Diversifying my Clinical Experience

[klever]

Hello SDN,

Most, if not all, of my clinical experience hours are paid as an EMT over summers. I was thinking for the upcoming summer, I would diversify my clinical experience to get a different perspective as either a medical assistant or hospital volunteer. I was just wondering how it would be perceived if I took a position as a hospital volunteer instead of being an EMT this upcoming summer, as obviously I would have less responsibility.

The reason I want to do this would be to gain more clinical experience in the hospital for myself and diversify my experience. I'm just wondering if I took a year off of being an EMT for the reason of being a hospital volunteer, would it be considered a "downgrade" due to the experience being more hands off and requiring less responsibility? I know most people start off with unpaid experience and then move to paid experiences like EMT, so I'm just wondering about the reverse. Thanks for any and all feedback!

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[Mr.Smile12]

Previous advice

offered contradicting clinical advice

when asking around about ideal clinical experience, three different people have told me three different things -scribing/MA work is ideal because you form close ties with a physician and interact closely with patients -EMT work is better than scribing/MA as those jobs do not actually take any...

forums.studentdoctor.net

I don't think anyone considers your choice as a downgrade or shift if that's what you want to do. We want to know what you observed and learned from the activities impact on you and your perspective on healthcare.

 

[candbgirl]

Diversity of experiences is always good at this stage. As long as you are interacting with patients and their families you’ll be fine. Hospital medicine is very different from EMS.

 

[LizzyM]

No one will really notice.... Will you take a job as well to make some money? or will you be prepping for the MCAT or otherwise using the time you would have spent as an EMT?

 

[klever]

No one will really notice.... Will you take a job as well to make some money? or will you be prepping for the MCAT or otherwise using the time you would have spent as an EMT?

I would likely be doing more nonclinical volunteering on the side if I took the position as a hospital volunteer!

 

[klever]

Previous advice

offered contradicting clinical advice

when asking around about ideal clinical experience, three different people have told me three different things -scribing/MA work is ideal because you form close ties with a physician and interact closely with patients -EMT work is better than scribing/MA as those jobs do not actually take any...

forums.studentdoctor.net

I don't think anyone considers your choice as a downgrade or shift if that's what you want to do. We want to know what you observed and learned from the activities impact on you and your perspective on healthcare.

Oh okay, thanks a lot! That's the perspective I was hoping to hear.

 

[LizzyM]

I would likely be doing more nonclinical volunteering on the side if I took the position as a hospital volunteer!

That's fine. You chose to do something different with your time this year. This happens all the time as applicants trade off different kinds of jobs and other activities including research and volunteerism.

 

[klever]

That's fine. You chose to do something different with your time this year. This happens all the time as applicants trade off different kinds of jobs and other activities including research and volunteerism.

So it's okay that I'm essentially choosing diversity in my activities over longevity here?

 

[LizzyM]

You NEED diversity. Longevity is nice but won't make up for lack of diversity in your activities (e.g. long time clinical employment but no community volunteerism).

 

[klever]

You NEED diversity. Longevity is nice but won't make up for lack of diversity in your activities (e.g. long time clinical employment but no community volunteerism).

Awesome, okay, thanks! I'll try and diversify my activities so that all my hours don't come from 1 activity in each category,

 

[LizzyM]

No, that's not what I mean. You can have one activity for each category (non-clinical volunteering, teaching/tutoring, clinical employment, etc) but you need to have a diversity of categories (not all clinical employments).

 

[klever]

No, that's not what I mean. You can have one activity for each category (non-clinical volunteering, teaching/tutoring, clinical employment, etc) but you need to have a diversity of categories (not all clinical employments).

Oh okay, I understand now, thanks for the clarification!