I was wondering if you guys could give me an idea if my volunteering is what medical school consider "clinical". I volunteer at a free medical clinic near my school. For the first few months I worked in the front office and just did the paperwork when patients first come in, but for the past 9 months I have been taking the patients vitals, taking a history and logging the cheif complaint. I also work as a go between the Dr. at the clinic to clear patients to recieve their medications. Is this what medical school consider "clinical"? A friend of mine volunteers at a hospital and he has been in surgeries which sounds a lot more "clinical" than my experience. Thanks for the thoughts.
"Clinical" Experience
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I think the bottom line is whether you have enough exposure to medicine in that experience. The supposed goal of clinical experience is to let you test the water and see if you want to go for such a career, although in reality there's no way for us pre-meds to really experience medicine without actually being physicians.
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If you haven't performed at least one open heart surgery before you apply, I think you might have difficulties getting accepted...
Really, if you can shadow a physician for a while, it will probably help your application. It will give you something to talk about during interviews, show that you've seen what a Dr. goes through in a day, and show that you have a firm interest in medicine. I honestly have no idea how much it will affect you to not have shadowed anyone, but plenty of people get in without doing it. The main thing is to be prepared for interview questions like, "Why medicine?" and "How do you know you want to be a doctor if you haven't seen what they do?"
~AS1~
PS - Don't worry about not getting much clincal exposure during your volunteer work, just don't lie about it. Most of the interviewers I had never once questioned the fact that I did mostly receptionist activities, they just wanted to know what I HAD seen.
Really, if you can shadow a physician for a while, it will probably help your application. It will give you something to talk about during interviews, show that you've seen what a Dr. goes through in a day, and show that you have a firm interest in medicine. I honestly have no idea how much it will affect you to not have shadowed anyone, but plenty of people get in without doing it. The main thing is to be prepared for interview questions like, "Why medicine?" and "How do you know you want to be a doctor if you haven't seen what they do?"
~AS1~
PS - Don't worry about not getting much clincal exposure during your volunteer work, just don't lie about it. Most of the interviewers I had never once questioned the fact that I did mostly receptionist activities, they just wanted to know what I HAD seen.
