Does this count as clinical experience?

[soccer90876]

Thanks!

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[Phoebus Apollo]

The @LizzyM rule is that if you can smell patients it's clinical.

I doubt you're going into patient rooms though, so it does seem a little borderline.

On first guess I'd say that if you don't have any other clinical experience, I'd go ahead and categorize this experience as clinical since you ARE clearly volunteering in a hospital and interacting with patients/their families. I'd wait for an ADCOM to weigh in though.

 

[LizzyM]

This is a gray zone. It should certainly not be your only clinical experience. If a pop star goes to the hospital to sing for groups of patients, does the pop star have clinical experience?

Did you undergo volunteer training including HIPAA, fire safety, and universal precautions? Do you check in with the volunteer office each time you play? How often do you make these visits?

I think to be on the safe side you should list this as performing arts or whatever that tag is and then mention that you share your musical skills with hospital patients and their families.

 

[soccer90876]

This is a gray zone. It should certainly not be your only clinical experience. If a pop star goes to the hospital to sing for groups of patients, does the pop star have clinical experience?

Did you undergo volunteer training including HIPAA, fire safety, and universal precautions? Do you check in with the volunteer office each time you play? How often do you make these visits?

I think to be on the safe side you should list this as performing arts or whatever that tag is and then mention that you share your musical skills with hospital patients and their families.

@LizzyM : Thanks! For this particular position, I had HIPAA, fire safety, and universal precautions training (granted it was all in the beginning rather than every week, does that make a difference?) and I do check in w/ the volunteer office each week. Would the training (even though it was pretty brief from what I recall, no more than a couple of hours) be something I should be sure to include for this particular position (in AMCAS) or is it assumed / would it seem excessive to include it?

 

[LizzyM]

@LizzyM : Thanks! For this particular position, I had HIPAA, fire safety, and universal precautions training (granted it was all in the beginning rather than every week, does that make a difference?) and I do check in w/ the volunteer office each week. Would the training (even though it was pretty brief from what I recall, no more than a couple of hours) be something I should be sure to include for this particular position (in AMCAS) or is it assumed / would it seem excessive to include it?

That you had that training (and it would only be done once) does indicate to me that this was a real hospital volunteer experience. You need not mention it; it is assumed for anyone who has a role in a hospital setting.

If you are volunteering there weekly and you do speak with patients then I think it is fair to call it clinical experience. That said, you should have ample shadowing experience and some community service that non-clinical.