Clinical experience

[dictyostelium]

---

Members do not see this ad.

HI

Ok so I know this has been discussed, and I searched through previous posts, but I'm still not sure about my situation.

I am volunteering in a clinic (lots of patients coming in and out) and I am basically the chart filer. It's a pretty boring, repetitive job, and I definitely don't get to interact with patients (unless they come out of their rooms asking me when the doctor will see them or for water, lol). I don't know if this "counts" as clinical experience. Even though what I'm doing is pretty mundane, I have learned a lot about what the doctors do each day and how they handle different situations, etc, just by overhearing/seeing things in the office.

There is also a program at the hospital specifically for pre-health people, and hopefully I will be able to do that because I've heard they get a lot of direct interaction with patients and see a lot of interesting things. The orientation for that is in April... so should I continue with what I am doing until then?

 

[AdamS]

I think it is rather common that the actual volunteering experience that pre-meds do doesn't involve direct patient care. (At least where I volunteered, it simply wasn't allowed because we don't have sufficient training, nevertheless liability coverage.)

It sounds like what you're doing though is great for volunteering, despite the fact it could be boring. Are there any official shadowing opportunities?

 

[dictyostelium]

There isn't anything "official" really as far as shadowing goes that I am aware of. The program at the hospital I'm looking into is referred to as an internship with patient contact. It seems really awesome, but pretty competitive to get into, so we'll see.

I was just worried because I've been going there for about 2 years and have about 200 hours...mostly because I hadn't found anything else to do and was still trying to decide my life lol. I didn't know if it would be seen at as completely pointless like "wow, you filed charts for 2 years" lol.

 

[plauto]

I think that qualifies as clinical experience.
Even if you got to interact with the patients, what would you do with them clinically more than what you do now (bring water and tell then the doc will be in soon?). As a premed ( I was the same) everyone worries about getting true clinical experience. That makes no sense as you have no knowledge to understand what is going on anyway.

 

[Catalystik]

What you are doing now has value in the med school application process due to the clinical environment experience you are gaining, and because it is a community service. Besides that, it is a portal to physician shadowing that you haven't taken advantage of. You still need more clinical patient experience and it sounds like you'll get that in the internship. If you don't get the internship, see if they'll let you have some time at the check-iin desk during your shift at the current experience. Or ask if you can learn to take vital signs.

 

[J ROD]

Crazy how things are different at different places....

the ER I volunteered in has never really had many students request patient contact so they did not know what to let me do....

So, they were like I guess he can do that....

I got to do vitals on day 1, and even get in on codes....did not do much but hand stuff over and act like a pole for fluid bags but I was still in the room...

I also transported patients all over the hospital and eventually by myself...

I also got to help place a wound vac...and hook up the EKG and get the reading.....

Basically, got treated like an ER tech....

Guess I got lucky....I was hardly ever bored and actually got to do some stuff...also got to assist in a knife wound and eval Psy patients....

 

[FloatOn]

OP, I did something similar in one of my first volunteering experiences and I think I got close to zero patient contact. Because I only pulled and filed away charts, I basically worked with the adminstrative staff. I personally did not consider this clinical experience but categorized it as community service/volunteer work.

If you've been doing this experience (filing charts) for two years, I think it's ok to stop and just wait until April for that orientation. I get the sense that you're really bored just from reading your posts, lol.

 

[J ROD]

yeah, I doubt talking about how you filed that chart is gonna impressive med schools....I would def try and get patient contact somehow even if it is just transporting patients around.