Clinical Hours.

[EmergencyMedFanatic]

Hey guys I'm currently a high school senior and I had a question about clinical hours. So I work as a Pharmacy Technician for a retail pharmacy; I want to know can I state the hours I currently have under my belt from the job as "Clinical Hours" and still have it count towards medical school?

Also I do intern at my hospital with the EMS Coordinator and also the Emergency Management Director and both let me deal with patients so to date I can safely say I have over 700 hours from both pharmacy and the hospital combined. Yeah I will continue to work on my EC's while in college but I just want to know if it's smart for me to continue the pharmacy if I won't get the clinical hours.

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[Icositetrachoron]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that when you apply for med-school, only the hours that you receive during your undergraduate years count towards your application.

Being a pharm tech is a good way to have exposure with healthcare, so it can be counted as some type of healthcare-related hour. It's ultimately up to the med school as to whether or not they accept it. That being said, it is important that you obtain actual physician shadowing hours as well - if you intend to be a physician, you ought to know what that specific lifestyle/work is like. Being a pharm tech will give you insight into the post-clinical side of healthcare and the problems that are faced there - it is a rewarding experience, but also relatively frustrating. If you do not enjoy the experience, I wouldn't continue with it. I did retail for a while, but just didn't like it and ended up volunteering at an indigent care clinic instead - I have a lot more hands on interaction with patients and I get to see healthcare from an entirely different perspective.