Does experience in mental health field count as clinical experience?

[cbass]

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I have been working with the adult developmentally disabled population for 2+ years now. I have dealt with all manner of crazy behavior, emergencies, and personal care issues. Will admissions committees view this as a clinical experience? What would be the best way to present such an experience? Should I be looking to spend more time in a hospital or other primary care setting?

 

[TheRealMD]

No matter what other experiences you have, I would always recommend you volunteer at a hospital for not only clinical experience, but real life experience as well, because that's where you're going to be spending 4 years of your life slaving away at med school.

 

[Climberak]

I second that. Working in a program with mentally handicaped adults will definately be brought up in an interview, but it still won't be classified as clinical experience. I do something similar to what you do (behavioral analysis) and I also volunteer at the ER. The only simularity between the two is that I have to occasionaly change adult diapers. Get some clinical experience, it'll really help you.

 

[smq123]

No matter what other experiences you have, I would always recommend you volunteer at a hospital for not only clinical experience, but real life experience as well, because that's where you're going to be spending 4 years of your life slaving away at med school.

Well, the last 2 years anyway. The first 2, you'll either be camped out in the library, camped out in Starbucks, or leaving an individualized butt-impression on a seat in a dim auditorium somewhere.

Most med schools do focus on in-patient hospitalist care, but they should also balance that out with a sizable out-patient experience as well.

I have been working with the adult developmentally disabled population for 2+ years now. I have dealt with all manner of crazy behavior, emergencies, and personal care issues. Will admissions committees view this as a clinical experience? What would be the best way to present such an experience? Should I be looking to spend more time in a hospital or other primary care setting?

Actually, I have to disagree with what the others have said - I think this is great clinical experience. I think shadowing a doctor or volunteering in the hospital is a mediocre clinical experience because it's so passive. What you're doing, it sounds like, forces you to take an active role in patient care. That's how I'd sell it to the admissions committee - you know what it's like to bear some responsibility for your patients' care.

As LizzyM says - if you can smell patients, then it's "clinical experience."