First post on SDN, finally registered!

[macbethpoe]

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Hello, I have been a reader of SDN for around six months now. I have really enjoyed reading this site, there is tons of good information for pre-med, and also great stories from current med students, and lots of good tips!

Anyway, I thought I should wait to register until I actually was accepted to my University, and officially can say that I am "pre-med."

So to keep the tradition going, I figure I will go right ahead and ask a question right off the bat! haha. I am graduating LVN/LPN school in four weeks, and hopefully will be licensed within a couple months, and be employed shortly after that. I have done some research, and SEARCHED quite a bit on this site about whether LVN/LPN is good "clinical" experience for med school application. Some say nursing is great clinical experience. But as most of you know, LVN/LPN's predominantly work in skilled nursing facilities. And from that, I have read that this is not great clinical experience. After I am employed, I hope to gain as many certifications as possible, such as IV cert, wound cert, etc. With these I hope to work in as many different healthcare settings as possible, and do a wide variety of different nursing. So to make a short question long (sorry) what are your opinions on this subject?

Thank you in advance for any responses! 👍

 

[CodeBlu]

hopefully others with some more experience can chime in.

I think your nursing stuff will be great clinical experience.

 

[macbethpoe]

Hey code, thank you for the welcome! I plan to be a frequent flyer here for the next 7-8 years! haha At least I hope!

 

[SexyDoctor]

Welcome to our dysfunctional family! As long as you can *smell* the patient, it's a good enough clinical experience. (Thank you LizzyM for that golden quote)

 

[911 Turbo]

Hi there Josh!

 

[paul411]

From what I gleaned from Wikipedia, LVNs/LPNs do more than ER techs. I think that should be ample clinical experience.

 

[macbethpoe]

hahahaha well I almost can't smell the patients anymore I have become so immune to it. It takes something very foul these days to make me cringe. That's almost something to be proud of I suppose, in some twisted way lol.

 

[1TB4RKSB4CK]

 

[ozzi22]

 

[loveoforganic]

This isn't what you asked, but don't over commit yourself to EC's from the get go. I would focus on school and adjusting (socially, living, etc.) at least up through your first block of tests (probably 6-8 weeks into the year). From there, if you feel like you've got time to start committing regularly to other activities, build up your EC's.

 

[macbethpoe]

This isn't what you asked, but don't over commit yourself to EC's from the get go. I would focus on school and adjusting (socially, living, etc.) at least up through your first block of tests (probably 6-8 weeks into the year). From there, if you feel like you've got time to start committing regularly to other activities, build up your EC's.

Yeah I agree, I don't plan to work full time, and trust me I didn't go to nursing school just to get clinical experience for med school application haha. My father works at the school and I was able to go for free, and it was a good step into the medical field, and I also have a daughter and fiance, so it will be a good source of income. I actually didn't get my desire to be a doctor until I started the program, I had thought about it before. But now it's the only option that I will allow myself to do just because of the passion I have to be a doctor.

 

[WeAreNotRobots]

Thank you in advance for any responses! 👍

Are you really sure you searched first?

Kidding. Welcome, and it sounds like great clinical experience. Just be careful to balance this with your school work and social life. An unbalanced first year can result in a lot of regrets.

 

[AvidAvatar]

Welcome to our dysfunctional family! As long as you can *smell* the patient, it's a good enough clinical experience. (Thank you LizzyM for that golden quote)

Well in that case I should keep shadowing pathologists. Lots of patients to smell there.🤣

 

[senorsquishie]

Hello! Welcome!

To answer you question, I think their are people here who have far last clinical experience who still get into medical school!

Also, as a quick aside, you may want to edit your post to exclude your name. Med school adcom frequent this site, as do your fellow canidates. You don't want anything you post here to be connected with you personally 🙂

 

[Catalystik]

I am graduating LVN/LPN school in four weeks, and hopefully will be licensed within a couple months, and be employed shortly after that.

But as most of you know, LVN/LPN's predominantly work in skilled nursing facilities. And from that, I have read that this is not great clinical experience.

So to make a short question long (sorry) what are your opinions on this subject?

I think this will be a terrific source of clinical experience. And, as physicians generally visit their patients in such facilities, you'll also have the opportunity to make contacts with docs whom you can eventually ask for clinic-based shadowing experiences.

 

[Doctor246853]

Welcome Josh to this hell hole..I mean SDN🙄
You lpn will be great. Get paid more that most of us premeds and great clinical. You will have alot of coworkers pushing you toward RN. Trust me.

 

[macbethpoe]

Thanks for all the replies, it is much appreciated! And also, thanks for the advice about the name, didn't think about that.

And trust me, I hear the RN thing all the time already, and nurse practitioner, I don't really tell a lot of people about my aspirations to become a physician, everyone is an expert it seems when it comes to what being a doctor is like, and why it's a bad idea haha, well, not all, but some.