Does this count as Clinical Experience?

[mac_kin]

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Unlike most applicants I don't have tremendous amounts of hours volunteering in hospitals.

However, I was an athletic therapist for a college varsity team last year. I did everything from assessment to treatments (up to my level of knowledge) of different sports injuries.

Does this count as clinical experience? Although i did not deal with "patients" i did treat injured athletes and was exposed to a lot of different emergency and long term treatment procedures.

 

[Bluntman]

Unlike most applicants I don't have tremendous amounts of hours volunteering in hospitals.

However, I was an athletic therapist for a college varsity team last year. I did everything from assessment to treatments (up to my level of knowledge) of different sports injuries.

Does this count as clinical experience? Although i did not deal with "patients" i did treat injured athletes and was exposed to a lot of different emergency and long term treatment procedures.

Injured athletes are patients. 😉

 

[Dr.Acula]

i don't know if thats what ADCOMS are looking for. My advice to you, start (or keep) volunteering at a hospital or clinic, and put both experiences down

 

[lilnoelle]

it would be very relevant if your interested in sports medicine.

 

[LizzyM]

If those athletes smell as much as the Harvard Hockey team then you certainly pass the LizzyM "have you smelled patients?" test.

Bluntman is absolutely correct: "Injured athletes are patients."

 

[g3pro]

It's not clinical experience unless a physician was there doing his thing.

 

[DrBowtie]

If those athletes smell as much as the Harvard Hockey team then you certainly pass the LizzyM "have you smelled patients?" test.

Bluntman is absolutely correct: "Injured athletes are patients."

It's not the team its the equipment. Years usage of wet leather gets nasty. I could never wash the smell off of my hands.

Signed BB ~12 years of Hockey Goalie experience.

 

[noonday]

It's not clinical experience unless a physician was there doing his thing.

disagree. my "clinical" experience didn't have a doctor there. and it wasn't in a hospital at all... but i did, as the question goes, "smell patients," and whoooo homeless junkies MUST be at least as bad as a hockey team...;-)

 

[LizzyM]

It's not the team its the equipment. Years usage of wet leather gets nasty. I could never wash the smell off of my hands.

Signed BB ~12 years of Hockey Goalie experience.

😉 I'm well aware. My brother is a goalie, too. I also know that you don't want to sit behind and slightly above the bench as the breeze created at change of shift is not the sweetest. 🙂

It's not clinical experience unless a physician was there doing his thing.

I couldn't disagree more. Hence the LizzyM, "Have you smelled patients?" sniff test for clinical experiences. Tested and endorsed at real adcom meetings.

 

[g3pro]

disagree. my "clinical" experience didn't have a doctor there. and it wasn't in a hospital at all... but i did, as the question goes, "smell patients," and whoooo homeless junkies MUST be at least as bad as a hockey team...;-)

So, you're supposed to understand what physicians do on a daily basis, without the presence of a physician and without being in a hospital... ummm, ok.

 

[almost_there]

Purpose for clinical experience:

1. Do you know what caring for patients is like? What patients are like? What their concerns are?

2. Do you know what a doctor does on a daily basis, what the job really entails? What are the pros and cons? Are they for you?

3. Do you know what the environment and system of patient care is like? Are you comfortable working in this realm? Are you familiar with it?

At the end of the day, clinical experience is for YOU to determine whether or not medicine is for you. Observing or working with physicians directly is only necessary for (2), but other clinical experiences certainly can give you (1) and (3).

 

[noonday]

So, you're supposed to understand what physicians do on a daily basis, without the presence of a physician and without being in a hospital... ummm, ok.

yes. i'm a trained lay community health worker at a clinic with protocol based medicine. *i* treat the clients, albeit in a limited way. i do, i don't just watch. on my own. sure, there are things about the traditional medical career that i'm not as "up" on as someone who shadowed a doc, but i spent months in training and have been giving care to clients for years.

there are many paths to the summit...part of the greatness of it all is that we can wander our own way...

cookie cutter = bad!

 

[sweetkc]

it would be very relevant if your interested in sports medicine.

noelleruckman...i was always curious. is that your baby on your avatar? if so, she's so adorable =D

 

[45408]

It's not clinical experience unless a physician was there doing his thing.

As usual, you feel the need to inject your opinion with an air of superiority. Never mind the fact that an actual adcom member says you're wrong, you must obviously be right! If it's not that ultimate shadowing experience that you had, it's just not worth mentioning.

Luckily, back in the real world, most adcoms consider EMS experience to be clinical experience.

 

[ADeadLois]

It's not clinical experience unless a physician was there doing his thing.

I also disagree. I worked with a doctor who was on the adcom at UConn until about a year ago. He said that most schools have a broad definition of what clinical experience is, but most want to see some form of patient contact. I also had a friend who recently got accepted to Feinberg whose clinical experience was working at Planned Parenthood as a patient liason, and job description that was all about patient contact but no interaction with physicians. The adcoms did not care that her experience did not involve shadowing physicians, and she said that the interviewers were very impressed with it. It also made for a very good PS.



I understand you may be getting your info from another adcom member, but I think speaking in absolutes like this may be misleading to others on this forum.

 

[Dr.Andrews]

It's not the team its the equipment. Years usage of wet leather gets nasty. I could never wash the smell off of my hands.

Signed BB ~12 years of Hockey Goalie experience.

At first you hate the smell, then you get used to it, and then if you've been around long enough you start to like it.... It's kind of creepy.

~16 years as a centerman.