help me decide what to do in my year off!

[jackson1]

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Ok so my dilema is that I don't know if I should nanny or work with a girl who has cerebral palsy in my year off-

option 1: Be a nanny, work M-F and have the weekends off

option 2: Be a caretaker for a disabled 29 year old with cerebral palsy and moderate ******ation, the girl is really sweet but the hours are awful- M-F 7am-8am to get her ready for school and weekends


I guess my main question is if med schools really care what I do during the year off. Obviously, option 2 is more medically related but option 1 would be much better in terms of having a life and going away on weekends. Any opinions?

 

[tiedyeddog]

I guess my main question is if med schools really care what I do during the year off. Obviously, option 2 is more medically related but option 1 would be much better in terms of having a life and going away on weekends. Any opinions?

If you can someone relate it to medicine if asked at an interview it doesn't matter. You could also volunteer or shadow during this time and cover your bases, that way you will have done something solidly related to medicine during this time.

 

[sarahl86]

I think option 2, because you can learn a lot from this kind of experience. I worked as a CNA in a group home for developmentally disabled adults and even though it was very difficult at times, I wouldn't trade the experience for anything. Just my $.02

 

[urrugby]

Neither option. Option 1 isn't relevant to med school, and admissions committees may hold that against you (or, at the very least, it's a missed opportunity for another talking point during an interview). Option 2 is more relevant, but if you're not happy with it, that's a terrible way to spend your year off. You should think broadly about health-related jobs that are going to make you happy for a year. Idealist.org is a great place to start.

 

[searun]

I was a construction worker during my two year hiatus between college and med school. It did not seem to be a problem. Just do some medical volunteer stuff and you will be fine. Be a nanny and volunteer. No point in being miserable. Working with a mentally disabled person is not going to get you into med school, anyway.

 

[AlbaMD]

Option 2. 7-8 am is really not bad, and will help you get used to med school routine of early mornings. Besides, it IS a good conversation point during the interviews.
Also, you'll have M-F off after 8 am. This gives you time to do something else meaningful to further strengthen your med school application, find another job, or just relax and do whatever you want.

 

[jackson1]

Wait so OP i have a question. So you only work 1 hour a day 7 days a week to help the cerebral palsy person??? How is that awful hours? For some reason I had this image of working 7 am one day til 8 am the next day. That's not awful hours at all. that's actually less hours then what you'd work as a nanny.

That said work in whichever job you will be more comfortable in. Like Searun said not everything in your app has to be medically related as long as you do some medical volunteerism and shadowing. Working as a nanny will also be as much of a good conversation starter as working as a caretaker for a CP patient.

Both show working with people skills that you need to work in medicine and taking care of people which you do as a physician. so technically if you wanted both could be related to medicine but people have done as diverse jobs as working in construction to working in counseling to baby sitting and nanny jobs to teaching and engineering jobs. Everyone can technically be related to medicine via the inherent qualities you took away from them that you will apply to a career in medicine.

Thanks for all the advice! It is only 1 hour M-F morning (6 hours each of the weekend days and Thursday night too), but the problem is that it's over a half an hour away from my house. It would be a bit of a trek to drive all the way out there just to drive back in an hour. I'm still thinking about it, but I'm leaning towards the nanny position and volunteering at a local hospital that I've been a volunteer at for a couple summers now.