Gap Year: MPH vs vs EMS Work Experience

[SD.Surgery]

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Hello Everyone,
Just a bit of a background: I had to delay my MCAT until Sept 2017 because I didn't have time this semester to fully dedicate myself to MCAT prep. I do have good grades, leadership, clinical, and volunteering experiences, so my MCAT is the only thing that delayed me this cycle.

As a result, I will be applying to medical school my senior year and will have one year off before I hopefully start medical school. My plan for this gap year was to either do an MPH (I am very interested in healthcare policy that addresses EMS and ER services) or work full time with my local ambulance service as an EMT (I have a large interest in EMS and think I could really learn a lot about health disparities in my community). Since I would be happy doing either, do you have any advise on which of these two routes I should follow that would look best for medical school?

I am a long term planner so which of these two experiences would also look the best for residency? I am thinking about pursuing critical care surgery in the future.

 

[Gibbward]

Hello Everyone,
Just a bit of a background: I had to delay my MCAT until Sept 2017 because I didn't have time this semester to fully dedicate myself to MCAT prep. I do have good grades, leadership, clinical, and volunteering experiences, so my MCAT is the only thing that delayed me this cycle.

As a result, I will be applying to medical school my senior year and will have one year off before I hopefully start medical school. My plan for this gap year was to either do an MPH (I am very interested in healthcare policy that addresses EMS and ER services) or work full time with my local ambulance service as an EMT (I have a large interest in EMS and think I could really learn a lot about health disparities in my community). Since I would be happy doing either, do you have any advise on which of these two routes I should follow that would look best for medical school?

I am a long term planner so which of these two experiences would also look the best for residency? I am thinking about pursuing critical care surgery in the future.

I say go for the work experience. The MPH won't really add too much to your application (unless maybe if you can get some really productive health care policy projects done), and you get to learn a lot of hands on skills/experiences that you can really talk about if you try to be an EMS instead.

Also, AFAIK I don't think any of these pre-med things would affect your residency chances. That's mostly gonna be based on your body of work in med school.

 

[Shotapp]

Are you currently certified as an EMT-B?

 

[SD.Surgery]

Are you currently certified as an EMT-B?

Yes, I have been an EMT-B since 2014. I have standby work experience, but not with an ambulance service.

 

[CyrilFiggis]

Do the EMT and be aware of the community. You can learn a lot about the social determinants of your community by doing so. This way on your app and in interviews you can talk about patient encounters and what it was like to work with that population.

 

[wholeheartedly]

Most MPH programs are two years unless you already have a professional doctoral degree. It's also not cheap. I wouldn't recommend it unless you have solid plans for how you intend to use it, not just as a gap year filler.

Don't get me wrong, it's an awesome degree. I've had a blast getting mine.
As far as the claim that it won't really help with med school apps, I think it depends on how you expect it to help and how you go about things. For example it won't overcome poor UG grades. If you just do the minimum to get your diploma, it probably won't be really impressive either. On the other hand, if you really throw yourself into it and make the most of the opportunities (field experiences, volunteering opps, masters project, student groups, etc) it opens up for you, you can walk away with some great ECs and stuff to write/talk about.

I got to volunteer at our student run free clinic, participate in interesting clinical research projects, meet great advisors, be a grant reviewer for Ryan White HIV/AIDS programs, student run ID journal club, among other cool stuff.

That said, its still expensive and probably not worth the time or money if you aren't absolutely certain you want/need it. You can always do it later on in your training and often for less money.

 

[SD.Surgery]

Most MPH programs are two years unless you already have a professional doctoral degree. It's also not cheap. I wouldn't recommend it unless you have solid plans for how you intend to use it, not just as a gap year filler.

Don't get me wrong, it's an awesome degree. I've had a blast getting mine.
As far as the claim that it won't really help with med school apps, I think it depends on how you expect it to help and how you go about things. For example it won't overcome poor UG grades. If you just do the minimum to get your diploma, it probably won't be really impressive either. On the other hand, if you really throw yourself into it and make the most of the opportunities (field experiences, volunteering opps, masters project, student groups, etc) it opens up for you, you can walk away with some great ECs and stuff to write/talk about.

