CNA, Medical scrub and Surgical Technologist?

[val.surg]

Hello!

I currently work as a CNA and a Medical Scrub in a local hospital. I have made connections and work under nurses and physicians. A lot of people in the hospital have said that those 2 jobs will help me a lot in my pre-med resume and to get ready to medical school, because of the 1-on-1 patient care experience as a CNA and the medical terminology knowledge I gained as a Medical Scrub.

I am thinking of getting my Surgical Technologist degree at a local college so I can also have experience working with surgeons. What are your thoughts on that? Worth it, good idea or not?

I am only a freshman at a huge public university in the midwest, where I will be/am taking my pre-med classes.

Thank you all!

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[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

If you can get your surg tech cert without delaying undergrad or hurting you gpa, I’d recommend it. I was an OR tech for ~7 years. It was awesome. Very, very cool experiences, I learned and got to do/see a ton, and I got a lot of shoulder to shoulder time with a lot of surgeons.

 

[calivianya]

I would actually say to skip the surgical technologist degree if med school is your ultimate focus, unless you can manage to get it and graduate in exactly the same amount of time as you would without it.

If the rest of your ECs aren't perfect, more healthcare experience isn't going to help you. You already have lots of clinical experience, so work on being more well-rounded with community service, shadowing, and research instead.

 

[MalteseFalconMD]

It helps in that you get real world medical experience that you can talk about extensively during your interviews. That's what I was able to do. However you'll still have to do all the requisite volunteering, shadowing etc.