Hospital jobs for Pre-med Students???

[Story8]

I'm having a hard time finding a job that suits my full-time school schedule. However, I really need to work. I cannot live with my family anymore. I will lose my mind, or just have an even slower chance at getting into med school because of the chaos.

My parents think it's good that I focus on school and not work, which I agreed for a while, but I'm 25 now (single of course)--I will never truly progress as an individual while constantly depending on them. I am aiming for a hospital job. I have a little hospital experience that includes volunteering and I am CPR certified. I also have a strong background in office work. I apply endlessly to these jobs that I feel I am well-suited for, but I'm not getting any callbacks, let alone responses for an interview.

I've worked the non-hospital job settings before, but at this point, I'd like to gain more hospital experience, especially before applying to med school. Any suggestions or tips on what I should be aiming for, or how to get that opportunity to atleast be interviewed at these hospitals?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[plzNOCarribbean]

I'm having a hard time finding a job that suits my full-time school schedule. However, I really need to work. I cannot live with my family anymore. I will lose my mind, or just have an even slower chance at getting into med school because of the chaos.

My parents think it's good that I focus on school and not work, which I agreed for a while, but I'm 25 now (single of course)--I will never truly progress as an individual while constantly depending on them. I am aiming for a hospital job. I have a little hospital experience that includes volunteering and I am CPR certified. I also have a strong background in office work. I apply endlessly to these jobs that I feel I am well-suited for, but I'm not getting any callbacks, let alone responses for an interview.

I've worked the non-hospital job settings before, but at this point, I'd like to gain more hospital experience, especially before applying to med school. Any suggestions or tips on what I should be aiming for, or how to get that opportunity to atleast be interviewed at these hospitals?

if you have a strong background in office work, you could be an ER secretary or administrative assistant. It pays decent, although you would probably have to work FULL TIME in order to support yourself. I know the feeling man, and I am only 21 years old. I have my own place (partly rents pay for it/part scholarship/part student loan) but next year I am going back to my original city and my dilemma is to move back in with my rents and save money on rent OR move into a house with two of my buddies (both business majors)

I must say, you should really keep your grades in mind though. It is very,very difficult to work full-time and maintain necessary grades to get in. One guy I knew, 26, had his wide take and extra job just so he could be a full time student, and he had 2 kids!!! You may also want to look into scribing jobs. Physician assistant scribes in Texas hires scribes to follow doctors and chart for them. Pays decent, awesome experience, and you could prob get great rec's from it. That will be my full time job next year after i graduate in between my gap year, but luckily i wont have school. Your situations a bit different. Gluck though

 

[PinkStarburst]

I suggest being a scribe. I am currently working as one and it is the most flexible job ever! I am not sure where you are from and I know someone who is working as a scribe under scribeamerica (http://www.scribeamerica.com/). I'm employed through a different company. I'm not sure how scribe america works but my company only hires people part time (which sucks since I'm out of school but was helpful when I was studying the MCAT). I agree with the above poster about it not being able to make you completely independent when working part time.

I definitely got a lot of experience from working as a scribe and always got asked about my it during my interviews. I also got the director and assistant director to write me recommendation letters.

Hope that helped. Good luck!

 

[Story8]

Thanks to you both. I'm looking into it. I was not that aware of this type of job or it's flexibility. Thanks again!

 

[startswithb]

Most hospitals have all their job listings online. Just keep browsing them until you find something you like/qualify for.

 

[apumic]

Unit Secretary (often requires CNA, EMT, RMA, or similar); CNA (requires CNA, sometimes EMT instead); ED Tech, Urgent Care Tech, Critical Care Tech (generally require EMT-B or higher); Patient Registration (prior experience often helpful/req'd); Scribe; food service; maintenance/housekeeping; childcare workers; IT/customer service/network mgmt/etc.; bookstore cashier; other sales associates; volunteer coordinators; valet drivers; bus drivers (multihospital systems); security; etc. My suggestion would be to get on the local hospitals' websites and start searching openings. Every healthcare system is going to have different needs. Also, keep in mind that some of the above positions may be contracted out to other companies so going to the hospital itself and walking around and asking people might be helpful. (Do it casually, not awkwardly, but if you walked up to a security officer and asked about becoming security at that hospital, they'd probably point you in the right direction. If you're ever in the ER as a patient or visiting a friend, you can always approach a scribe and ask him/her, although you want to do so when they're not busy. They'll be pretty annoyed if you start asking questions and they miss their doc's orders because you were distracting them.)

