Does this job count as clinical experience?

[LovetoDance007]

Hi everyone! Does this job at the Mother and Baby Unit at the hospital count for clinical experience? It doesn't offer direct patient care but they did say they encouraged the employees to talk to patients and keep them company during downtime. Here is the description:

• Respond to patient call lights (I think this is pretty rare/ if the RN allows you too)
• Check on patients for safety, comfort
• Assist with setting up meals and ordering meals for patients
• Refresh patient's linens + set up bed for C-section/different births
• Handles infectious waste and linen
• Answer phones/ schedule appointments/ gather patient information
• "Run" items necessary for patient care to other departments
• Restock supplies on floor and make care bags for mothers + babies

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[LizzyM]

If you get to be in the same room with a patient and you are talking to them, then it meets my definition of "clinical experience".

You don't have to touch them to have a clinical experience that is appropriate for your level of training as a pre-med.

 

[LizzyM]

The point of clinical experience is to see what the physical and social environment is like and to have the experience of helping people seeking medical care (patients) and their loved ones. The expectation is that this will help you determine if you can see yourself working in such an environment and that population for the next 30-40 years.

 

[Ohjennabow]

Hi everyone! Does this job at the Mother and Baby Unit at the hospital count for clinical experience? It doesn't offer direct patient care but they did say they encouraged the employees to talk to patients and keep them company during downtime. Here is the description:

• Respond to patient call lights (I think this is pretty rare/ if the RN allows you too)
• Check on patients for safety, comfort
• Assist with setting up meals and ordering meals for patients
• Refresh patient's linens + set up bed for C-section/different births
• Handles infectious waste and linen
• Answer phones/ schedule appointments/ gather patient information
• "Run" items necessary for patient care to other departments
• Restock supplies on floor and make care bags for mothers + babies

To me this sounds more clerical than clinical experience. It sounds like a great experience, but maybe not for "clinical" experience. I guess it really depends on how much patient interaction you are going to have and if it will be enough to give you a meaningful experience. The purpose of clinical experience is to make sure you enjoy working with various patient populations, work on building bedside manner/rapport with patients, begin building clinical judgement skills, and begin understanding working within a multidisciplinary team.

Before nursing school, I did a job similar to what you are describing (but for an emergency department) and they did not count it as clinical experience.

 

[LizzyM]

To me this sounds more clerical than clinical experience. It sounds like a great experience, but maybe not for "clinical" experience. I guess it really depends on how much patient interaction you are going to have and if it will be enough to give you a meaningful experience. The purpose of clinical experience is to make sure you enjoy working with various patient populations, work on building bedside manner/rapport with patients, begin building clinical judgement skills, and begin understanding working within a multidisciplinary team.

Before nursing school, I did a job similar to what you are describing (but for an emergency department) and they did not count it as clinical experience.

Nursing school admissions, and even PA school, is different than med admissions. If you are in the vicinity of the patient, it counts as clinical for the purposes of med admissions.

 

[Fluidity of Movement]

You are in a hospital directly interacting with and helping patients. You don't have to wipe their a$$ or hook them up to an EKG for it to count as clinical experience.

 

[Ohjennabow]

Nursing school admissions, and even PA school, is different than med admissions. If you are in the vicinity of the patient, it counts as clinical for the purposes of med admissions.

I am not talking about nursing school admissions. I am saying I have been told I cannot use that experience as clinical for med school admissions. It just so happens that experience happened before I went to nursing school.

 

[LovetoDance007]

I am not talking about nursing school admissions. I am saying I have been told I cannot use that experience as clinical for med school admissions. It just so happens that experience happened before I went to nursing school.

I am not talking about nursing school admissions. I am saying I have been told I cannot use that experience as clinical for med school admissions. It just so happens that experience happened before I went to nursing school.

Hi! Was it a medical school that said this or an advisor?

 

[Ohjennabow]

@LovetoDance007 Several people. Most recently an advisor at my current university and one of my mentors (who is on an admissions committee at a medical school)

But like I said, it depends on your level of interaction with patients and if it will give YOU a meaningful experience! An advisor can’t tell you that! Regardless, it sounds like a good job that will give you decent experience working in a hospital. If you aren’t getting the patient interaction that you want, you can always find something else!!

 

[LizzyM]

I am not talking about nursing school admissions. I am saying I have been told I cannot use that experience as clinical for med school admissions. It just so happens that experience happened before I went to nursing school.

