Clinical Experiences Discussion Thread

[LoveBeingHuman:)]

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I wanted to start a little discussion about topics relating to clinical experiences (time, type, duties, etc)

-The first one is the type of clinical experience. Some say that hands on clinical volunteering supplemented by adequate shadowing is good enough. Others say that it's too plain and too common. Some people say that being an EMT helps a lot. Others say none at all.

-Another thing that I'm really curious about is the clinical experiences that college juniors have versus the clinical experiences that applicants with a gap year have. You see numbers as low as 50 hours and as high as 2000 hours. The gap year makes a huge difference. How is it leveled out during evaluation time? It's definitely not fair to discredit everything the older applicant did. But is it fair to put the college junior at a disadvantage because he or she didn't have as many years to build up his or her clinical experiences?

-Finally, what positions do you think applicants should really look into in order to get the best representation of medicine that they can? Personally, I think being a volunteer in the ICU has really helped me understand the role of a physician in communicating with the patients and their families about their health.

 

[The Knife & Gun Club]

1) The more the better. The key is to show you enjoyed and learned from the experiences (quality > quantity). I had clinical volunteering + shadowing (though the same gig) and it was more than sufficient. In fact many interviewers told me it was the part of my app that set me apart. I did something close to my heart, for a long period of time (750 hrs over 2 summers), and left a lasting impression on the people I worked with which showed in my LOR. Oh yea EMT is awesome, if you have the time definitely do it.

2) Not an adcom but logic would say you'll be judged more for "distance traveled" in terms of undergrad vs gap year student. Racking up 300 shadowing hours as an undergrad is impressive, less so when you know the applicant did it during his/her year off. That said if you're just trying to simply answer the question of "does this applicant understand the day to day job of a physician" (as I belive many adcoms are) then when or how many hours doesnt matter as long as they're sufficient.

3)Personally, I loved transplant. I did nothing but transplant for 2 summers, which is where I got the entirety of my clinical experiences. You get to see every aspect of medicine in collaboration, which is really cool. You basically need every physician the patient sees to be in communication and agreement for the entire course of their care, both pre and post Op, which is very exciting and immersive. I was able to bounce from shadowing one doctor to the next on the service, from the transplant surgeons (some of the most skilled surgeons around) , to IM guys, pathology, rads, nephrology, cardiology, anesthesia, and so on.


TL; DR - Clinical experience is awesome and a great way to bolster an otherwise unimpressive app if done correctly