I got to volunteer at our student run free clinical, participate in interesting clinical research projects, meet great advisors, be a grant reviewer for Ryan White HIV/AIDS programs, student run ID journal club, among other cool stuff.

That said, its still expensive and probably not worth the time or money if you aren't absolutely certain you want/need it. You can always do it later on in your training and often for less money.

Thank you for the advise! I am looking at 1 year programs like OU, Dartmouth, and Northwestern even without a doctoral degree. I am an Oklahoma resident, so the in-state tuition at OU is not bad compared to the other programs. I am definitely not just looking at doing an MPH for my resume, I truly want to learn more about health administration and health policy (which will most likely be my MPH focus). I think that learning about these topics before medical school can also set me up to do interesting projects during my time there. During Summer 2018, I would start applying to medical school and hopefully get interviews that Fall 2018. I also will start my MPH or EMS work in the Fall 2018, so I don't think medical school would be able to see these experiences unless I talk about them in my interviews.

I think am leaning more towards the MPH just because I was going to do that anyways even if I did go straight into medical school after graduation. Would you have any other MPH programs to recommend that are 1 year or have any thoughts on the programs I mentioned? Also, did you do your MPH before medical school?

 

[Medic741]

My EMS experience (6 yrs) was *invaluable* for opening a lot of doors. PM me if you want.

Actually working in EMS is totally different than doing standby. You'll see a slice of the world that you haven't experienced before and be confronted with a lot of unique challenges that you'll grow from a lot, esp. in the department of resilience/leadership

 

[wholeheartedly]

Thank you for the advise! I am looking at 1 year programs like OU, Dartmouth, and Northwestern even without a doctoral degree. I am an Oklahoma resident, so the in-state tuition at OU is not bad compared to the other programs. I am definitely not just looking at doing an MPH for my resume, I truly want to learn more about health administration and health policy (which will most likely be my MPH focus). I think that learning about these topics before medical school can also set me up to do interesting projects during my time there. During Summer 2018, I would start applying to medical school and hopefully get interviews that Fall 2018. I also will start my MPH or EMS work in the Fall 2018, so I don't think medical school would be able to see these experiences unless I talk about them in my interviews.

I think am leaning more towards the MPH just because I was going to do that anyways even if I did go straight into medical school after graduation. Would you have any other MPH programs to recommend that are 1 year or have any thoughts on the programs I mentioned? Also, did you do your MPH before medical school?

I'm not really familiar with programs other than my own. I'm just finishing my MPH now and I haven't applied to medical school yet. I only did it this way because of a unique situation. I've been working on it part-time while working a fulltime professional position at a major medical center and they gave me some tuition reimbursement. I've really, really enjoyed it though. My major focus is Epidemiology.

 

[SD.Surgery]

My EMS experience (6 yrs) was *invaluable* for opening a lot of doors. PM me if you want.

Actually working in EMS is totally different than doing standby. You'll see a slice of the world that you haven't experienced before and be confronted with a lot of unique challenges that you'll grow from a lot, esp. in the department of resilience/leadership

I'm not really familiar with programs other than my own. I'm just finishing my MPH now and I haven't applied to medical school yet. I only did it this way because of a unique situation. I've been working on it part-time while working a fulltime professional position at a major medical center and they gave me some tuition reimbursement. I've really, really enjoyed it though. My major focus is Epidemiology.

Hello Medic741 and Wholeheartedly, what do you both think of this plan so I can have the best of both worlds of doing an MPH and experiencing EMS:

MPH Program: University of Arizona Online MPH in Health Services Administration - This is a program that allows students to do one course at a time every 7.5 weeks over a course of 2-6 years depending on the student.

