EMS and experience ?

[kentavr]

---

Members do not see this ad.

Hi All,
I am planning to volunteer in a local EMS group. One of the reasons is to see if I am doing the right decision to go to medical school. (Reality check  🙂 )

Does anybody know if EMS (EMT-B) may be consider as a clinical experience in admission to med school or should I find something else in addition? Any suggestions?

Thanks,
kentavr

 

[spicedmanna]

Hi All,
I am planning to volunteer in a local EMS group. One of the reasons is to see if I am doing the right decision to go to medical school. (Reality check  🙂 )

Does anybody know if EMS (EMT-B) may be consider as a clinical experience in admission to med school or should I find something else in addition? Any suggestions?

Thanks,
kentavr

Yes, actual field experience as an EMT-B is definitely considered clinical experience, as is anything that puts in you direct contact with pt's; as LizzyM says, "if you can smell pt's, then it's a clinical experience." The great thing about EMT-B and similar type jobs is that you actually get to interact with the pt in a therapeutic capacity.

Keep in mind, however, that being an EMT-B is different than being a physician. While you will certainly receive pt exposure and get to practice some limited aspects of medicine as an EMT-B, I highly recommend that you at least shadow a few doctors to get the full picture of what doctors do.

 

[kentavr]

I highly recommend that you at least shadow a few doctors to get the full picture of what doctors do.

Thanks for reply! What "shadow a doctor" means?

 

[spicedmanna]

Thanks for reply! What "shadow a doctor" means?

Basically it's a fancy way of describing an experience where you follow a doctor around as he or she does everything he or she usually does during a full rotation; this might mean going on rounds and seeing pt's in the wards, observing the H & P (histories and physical assessments) process, seeing the diagnostic process as it is ocurring (ordering tests, researching relevant material, crunching pt data from labs and studies, looking at prior medical Hx, putting together the presenting signs and symptoms, coming up with a differential diagnosis), observing the interaction of the doctor with the other clinical staff (the project management and consultation process) and the pt's family members, and coming into contact with the enormous amount of paper work that needs to completed in order to ensure the continuity of care and insurance compliance. There's more, but I think covered the basic idea. Figuratively speaking, you are the doctor's "shadow" for the shift.

 

[IgnisDU]

Hi All,
I am planning to volunteer in a local EMS group. One of the reasons is to see if I am doing the right decision to go to medical school. (Reality check ? 🙂 )

Does anybody know if EMS (EMT-B) may be consider as a clinical experience in admission to med school or should I find something else in addition? Any suggestions?

Thanks,
kentavr

I'm an EMT-B and I worked for a local ambulance company... but I found that while I liked the patient experience, the coworkers were mostly bastards. it was blue collar hell. I've gone back to lab work and i'm volunteering with the national ms society to get some patient experience.

in an ideal world I'll get into a MD/PhD program and do molecular pathology goodness!

 

[DrMidlife]

Where I live, it takes about 100 hours of training to be an EMS, and you have to get "sponsored" by an organization in order to get certified and get work. I don't think any of this is particularly hard, and CPR/first aid/etc. is worth learning regardless.

I opted to get my "clinical experience" mainly from ER volunteering. I love it. 4 hrs/wk for 2 years seems sufficient to me, since I've got 20 years of non-health job experience on the side.

Also for me it's tough to get my brain around the difference between a $10/hr job and volunteering. (I worked plenty at minimum wage when min wage was $3, but I've made a bit more since...) If I get paid $10/hr to get an experience I want/need, fine, but "volunteering to volunteer" has opened some doors for me.

 

[Silver4]

Show me a clinic where, to volunteer, you must have CPR for the Professional Rescuer, 120 hours of classroom time, 24 hours of ride-ons and observation, and a state certification. Show me ER volunteer work where it's you, your partner, the patient, and a radio uplink to the hospital if you're lucky. Show me a physician, who, when you are shadowing with him/her, will let you take a history and do an exam, much less make and act on patient care decisions. Show me a volunteer position other than EMS where you must work a minimum of 12 hours a week, rain or shine, holiday or not.

As an EMT in a rescue squad, you learn to think on your feet, to relate to patients in difficult situations, and ellicit uncomfortable information from them (to the middle aged professional who looks like he's having a heart attack: "sir, have you taken viagra in the past 24 hours?") and, finally, to perform interventions ranging from simple bandaging and oxygen administration to backboarding, traction splinting, and airway placement.

Pre-med volunteerism comes in all shapes and sizes, and most opportunities are worthwhile. If all you want to do is get into medical school, EMS is probably not for you. It takes a certain level of commitment and grit, hard-headedness and attitude.

But if you can sweat through class, and certifications, and being the newbie, when you're finally a part of the EMS family - you'll never regret it.

In other words... don't knock EMS. 🙂

 

[Dr.sleepykitty]

So the post above me.. is two sided.. for me it encourages me that EMT is definetly the right route, in terms of getting a pay check while getting patient experience! :0

 

[sudongpo]

EMT experience is highly regarded by adcoms and it gives one things to write/talk about in the admissions game.

I hated being an EMT 90% of the time, so did 100% of my colleagues. Chances are that being non-traditional makes you many years older than many EMT's. Being college educated will set you apart from 99% of people in EMS.

But you should take the pay cut/pride cut/prestige cut because it's legitimate clincal experience. It signals commitment.

It got me into med school after 2 previous attempts. The only difference the third time was the EMT. Same MCAT, GPA.

 

[LifetimeDoc]

I actually would like to be an EMT and get the experience. However I want to be a physician more, and the two are very different fields. The pre-hospital setting can be exciting with all kinds of cool medical stuff to do at the scene and enroute. However, you are not getting to see the real work of a physician such as doing rounds, diagnosing, filling out paperwork, talking with patients and family members, etc. I'd use a volunteer EMT stat as a fun and clinically-related volunteer experience. But it is no substitute for shadowing, and doesn't make you "better" than the regular volunteers giving their time at the ED, hospital, or at their local high-school.

 

[notdeadyet]

OP- EMT work can be fun or drudgery, depending on what calls you company gets and what you consider interesting.

But please BEWARE of tailoring your experiences too much entirely around EMS. Being an EMT is a great job, but from working with an adcom, she said they get literally hundreds of applications that fall into what is known as the "Sirens Screaming In the Night" pile. Don't try to get too crusty in your app.

I worked as an EMT with ambulance and enjoyed it. It can be great clinical experience, but it's not a substitute for a wide variety of volunteer experience exposing you to other aspects of healthcare.

 

[Guyton]

I worked for five years as an EMT-intermediate before entering medical school. It was excelent experience and I absolutley loved it. There is no replacement for the sort of in-crisis decision making EMS provides you with. As well, if you work for a reasonably high-volume service with 911 coverage you will get more clinical experience and procedures in your first six weeks than during your first two years of medical school. I am still the go to guy for IV access and intubation's when no one else in-house can get them.
That said, it will by no means garauntee your admission to medical school. For good or ill, the medical admissions process is largely dependant on the quantitative GPAs and MCAT scores associated with applicants. You absolutely must have the numbers to get your application off the secretary's desk and into the admissions commitee's hands.
After you achive that, EMS experiece will make you a much more interesting candadite and will help you stand out from the 3.75 GPA, 10/10/10 MCAT, biology majors with "a love of science and a strong desire to help people." Such experience just about locks any interview you get because you will have plenty to talk about in your interview other than that summer volunteer work in the nursing home- YAWN.

-Guyton