definition of clinical experience

[mexicochangedme]

i have heard conflicting reports about what does and does not qualify as clinical experience and was wondering if there is an official definition for it. i have extensive experience in using animals to assist people with disabilities (guide dogs, animal assisted therapy, therapeutic horseback riding, etc.) as well as a year as a deaf ed teacher in a third world country. i considered myself to have no clinical experience, but someone pointed out that all of this would count. is that true?

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[mexicochangedme]

my question then becomes "what is a patient?"

 

[Tin Man]

my question then becomes "what is a patient?"

A person sick enough to use the services of a clinic, in the cases of a clinical experience.

In your case, I wouldn't say that what you have counts as clinical experience. That's not to say it's useless. I imagine it will do a lot of good in establishing your character and willingness to help people.

But the GUARANTEED question you will be asked in an interview is, "Why medicine?" If you can't answer that by using some sort of a personal experience as an example, it wasn't clinical enough. Keep in mind the work that you'd be doing as a doctor. Chances are that if there weren't doctors doing doctorly things in the vicinity of you, whether that's in a psychiatric ward, hospital, private practice, or whatever, then it wasn't a clinical experience.

Good clinical experiences might be shadowing a doctor, getting a CNA/CPA license, EMT, or something of the like.

 

[ThinkTooMuch]

so im shadowing a doctor doing rounds at my local hospital, thats clinical experience.

 

[Tin Man]

so im shadowing a doctor doing rounds at my local hospital, thats clinical experience.

That's about as good of clinical experience as most people can get without getting some sort of nursing or CPA license. But it wouldn't be the ONLY clinical experience I would have, personally.

 

[mexicochangedme]

i also forgot to mention that i have several thousand hours of work as a veterinary technician. what category does that fit into? obviously it is not human clinical experience, but it is relevant since many principles and techniques hold true across species lines.

 

[BlueElmo]

i also forgot to mention that i have several thousand hours of work as a veterinary technician. what category does that fit into? obviously it is not human clinical experience, but it is relevant since many principles and techniques hold true across species lines.

I don't think that counts as clinical experience. You don't call animals "patients". But you could put that as Volunteering-Other category.

 

[Stratego]

If you are doing something that is therapeutic for a person who has a medical diagnosis, it seems to me that person is a patient, for your purposes. If a part of the experience is just for fun, or educational, or not related to their problem, that doesn't take away from the fact that a portion of the experience will benefit the patient in the clinical sense. I think your description of the activity in the written part of each activity description can make clear all of the ways in which you helped. If you were a volunteer, you provided a community service regardless of whether there was clinical benefit to be gained. Your experiences using animals in a therapeutic manner seems like a very unique activity to me.

I can't think of a way in which teaching deaf kids is therapeutic, so maybe they aren't your patients in the sense that you mean. Teaching is another category that is valuable though for the purposes of the AMCAS application.

How exactly are you involved with the guide dogs?

 

[gumbyj]