Medical Does this count as a letter from a physician?

[TheBoneDoctah]

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I'm looking to apply to DO schools for this upcoming cycle and most of them require LOR's from a physician. I don't have much in the way of clinical experience, but I currently work in a public health agency and have worked closely during the COVID-19 response with people who have MD's. I was wondering if that would count as a letter from a physician, since the MD's that I work with technically aren't actively practicing medicine with patients? Any insight is appreciated!

You are going to need clinical experience to apply to medical school. You have zero experience?

 

[GoSpursGo]

It would technically meet the MD requirement, but I echo @TheBoneDoctah 's concern--if you don't have any clinical experience with a physician who could comment on your future as a doctor then your app is going to be in trouble.

 

[Goro]

Lacking any clinical exposure is lethal for any medical school

 

[Goro]

@TheBoneDoctah, @GoSpursGo, and @Goro: I have ~300 hours of volunteering at a hospital- the only thing is I only worked with nurses and I think for DO schools the physician letter of rec needs to be from someone with either an MD or a DO degree. I just needed to make sure that I could use a non-patient-facing MD as a rec letter to check that box. Thank y'all for your answers!

You're OK then.

I've read plenty of MD letters from people who were faculty only and didn't practice. You will need shadowing

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

Absolutely. Get the MD letter to check the box.