent way to get a DO letter of recommendation, which is required for some osteopathic schools.
2
211519
- highlight your strengths
- do not repeat information in your personal statement that you listed in your extracurriculars
- market yourself in the personal statement; don't just list facts, tell the adcoms about your journey, why you picked medicine, what events led to that decision, and don't be afraid to show confidence (within reason)
- that said, have an excellent personal statement
Do you mean that we shouldn't talk about experiences in our PS that we were involved with? I'm obviously going to talk about my experiences in Hospice, ED, and shadowing in both my PS and EC's. I hope this is alright
Do you mean that we shouldn't talk about experiences in our PS that we were involved with? I'm obviously going to talk about my experiences in Hospice, ED, and shadowing in both my PS and EC's. I hope this is alright
Pretty much the reason for the personal statement is to show the "why you want to be a doctor." If you had a specific experience during one of these ECs that is propelling you towards medicine, then yes share that, but hold off on going through all of your activities. There will be a certain spot for your ECs, leave it at that. Save this information for when you go on interviews when they will want to learn more about those experiences.
2
211519
Yes, exactly. Just be smart about where you put info. If you put "Shadowed X doctor" in the extracurricular section, don't waste words in the PS repeating it. It works the other way too. Just be smart about how you structure the application. Even that needs to be done thoughtfully to make the most of it.
