Clinical Experience?

[SoFarBehind]

---

Members do not see this ad.

Can someone explain to me why everyone stresses "clinical experience"? I understand the principle behind why applicants should have clinical experience (see what its all about, see what the career is like, learn about patient interaction, learn about life as an MD, learn about basic disease processes and management), but in practice, it seems so... well... dumb. Having now experienced the clinical aspects of medicine from the other side of the admissions fence, I can tell you that no amount of shadowing will ever give you any idea of what its like to be in the physicians shoes. Have you done a 36 hour trauma call where you spent all night in the OR and then had to pre-round on eight patients and present them while you are inebriated from the exhaustion? Doubt it. Even if you were to shadow someone on that shift, you can't even begin to understand what its like to think through the medical issues and cover all important points. Then, to add to this inability to get a good feeling of what its like to be an MD, you have to ask yourself how many people actually get a good experience with clinical exposure? I feel this almost "requirement" imposes a burden on applicants to scramble for any type of clinical experience. Yeah spending 100 hours with hospice patients teaches you about death and dying, yet limits you to so many other aspects of the career (pathology, preventive care, etc). Yeah I get it that it helps many people see if the career is for them, but the wide variety of often narrow clinical experiences that people get really doesn't expose people to the field as a whole.

I dunno. Sorry for the rant. I just find that all this "emphasis" on clinical experience is over-hyped.

 

[apumic]

First, who are you?

You're "pre-health" but you've "experienced the clinical aspects of medicine from the other side of the admissions fence"? Actually working in the field can give some of what you are describing. I've worked the graveyards at the hospital and rounded in the morning and then gave my report on each of my patients ("presented" on my patients as you called it). It sucks but it's doable. I also know I haven't experienced what my dad (a physician) experiences daily.

(BTW, what's w/ everyone on SDN's obsession w/ the OR and surgery, anyway? Surgery has been historically viewed as equivalent to being a butcher and even today is the set of specialties everyone else despises. They're known for arrogance and antisocial personalities. Why would anyone become interested in surgery while a premed? I mean... you haven't even had a surgical rotation to get you interested in it. It just doesn't make sense to me. /rant)

 

[Dial71]

(BTW, what's w/ everyone on SDN's obsession w/ the OR and surgery, anyway? Surgery has been historically viewed as equivalent to being a butcher and even today is the set of specialties everyone else despises. They're known for arrogance and antisocial personalities. Why would anyone become interested in surgery while a premed? I mean... you haven't even had a surgical rotation to get you interested in it. It just doesn't make sense to me. /rant)

Wow. Let the flame war begin.

 

[apumic]

Wow. Let the flame war begin.

Haha. Hey, just sayin'.... Most other healthcare professionals don't seem to appreciate that particular subset of physicians. I've met some great surgeons but I find it interesting how so many people here look up to surgery as if it were some godlike field. I guess I don't see the glamor in it all.

 

[SoFarBehind]

Yeah... Graveyard is not a 36 hour shift. And did you work 21 grave yards in a row? Probably not. Most clinical experiences miss what its really like. Try q3 call for a month and then tell me undergraduate clinical experiences are a good representation of the life. Despite most clinical experiences missing this mark, SDN gives me the impression that adcoms see it as necessary to see what the career is really like. And yes, it does provide insight, but it is in no way demonstrative of what its like.

 

[JJMrK]

Can someone explain to me why everyone stresses "clinical experience"? I understand the principle behind why applicants should have clinical experience (see what its all about, see what the career is like, learn about patient interaction, learn about life as an MD, learn about basic disease processes and management), but in practice, it seems so... well... dumb. Having now experienced the clinical aspects of medicine from the other side of the admissions fence, I can tell you that no amount of shadowing will ever give you any idea of what its like to be in the physicians shoes. Have you done a 36 hour trauma call where you spent all night in the OR and then had to pre-round on eight patients and present them while you are inebriated from the exhaustion? Doubt it. Even if you were to shadow someone on that shift, you can't even begin to understand what its like to think through the medical issues and cover all important points. Then, to add to this inability to get a good feeling of what its like to be an MD, you have to ask yourself how many people actually get a good experience with clinical exposure? I feel this almost "requirement" imposes a burden on applicants to scramble for any type of clinical experience. Yeah spending 100 hours with hospice patients teaches you about death and dying, yet limits you to so many other aspects of the career (pathology, preventive care, etc). Yeah I get it that it helps many people see if the career is for them, but the wide variety of often narrow clinical experiences that people get really doesn't expose people to the field as a whole.

I dunno. Sorry for the rant. I just find that all this "emphasis" on clinical experience is over-hyped.

You just answered your own question.

 

[apumic]

Yeah... Graveyard is not a 36 hour shift. And did you work 21 grave yards in a row? Probably not. Most clinical experiences miss what its really like. Try q3 call for a month and then tell me undergraduate clinical experiences are a good representation of the life. Despite most clinical experiences missing this mark, SDN gives me the impression that adcoms see it as necessary to see what the career is really like. And yes, it does provide insight, but it is in no way demonstrative of what its like.

Whoever said it was?


Still, you haven't told us what makes you such an expert. I've worked doubles (24s). I have not worked a 36 and will avoid it as long as I can. (Why do it if I have the choice not to?)

 

[SoFarBehind]

You just answered your own question.

Yeah but clinical experiences only scratch the surface. I don't think they're definitive enough to become something to be highly considered by adcoms. Especially given the wide variation in experiences.

 

[LizzyM]

Clearly, the academic requirements for admission to medical school tells a student nothing about the practice of medicine. Preparation for the MCAT tells a potential applicant nothing about the practice of medicine. The former provides the academic preparation for medical school coursework and the latter demonstrates one's test taking skills and fund of knowledge.

Doing bench research in biochemsitry or cell biology (or any other basic science), getting funding & being published for that work tells you nothing about the practice of medicine althought it can give you a better understanding of the scientific method that underpins technological advances in medicine.

Tutoring, volunteering in a soup kitchen, working food service or retail, or running a 5K for charity tells you nothing about the practice of medicine (but may help you better understand the human condition that comes into play in the art of medicine). Even hospice voluteering is more about your exposure to the human condition than it is about the practice of medicine.

At the point where you apply for medical school you are saying that you are willing to spend (or borrow and pay later) >$100,000 for medical education as well as to forego what you would earn as a college grad for the 4 years it takes to complete medical school and to work for a salary that amounts to less than minimum wage for the training period necessary to practice medicine. It is legit for the admissions committee to ask, "What do you know about the practice of medicine other than have been on the receiving end of medical care? How did you acquire this knowledge?"

And that is why everyone stresses "clinical experience". You'll be as many as two long years into medical training before you see the inside of a hospital (or the insides of a patient). Without some prior experience, you may have an impression of medicine as a career based on TV dramas and a visit to your granddad when he was in the hospital.

The point of clinical exposure is not to learn about disease management or how to do procedures (I laugh when a LOR from a physician says that the applicant has learned the basics of reading x-rays). It is to see the environment, the sights, sounds, smells, the feelings both physical and emotional that come with having demands made on you by and on behalf of people who are sick, injured, angry, depressed, manipulative, irrational.

Yes, it is difficult to acquire clinical experience but that does not make it illegitimate for the adcom to expect that you will have some before applying to medical school.