There are more than 100 medical schools in the US and many (most? almost all?) would count it as clinical.

Most pre-med advisors are uninformed and give very questionable advice.

 

[GoSpursGo]

What is the actual job title?

To me I think it matters what the breakdown of duties are, as some of them seem clinical while others don't.

Clinical

• Respond to patient call lights (I think this is pretty rare/ if the RN allows you too)
• Check on patients for safety, comfort

Non-clinical

• Assist with setting up meals and ordering meals for patients (unless the ordering is face-to-face)
• Refresh patient's linens + set up bed for C-section/different births
• Handles infectious waste and linen
• Answer phones/ schedule appointments/ gather patient information
• "Run" items necessary for patient care to other departments
• Restock supplies on floor and make care bags for mothers + babies

 

[Fluidity of Movement]

Non-clinical

• Refresh patient's linens + set up bed for C-section/different births

Hmm, perhaps the first half of this would be if they had to help the pt out of bed or transfer them. Or if they assisted the staff in the transfer.

 

[Ohjennabow]

There are more than 100 medical schools in the US and many (most? almost all?) would count it as clinical.

Most pre-med advisors are uninformed and give very questionable advice.

I appreciate your input and your opinion. Though, it does seem that you did not read past my first two sentences in my initial reply to the OP.

I am sure the OP appreciates any advice and input that people are able to give in order to create the best experience for them.

 

[GoSpursGo]

Hmm, perhaps the first half of this would be if they had to help the pt out of bed or transfer them. Or if they assisted the staff in the transfer.

Yeah idunno. Since this is Mother and Baby unit, most of these patients won't be staying for longer than 24-48 hours, so it may well just be that you're changing the sheets after the patient has been discharged.

 

[LizzyM]

If an applicant describes something as volunteer on a mother and baby unit in a hospital (or a birthing center), they are going to be given the benefit of the doubt that this was a clinical experience particularly if they highlight the face-to-face engagement portion of the experience in the write-up. Same goes for emergency room even if the bulk of the time was spent putting blankets in the warmer and restocking the empty rooms with bandaids.

 

[GoSpursGo]

If an applicant describes something as volunteer on a mother and baby unit in a hospital (or a birthing center), they are going to be given the benefit of the doubt that this was a clinical experience particularly if they highlight the face-to-face engagement portion of the experience in the write-up. Same goes for emergency room even if the bulk of the time was spent putting blankets in the warmer and restocking the empty rooms with bandaids.

I don't disagree... but is it really appropriate to "highlight" the face-to-face engagement portion of the experience and list all hundreds of hours of the experience if that portion was only 5% of the work? I know that it's done all the time, but I also don't think it is really a good experience to serve the underlying goal--which is to make sure that the student actually WANTS to interact with patients for the rest of their life.

As an interviewer, I would definitely ask specific probing questions to try and figure out how "clinical" applicants' clinical experiences were, and I suspect that applicants with superficial experiences would perform more poorly.

 

[LizzyM]

Even physicians are not spending 100% of their working time face-to-face with patients. Getting clinical experience can be very difficult for some applicants, and this was particularly true during the pandemic. Depending on whatever else the applicant brings to the table, the clinical volunteering may be relatively unimportant; this would be particularly true for those who go on to have paid clinical experience.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

The OP description looks clinical to me. I don't know why your advisor would say no unless it is a question of whether it counts as physician shadowing (which it doesn't).

 

[Mr.Smile12]

As an interviewer, I would definitely ask specific probing questions to try and figure out how "clinical" applicants' clinical experiences were, and I suspect that applicants with superficial experiences would perform more poorly.

Of course, it must pass muster in screening. That's why I ask my questions to the chair/s and dean/s... I need to score it on the rubric.

 

[LovetoDance007]

Hi everyone! Thank you so much I don’t want to say the position title as I have not seen another hospital outside of this network use this title. I totally understand the idea that a lot of the tasks seem non clinical; however, in hospital volunteer I feel like a lot of the things I did was non clinical (restocking supplies, etc). If hospital volunteer counts as clinical with this in mind does this one not count because it’s paid so more is expected?

 

[Mr.Smile12]

... If hospital volunteer counts as clinical with this in mind does this one not count because it’s paid so more is expected?

That's not how I think of the difference between clinical and non clinical. Getting paid vs volunteering doesn't change the value of your clinical experience.