Clinical experience

[Rinaldi]

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Just wondering if any of you have any idea as to how to go about grabbing some clinical experience over the summer. I've heard great stories about "shadowing" attendings/residents/med students in operating rooms, assisting doctors in their offices, etc. Any ideas? Experiences to share?

Warmest,
R.

 

[umass rower]

I just walked into the volunteering office, asked if there was anything I could do that involved patient and doctor interaction, and by the next day I was volunteering in the oncology ward. Pretty simple, hospitals are always looking for more people-- just make sure that if you're only going to be at it for a summer that you start early. Some places will need to give you training, and they might not think it's worth it if you're not going to be there long. So I say start looking over winter break or spring break, and be ready to start the day you finish school for the summer.

 

[mattorama]

How well do you know your family physician? I know mine well and have shadowed him quite a bit. Personally, I am more interested in primary care then anything else, but I know that if I wanted he would hook me up with a specialist friend of his. Family docs refer to every specialist imaginable and all have their friends who would be more then willing to do a favor for the FP sending them patients. Just a thought...

 

[Ratty]

So clinical experience just means shadowing then? In other words, volunteering in a neurologist's office and shadowing him as well would count for that?

The term is a bit confusing when all students get to do is observe....

 

[calebho501]

When med school says "Clinical Experience", they actually want you to be "doing stuff". This can be talking to patients, etc.

Shadowing is a good experience, but remember that admission people also know that you don't really "do" anything and just observe. Balance out shadowings with real volunteering.

 

[canadagirl]

Originally posted by umass rower
I just walked into the volunteering office, asked if there was anything I could do that involved patient and doctor interaction, and by the next day I was volunteering in the oncology ward. Pretty simple, hospitals are always looking for more people.

Personally, I haven't found this to be true. A number of the hospitals in my area have very long waiting lists for volunteer spots, and screen before they let you have one. I think you have to be quite careful with volunteer positions at hospitals - lots of people have amazing experiences, but lots of people have crummy experiences as well. I volunteered for two months at our local hospital, and spent one month amusing kids in an out-patient waiting room, which was seriously boring, half the time there were no kids there and I was told not to leave the room anyways, and even when there were I wasn't getting any kind of meaningful clinical experience. The second month I spent filing papers... Boooooring. I had much better luck in a long-term care facility for kids with multiple disabilities. Lots of patient interaction there, and I actually felt like I was helping someone most of the time 🙂

 

[mattorama]

From my experience with friends who have applied before, talking to profs/admissions people, and others, all med schools really want in your "clincal experience" is an idea that you know what you are getting yourself into. Heck, I have a friend who got into Duke without research AND without clinical experience at all (or nearly...she had shadowed a doc for a day in high school). It wasn't ever even brought up in the interview. Her scores weren't even super grand. She was just a good, well rounded student. At one of her interviews it came up briefly, but wasn't a big deal (she got in there too). The interviewer even said they just wanted to make sure that she knew she really wanted to be a doc. If you want to volunteer at a hospital, great, but if you have other things you would rather do, just shadow a doc for a little bit...not like there is a whole lot you could really do anyway. Just my experience/opinion...

 

[LapisLazuli]

i don't know about that... although i do think i learned far more about what i'm getting into by reading books about it than by volunteering at hospitals.