 

[Geekchick921]

I wouldn't say unit secretary often requires those things. It's usually just things like previous medical/hospital secretary experience, computer literacy and word processing and knowledge of Microsoft Office software, and knowledge of medical terminology.

Now, I've seen jobs that are listed as like Nurse Aid/Clerk and they want to hire one person for both things, but the unit secretary job I had (and the ones I've looked into since leaving that position because I missed it) never required anything like that. They just wanted me to be CPR certified because I worked on a patient floor, and they held the class for employees right there.

 

[apumic]

I wouldn't say unit secretary often requires those things. It's usually just things like previous medical/hospital secretary experience, computer literacy and word processing and knowledge of Microsoft Office software, and knowledge of medical terminology.

Now, I've seen jobs that are listed as like Nurse Aid/Clerk and they want to hire one person for both things, but the unit secretary job I had (and the ones I've looked into since leaving that position because I missed it) never required anything like that. They just wanted me to be CPR certified because I worked on a patient floor, and they held the class for employees right there.

My experience has been that if you lack experience, a US position is pretty hard to come by. At the hospitals where I've worked, the positions are usually US/CNA or US/[Dept.] Tech, so they require the CNA or appropriate Tech cert(s). A lot depends on where the OP lives though.

 

[bucks2010]

Agree that a lot of what you can do depends on your state of residence. For example, there aren't any scribing jobs in my state, but you don't have to have a CNA cert to be an aide in a hospital setting. Keep applying but try and find an "in" besides just applying on company websites. The hospital system I just got a job with told us in orientation that they receive 9000 applications every month. Keep at it.

 

[ShayanMoosa]

I would also suggest looking for a medical scribe position. The hours are often flexible (depending on the hospital) and you are constantly learning the knowledge and skills you will need for medical school.

 

[rxlea]

We have a medical student working in our inpatient pharmacy (full time- he's nuts). Unfortunately, as most other tech jobs, it requires certification.

 

[apumic]

Agree that a lot of what you can do depends on your state of residence. For example, there aren't any scribing jobs in my state, but you don't have to have a CNA cert to be an aide in a hospital setting. Keep applying but try and find an "in" besides just applying on company websites. The hospital system I just got a job with told us in orientation that they receive 9000 applications every month. Keep at it.

ED Tech jobs here get 100-200 applications per position. They typically interview 5-10 of those applicants and pick 1. CNA jobs are supposedly equally difficult to get as are patient registration positions. They are looking for specific things. That said, if you keep trying, with enough effort you'll probably snag one eventually.

 

[organdonor]

Some good suggestions already. Just a couple things to add:
I similarly applied to every clinically relevant position that didn't require a degree. I got turned down. Then I got a call from the food service department and they offered me a job. I took patients meals from the kitchen and delivered them to the patients in their rooms. That allowed me to build up a reputation with the nursing staff as "that food service guy who goes the extra mile." Simple stuff like setting up a tray table when others wouldn't. That gave me my "in" to be able to get a tech job. A good portion of the food service staff had this idea of doing it in order to transfer out. I don't know your timetable, but at my hospital we had to be in one department for 6 months in order to apply to another one. Of course at 6 months and one day I had my application in to my favorite nursing unit (that was another perk of the job, I knew all the good units/bad units and could apply appropriately).

I think someone said above that pharm techs require certification, but many positions will hire you as long as you get certified within 6 months of your hire.

 

[Suncrusher]

We have a medical student working in our inpatient pharmacy (full time- he's nuts). Unfortunately, as most other tech jobs, it requires certification.

 

[NYRN]

I suggest being a scribe. I am currently working as one and it is the most flexible job ever! I am not sure where you are from and I know someone who is working as a scribe under scribeamerica (http://www.scribeamerica.com/). I'm employed through a different company. I'm not sure how scribe america works but my company only hires people part time (which sucks since I'm out of school but was helpful when I was studying the MCAT). I agree with the above poster about it not being able to make you completely independent when working part time.

I definitely got a lot of experience from working as a scribe and always got asked about my it during my interviews. I also got the director and assistant director to write me recommendation letters.

Hope that helped. Good luck!

One of our attendings was a scribe before she was in medical school and she says she learned a great deal doing it.

 

[rxlea]

Yeah- working while in professional school is no fun. I work 20 hours a week and I am like the walking dead some days. Get used to sleep deprivation now, my friend.

 

[Harry Bush]

There are always per-deim jobs at the hospital and they are always flexible. I work as an ER registrar. Just tell them you want to be per-deim and they will hire you because they won't give you benefits.