Explanation of why experience is meaningful

[Didntdoit]

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"I worked with individuals who did not have the means to pay for treatment. I learned how important free clinics are in addressing the health care needs of the uninsured. Free clinics have become the last thread in the very stressed health care safety net in the United States. I saw firsthand how stressed the American health care system truly is. Appointments were booked weeks in advance, and there were lines out the door and into the parking lot for the Saturday walk-in clinic.

I was able to observe how important affordable prescription drugs and medical supplies are for the proper treatment of patients. I heard how grateful patients were that their prescriptions to drugs were being provided free of charge. The same can be said for glucose meters and glucose testing strips for diabetics.

My volunteer experience gave me a tremendous amount of insight into not only how the medical system works behind the scenes, but it also gave me a huge amount of respect for the secretaries and other clerical staff that make up a medical team."

How does it look?

 

[aSagacious]

Rather than make judgements/criticisms about the field of healthcare in general, try instead to address how it led to your maturation or personal development. As stated by AMCAS, "when writing your response, you might want to consider the transformative nature of the experience, the impact you made while engaging in the activity, and the personal growth you experienced as a result of your participation."

 

[flatearth22]

Since this is the first year AMCAS is asking for this, I don't think med schools will put as big an emphasis on them as they do other parts of your application like the PS or the secondary questions.

For one of mine I just expanded on what I did (could not fit into 750 characters).

For another one I talked about how the experience allowed me to see things and interact with patients.

For the last I talked about working together in a team and leading my peers.

There isn't much of a precedent as to what worked and what didn't as this is the first time AMCAS is doing this and the first time med schools will see it so use your best judgment

 

[Didntdoit]

Since this is the first year AMCAS is asking for this, I don't think med schools will put as big an emphasis on them as they do other parts of your application like the PS or the secondary questions.

For one of mine I just expanded on what I did (could not fit into 750 characters).

For another one I talked about how the experience allowed me to see things and interact with patients.

For the last I talked about working together in a team and leading my peers.

There isn't much of a precedent as to what worked and what didn't as this is the first time AMCAS is doing this and the first time med schools will see it so use your best judgment

I feel like the "growth" part overlaps a lot with what is in my PS and how I ended up in primary care. I don't like this section at all.

 

[music2doc]

I have to agree w/ the first response. It sounds sort of naive to me. Sure, free/indigent care clinics ARE important but they're not "the last line of defense" in an "already strained healthcare system" or whatever. They're simply one hopefully short-term solution to a major problem (i.e., if anything, we would likely want to develop our system beyond needing such programs since such programs simply cannot provide the level of care that other programs can due to all sorts of natural budgetary and personnel/scope of practice restrictions inherent in such a model).

As suggested, talk about this transformative experience and what it did in you. Trust me, just about every major ED in the country takes more indigent pts and does more charity care in a single 12-hr shift than most free clinics do in a week of operation. The ED I work in right now expects to make an average of $25/pt and typically we fall below that goal (in a typical month we are at about 50% of that goal and the slack is picked up by other depts). Considering that the average ED bill is at least $1000 (the initial triage assessment and physician's assessment w/o care beyond food and a saline drip comes out to about $900), that means we are NOT being paid by 99% of our ED patients who owe the hospital! (This excludes pts in Tricare, Medicare, Medicaid, etc. who do not owe a copay, which probably make up about 50% of our pt load) At 120,000 pt visits/yr, we have a throughput of nearly 60,000 charity pts/yr! Does your free clinic do that? I didn't think so. Just a reality check there. 😉 Nevertheless, I do agree free clinics are VERY important and am a huge proponent of them. I simply think you need to keep in mind their limitations. They will likely never be able to satisfy the needs of the community because they lack the funding and b/c most are run by volunteers. The work and resources have to come from somewhere. Somebody's footing the bill. At this point in time, it's hospitals. (The above also explains why your sprained ankle that required nothing more than a cold pack and a pair of otherwise inexpensive crutches cost you $1,200 at the ED last summer. The fact is you're not just paying for your own care but also for everyone else's that came in that day and didn't pay.)

 

[raltima07]

I don't like this section at all.

I agree 100%

 

[Didntdoit]

I agree 100%

I know this **** is all that I have left to fill out on my primary.