Do these activities count as clinical experience?

[lemonade123]

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I know this has been asked thousandths of times, but....

I have a volunteer position where I go around the hospital floors and observe whether or not the medical professionals are following basic hospital protocol. I observe a lot of what the doctors do and how they interact with the patients, and I don't exactly interact with the patients, but does this count as clinical experience?

Also, do taking blood pressure and taking BMI measurements at health fairs count as well?

 

[Doctor246853]

I have a volunteer position where I go around the hospital floors and observe whether or not the medical professionals are following basic hospital protocol. I observe a lot of what the doctors do and how they interact with the patients, and I don't exactly interact with the patients, but does this count as clinical experience?

Also, do taking blood pressure and taking BMI measurements at health fairs count as well?

Humm...good question. I know the latter counts as clinical exp. but Im not sure about the observation gig. What do you mean by following protocol? Hippa violations? Do you stand in a room with them while they are with a patient or are you looking for more basic protocols?(Handwashing when entering/leaving room, charting privacy, ect) If so then no. Overall sounds like a good gig to have.

 

[music2doc]

I know this has been asked thousandths of times, but....

I have a volunteer position where I go around the hospital floors and observe whether or not the medical professionals are following basic hospital protocol. I observe a lot of what the doctors do and how they interact with the patients, and I don't exactly interact with the patients, but does this count as clinical experience?

Also, do taking blood pressure and taking BMI measurements at health fairs count as well?

They have volunteers doing that?

Sounds like you do ongoing internal audits to stay prepared for TJC/CMS/etc. I wouldn't think the clinical staff would like you much.... (I know we wouldn't at my hospital, anyway.)

 

[NeuralNetwork]

I know this has been asked thousandths of times, but....

I have a volunteer position where I go around the hospital floors and observe whether or not the medical professionals are following basic hospital protocol. I observe a lot of what the doctors do and how they interact with the patients, and I don't exactly interact with the patients, but does this count as clinical experience?

Also, do taking blood pressure and taking BMI measurements at health fairs count as well?

Here's the thing - As far as I can see it, technically speaking, the first one is "clinical" but the second one is not. HOWEVER, the problem is that neither sound terribly eye opening to the medical profession, and I can't see how they would give you what a "clinical" experience should give an applicant - namely an insight into your belonging in medicine, and why you want to be in that field.

Does the first one count as clinical? Yes. When you think to yourself if that is really what sells you on medicine, does it count as a vital clinical experience? That is the important question to ask, because that is what you are going to have to write about in your PS and talk about in interviews.

 

[sector9]

I know this has been asked thousandths of times, but....

I have a volunteer position where I go around the hospital floors and observe whether or not the medical professionals are following basic hospital protocol. I observe a lot of what the doctors do and how they interact with the patients, and I don't exactly interact with the patients, but does this count as clinical experience?

Also, do taking blood pressure and taking BMI measurements at health fairs count as well?

I'm going to say it is clinical for the first one but not clinical for the second.

Two criteria to look for: 1. Are you close enough to smell patients? 2. Is there anyone around who can write prescriptions?

For the first one, are you close enough to smell patients? If so, then it counts.

The second doesn't really fill either requirement if I understand the situation correctly. They're not really even patients but just people being screened

Hopefully you have sufficient time commitment (~1 1/2 years to be average) on the first gig if this is your only plan for clinical volunteering (although it sounds really boring). You're gunna want to augment these experiences with some shadowing if you haven't already

 

[Cerena]

They have volunteers doing that?

Oui, I was thinking the same thing...

 

[Doctor246853]

Why is everyone saying that the op's volunteer gig is clinical experience? That LizzyM formula is being stretched. If the op happens to smell a patient it still dont make it clinical experience. Give me a break. If thats the case then the hospital janitors, the techs that fix the thermostats in patients rooms, the people in the kitchen that pick up the trays from patients and many others that have nothing to do with patients are also clincial experiences. They all smell patients on a daily basis by default. Following people around to solely see if they are following protocol is not clinical experience.

 

[isoquin]

It seems you're trying to evaluate an activity based on label as opposed to goal. The label doesn't matter. Med schools look at activities as an indicator about whether a student has some basic experience and understanding of what it means to go into medicine. That can take a lot of different forms, including direct patient interactions, understanding clinical responsibilities, doctors' lifestyles, etc.

As someone else mentioned, the fact you are in a hospital doesn't really matter. It's what you do while there that does. So the goal shouldn't be whether you label your activity as "clinical experience" or not, so much as the value of that experience as it relates to understanding what it means to be a doctor. Looking back at your activities, I'm unsure if the first one meets that goal, although the second does.

 

[LizzyM]

Both are good experiences. In the first, if you are in & out of patient rooms, and observing health care providers at their jobs, I don't know how you can call it anything but a clinical experience. The health fair gig can be what you make it. How do you talk with people who may not have the education and experience you have and who might not understand clearly that you have discovered a serious health issue that needs to be attended to? What do you think about when they tell you they haven't insurance or they are undocumented & afraid to go to the doctor, or that they can't afford the medication so they come to health fairs just to check & see if things are out of hand? Health screening is one of the roles of a primary care provider but it can also be handled by a trained lay person with referrals for follow-up if a screen is positive. Patients who aren't sick are still people seeking health care services and although they are more likely to smell of soap and cologne you are close enough to smell them (in fact, you are going beyond that to touching them in many cases).

 

[Catalystik]

You are likely to get as many opinions from the adcomms of various schools as you are reading here, as we all define terms differently.

I would consider the first experience to be physician shadowing, a passive observership, as you are concentrating on what the doctor does. You are not interacting with the patient. It has a side benefit of providing you with clinical environment experience.

The second experience, presuming they are not all in perfect health, provides patient interaction and you are providing a service that gives a benefit to the individual. I'd call that one clinical patient experience, even though it does not take place in a medical milieu, or in the vicinity of a physician.