High School Clinical Exposure

[SunnyFlower288]

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Hey all,
I'm new to SDN, so I thank you all in advance for your help. I hope I can help some of y'all out, too!

My question:

What clinical experience may I put on the AMCAS? I have extensive volunteer experience in the ER of a hospital (4 years), but this was during high school. I then went to college and did not volunteer (long-term commitment kind) until sophomore year. However, the volunteering I did in high school was pivotal for me: I saw my first person die there, got to know all the nurses on rotation, helped with patient histories, spoke to patient families, and learned about electronic data entry. Moreover, I got to learn how procedures were performed (ex: how to properly intubate someone and under what conditions). Can I mention this or other similar experiences from HS?

Is it always a NO to mention stuff from HS (I also did clinical research and interned for a pharmaceutical dev company)

Thanks again!

 

[funkymunkytoes]

I'd say for the activities/work experiences section, it's a no-no. However, you can include your high school experience in your personal statement, which is what a lot of applicants do.

 

[ksmi117]

The general consensus here is that unless you continued the activity into college, you should not put it in your Work/Activities part of the application. However, things like this are great for a Personal Statement... discussing why you want to be a doctor, how this experience changed your views of medicine, etc...

 

[SunnyFlower288]

So even though it's clinical research and long-term volunteering; don't include it? I didn't want to talk about this in my essay per se because I also have suffered from a medical illness, and I was planning on making my personal statement about that.

 

[ksmi117]

The AMCAS Work/Activities section is for post-high school experiences. It sucks, I know. Is there no way to work it into your PS? Your PS doesn't have to just be about one thing. For what you said, I'm sure this had a profound impact on your decision to be a doctor and would be perfect for your PS.

 

[SunnyFlower288]

Yeah, I suppose so. I just don't know how to write my personal statement to reflect EVERYTHING I want to say + clinical research + extensive hospital experience prior to college.

 

[LizzyM]

So even though it's clinical research and long-term volunteering; don't include it? I didn't want to talk about this in my essay per se because I also have suffered from a medical illness, and I was planning on making my personal statement about that.

HS clinical experiences are far better topic for a PS than writing about a medical illness. You aren't applying for admission as a patient.😉