Does any of this count as clinical experience?

[hs764]

I've had a lot of direct contact with research participants over the last several years and I'm wondering if any of it could possibly be considered clinical. I spent a summer running fMRI scans with participants in a number of different research studies, I have spent a little over a year conducting neuropsychiatric assessments with participants in a cognitive aging study as part of my job, and before that I spent about a year doing neuropsychiatric assessments with participants in a maternal depression study as a full-time job.

Would any of that count as clinical hours? I'm currently volunteering in an emergency room on weekends and getting lots of patient interaction there, but I'll have less than 100 hours by the time I apply so I'm wondering if I'm okay or if I should really try to step those ER hours up.

Thanks!

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[efle]

I'd step up the ER hours. I think giving assessments/scans to people that are stopping by in a healthy state is going to be viewed very differently than working with inpatients/people presenting for care. Defer to @LizzyM, @Goro and others actually in admissions though.

 

[Goro]

Those are research subjects, NOT patients

I've had a lot of direct contact with research participants over the last several years and I'm wondering if any of it could possibly be considered clinical. I spent a summer running fMRI scans with participants in a number of different research studies, I have spent a little over a year conducting neuropsychiatric assessments with participants in a cognitive aging study as part of my job, and before that I spent about a year doing neuropsychiatric assessments with participants in a maternal depression study as a full-time job.

Would any of that count as clinical hours? I'm currently volunteering in an emergency room on weekends and getting lots of patient interaction there, but I'll have less than 100 hours by the time I apply so I'm wondering if I'm okay or if I should really try to step those ER hours up.

Thanks!

 

[Catalystik]

I spent about a year doing neuropsychiatric assessments with participants in a maternal depression study as a full-time job.

Would any of that count as clinical hours?

If the study participants had already been diagnosed with maternal (post-partum, perhaps you meant to say?) depression, I'd judge those persons to be patients, and would look on the activity as Medical/Clinical.

 

[efle]

Are these people patients everywhere they go, once they're diagnosed? Like the guy that bags their groceries is getting patient contact, though he doesn't know it? I always figured they were patients when they were there for care of their illness.

 

[hs764]

No, none of my maternal depression participants had been officially diagnosed (it wasn't postpartum, it was more working with women who were at-risk for developing depression, like low-income and/or single moms). Some of the people I ran scans on had various diagnoses (schizophrenia, PTSD, etc) but the scan was always in the context of research. I can probably hit ~120 clinical hours if I step up my ER work though, I just wanted to double check whether or not that would be necessary. Thanks!

 

[efle]

Do you have lots of shadowing hours, at least? 120 hrs in an ER alone might make it hard to sell your interest in medicine rather than med-related research.

 

[hs764]

Yeah, that's another thing I'm worried about. I haven't done any specific shadowing, but I've talked to admissions reps from a couple of schools and been told that some of my ER hours can count as shadowing since I am seeing doctors interact with patients the entire time. I also did multiple trips to Central America in college where I volunteered as an interpreter and assistant for doctors doing fairly basic procedures, and I was told by a rep from UVA exactly how I could frame that on my application to make it count. I wish I had more recent experience but I've been working in research full-time for the past three years while completing my postbac so it's been tough to find opportunities that fit my schedule.

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[efle]

I'm not on an adcom myself, but from what you've said so far you might run into some issues with "why medicine", if you have no shadowing and all your patient contact is from a hundred hours in the ER in just the last few months.

 

[efle]

Hows the GPA/MCAT? State of residence?

 

[hs764]

I'm still waiting on a couple of grades from this semester but will probably finish with a cGPA around 3.8, sGPA around 3.7, MCAT is 525. I'm currently an NY resident but I'm from VA and looking into changing my residency back since I really want to get into UVA.

 

[hs764]

I have four years experience of full-time medical research at an Ivy League university hospital, and I'm hoping the fact that I've been working full-time and in school will be taken into account, but yeah, I don't know.

 

[efle]

Does UVA have an instate mission? I thought they were like UCLA/UCSD etc and don't actually give you any points for being instate.

Considering the strength of your numbers though my worries are mostly dispelled, so long as you apply to a good broad list.

 

[hs764]

They do, about half of their admitted applicants are from in-state. I talked for a long time to their rep at a med school fair and she suggested that changing my residency back could give me an advantage. I'm applying to 20-25 schools so hopefully at least one won't be put off by my lack of clinical experience.

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[hs764]

I was a social worker before switching to medicine so I have plenty of experience working directly with people, just not in a doctor/hospital setting. I'm going to step up my ER hours now that my classes are ending so we'll see.

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[efle]

UCLA and UCSD are like 70-85% californians every year, but have no instate mission at all. That is not good evidence of instate advantage, at all. It looks like UVA interviews about 15% of instate applicants vs about 10% oos. Honestly I think you'd be better off keeping NY residency and thus the NY public schools favoritism.

It sounds like you are an extraordinary candidate in the stats, research, and life experiences departments, so I think you'll still get some love.