This MPH program is designed for working professionals so while I do this, I could still work for my ambulance service and gain that experience there. This MPH focus will allow me to apply what I learn to my experiences with my EMS service and its administration. I would do as much of my MPH as I can during Summer 2018-Summer 2019, and hopefully I get into medical school in Spring 2019-where I will continue my MPH at a slower pace during the first two years. Another note: maybe my final MPH practicum project can have something to do with my EMS job and my experiences there if I get to work with their administration.

I really like this plan but please provide me any criticisms you may think of! I greatly appreciate your help.

 

[wholeheartedly]

Hello Medic741 and Wholeheartedly, what do you both think of this plan so I can have the best of both worlds of doing an MPH and experiencing EMS:

MPH Program: University of Arizona Online MPH in Health Services Administration - This is a program that allows students to do one course at a time every 7.5 weeks over a course of 2-6 years depending on the student.

This MPH program is designed for working professionals so while I do this, I could still work for my ambulance service and gain that experience there. This MPH focus will allow me to apply what I learn to my experiences with my EMS service and its administration. I would do as much of my MPH as I can during Summer 2018-Summer 2019, and hopefully I get into medical school in Spring 2019-where I will continue my MPH at a slower pace during the first two years. Another note: maybe my final MPH practicum project can have something to do with my EMS job and my experiences there if I get to work with their administration.

I really like this plan but please provide me any criticisms you may think of! I greatly appreciate your help.

It's accredited so that's huge. It's a good option to tie things together.

My biggest concerns would be missing out on all of the awesome things/opportunities going on on campus (class discussions, networking, journal club, cool seminars, whatever event is advertised on the posters in the grad student lounge, class happy hour, etc). You'll note in my description that a lot of my neat experiences probably wouldn't have been available as an online student. The other is that, after having a lot of experiences with online courses, they are really hit or miss and I feel like a lot of unnecessary junk gets added just to ensure the students are working (not necessarily learning).

I lived and worked in a town that was a 1.5 to 2 hr commute to my grad program, so while I wasn't an online student I also didn't always feel like an on campus student either. Public health is a very team oriented sport. I'm more on the introvert side of the spectrum but one of my favorite things about the degree was all the interaction with my amazing classmates. It was so different from undergrad. People were incredibly accomplished for their ages, very collaborative, and came from so many different backgrounds and fields that it really added to discussions in and out of class. You have docs, vets, biologists, dentists, nurses, social workers, nutritionists, across the age spectrum and from all over the world, and on and on.

I had one class with about 35 ppl, and it seemed no matter what topic we discussed, there was always at least one or two people who had some experience with it. We talked about HIV and needle exchange programs plusses and minuses and someone asked a question and the prof wasn't sure. He asked if anyone had experience with a needle exchange program and a woman's hand shot up. She'd helped manage one. That was pretty common.

I've got a weird educational background, been a few places in some very different program and I honestly don't think you'll find a better group of classmates.

Another issue I ran into was not being able to take advantage of things like an international field experience (have a global health focus) or cool local internships because I was tied to my real job. Having the freedom to dive into whatever comes your way is pretty great.

I just feel like I've gotten as much if not more value from the outside class parts of the degree as the coursework.

As far as doing the degree while working, it can sometimes feel like you're serving two competing masters even if everyone is supportive of what you're doing. I felt obligated to prioritize work because they were kicking in for my tuition. In some ways that might've ultimately backfired a bit.


But don't think its a bad idea to tie an online MPH to your EMS work if that's what younwant to do. If you're able to do this well, you could wind up with some pretty interesting projects.

 

[SD.Surgery]

Thanks for the feedback! I posted another thread just a second ago to see if anyone did a masters program that I am also now interested in. I am hoping to find a premed/med student that did that program so I can ask them some questions. Could you all take a look at this potential plan and let me know if you have any feedback?

Boston University Healthcare Emergency Management Masters???

If I did the BU HEM program, then I would do the MPH later on in my career during residency or my fellowship. I dont want that two year AU MPH online program to conflict with MS1 if I do get in. This HEM program is 1 year online, aligns with my interests in EMS and policy, and would also allow me to work in EMS full time in my home state.