Does this actually count as clinical experience?

[OffToHopkins]

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Hi guys, this is my first post ever on SDN so bear with me.

I am pre-med and hope this experience qualifies as clinical patient-contact.

Alright, I got this volunteer position (unpaid) at this center for specific individuals who have varying physical and mental disabilities. I am working alongside nurses in the facility who do many medical procedures to the people there such as giving them medication, giving them oxygen when needed and taking their blood oxygen levels, blood pressures, blood glucose levels, and feeding patients with GI tubes. I will be helping with and performing all of these tasks. However, the glaring flaw seems to be that there are no physicians that work there, only registered nurses.

I feel as if I'm getting way more hands on experience with patients than a guy in a hospital who is "exposed" to physicians who most likely want nothing to do with him due to being too busy and just probably end up changing sheets and fetching patients personal items at best.

Please tell me adcoms will perceive this as clinical? Or will they see is as non-clinical volunteering?

 

[45408]

It's definitely clinical, but you should still find somewhere to work with or shadow physicians, for your own benefit. Hopkins wouldn't consider it clinical though.

 

[OffToHopkins]

It's definitely clinical, but you should still find somewhere to work with or shadow physicians, for your own benefit. Hopkins wouldn't consider it clinical though.

Thanks for the quick response, just wondering why would Hopkins (or any other med school at that) not consider it medical? I'm assuming no physician exposure? So you're implying that different med schools have different standards of clinical exposure?

 

[Disinence2]

No one cares if you can take a blood pressure or a pulse ox. The point of clinical experience is to get that exposure to physicians so you can at least make an argument that being a physician is what you are sure you want to do with your life.

Its not that different schools have different definitions, but keep in mind some applicants "clinical experience" will be a few years working as a medic, or something similar where they are actually paid to take care of patients.

Keep up the good work, you can still pull lots of positives from this volunteer work.

 

[OffToHopkins]

No one cares if you can take a blood pressure or a pulse ox. The point of clinical experience is to get that exposure to physicians so you can at least make an argument that being a physician is what you are sure you want to do with your life.

Its not that different schools have different definitions, but keep in mind some applicants "clinical experience" will be a few years working as a medic, or something similar where they are actually paid to take care of patients.

Keep up the good work, you can still pull lots of positives from this volunteer work.

Thanks for the response.
Just something I noticed, you say that clinical experience, in its essence, is having at least some exposure to a physician and his/her work.
However, I've heard a general principle uttered on this forum that says that if you can "smell" a patient (which I'm pretty sure I can), it is clinical experience.

 

[Disinence2]

I could never argue with the wisdom of LizzyMD, There are plenty of positives you can draw from your current situation. I would list it as clinical experience on amcas. Just know that you do need some form of physician contact in addition to what your doing now.

 

[LizzyM]

I thought I'd answered this but I guess not.

This is a bit of a gray area because it raises the question of "who is a patient". I sometimes smell people on public transportation but that doesn't make it a clinical experience (even if they are wearing a wrist band from their most recent hospital visit).

Are these people "patients" in a clinical care setting or are they residents in a residential setting? Are the disabled always "patients" or in some circumstances are they just people who need help with self-care? What you are describing are things that people with chronic conditions do for themselves if they have the physical and mental capacity to do so.

That said, I do think that it is helpful to become familiar with the issues of the disabled, the elderly, the dying. I think that it is also enlightening to understand that they have everyday lives outside of the clinical setting.

If you are going to do this, also have some exposure through volunteering or shadowing, to health providers who have prescription writing privileges.

 

[TexasPhysician]

That said, I do think that it is helpful to become familiar with the issues of the disabled, the elderly, the dying. I think that it is also enlightening to understand that they have everyday lives outside of the clinical setting.

If you are going to do this, also have some exposure through volunteering or shadowing, to health providers who have prescription writing privileges.

I agree. You ideally have experiences in a clinical setting and with a physician. In this instance, you should also find a way to shadow a physician.

 

[45408]

Thanks for the quick response, just wondering why would Hopkins (or any other med school at that) not consider it medical? I'm assuming no physician exposure? So you're implying that different med schools have different standards of clinical exposure?

I was just teasing you because of your SN 😉