Hospital Jobs

[sunshine02]

What are some jobs at the hospitals that offer good experience for someone wanting to see if med school is for them, look good on med school applications, and that college students can get? I know EMT-B and CNA is one but there are no training centers around the area where I live.

Perhaps there are some other suggestions? I prefer work because I need to pay off college, but if anyone has volunteer suggestions, I'm more than happy to check them out. Thanks!

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[CeeEstee0]

Phlebotomy.
http://www.howtobecomeaphlebotomist.com/

ER Scribe
http://www.eccpa.org/Scribes/BecomeScribe/index.html

Unfortunately, if there are no training centers for EMT's or CNA's in your area it is unlikely there are for these positions either.

 

[dougfunnie]

Seriously? EMT-B and CNA I are taught at many community colleges. Even if a course isn't offered at your local CC, many will offer online hybrid courses so that you only have to meet on campus a few times.

 

[TheMightySmiter]

Patient transporter is a good one, lots of patient contact and usually no training required.

 

[Morzh]

It's not clinical in the traditional sense, but being a HUC doesn't require any special training. Or you could get a job that's more on the billing/insurance side of things. That's what I did. I was the guy who went into every ED patient's room sometime during their visit and got all their demographic and insurance info (and took their $200 copays). I linked medical records from previous admissions. I helped uninsured patients apply for medicaid if they were eligible. And a bunch of other random crap.

A lot of times I actually talked to the patients longer than their doctor did . It wasn't starting IVs or updating vitals or wiping butts, but I still dealt with everyone--druggies, nice old ladies, friends who broke their ankle playing intramurals, pissed-off patients, malingering patients, families of dead patients--everyone. Plus I got to know all the staff really well and got the equivalent of hundreds, if not thousands, of shadowing hours (worked for over 3 years) talking to the docs and watching them when I had downtime.

If nothing else it taught me how to read people quickly and talk to stressed-out patients. Plus it taught me a ton about how insurance and the business side of medicine works. I had several interviewers give me very positive feedback about that job. One even explicitly stated that, to him, it was a much more worthwhile premed job than being a CNA or EMT, because med school will teach you what you need to know about patient care, but getting a good feel for the insurance/medicaid/medicare world is something many doctors never understand until they've been practicing for years.

 

[lobo.solo]

I've been a medical assistant for about 3 years. It's been great because it has given me the opportunity to be closer to patients and the care they are receiving

 

[physcigirl27]

if there's any way you can scribe, do that. Amazing experience!! I've been doing it for 3 years and its still awesome!

 

[Santorum Surge]

What are some jobs at the hospitals that offer good experience for someone wanting to see if med school is for them, look good on med school applications, and that college students can get? I know EMT-B and CNA is one but there are no training centers around the area where I live.

Perhaps there are some other suggestions? I prefer work because I need to pay off college, but if anyone has volunteer suggestions, I'm more than happy to check them out. Thanks!

Find a CNA class, mine was a lot of fun and was only $1800 and totally worth it. Good luck!

 

[Morzh]

Find a CNA class, mine was a lot of fun and was only $1800 and totally worth it. Good luck!

Good grief. My wife took a CNA course not long ago and it cost $400... for that kind of money you're better off forgoing the CNA and just paying for an MCAT prep course instead.

 

[Stumpyman]

Aside from those accreditation jobs (EMT, CNA, Phlebotomy, etc), you can try being a scribe. Requires no class, trains on the job, and I doubt adcoms see much of a difference between EMTs, CNAs and Scribes.

 

[sunshine02]

But I thought EMT has more patient contact than scribes since scribes just write down medical information? Wouldn't med schools desire someone who has had more patient contact?

 

[Stumpyman]

But I thought EMT has more patient contact than scribes since scribes just write down medical information? Wouldn't med schools desire someone who has had more patient contact?

Lol, I mean there's only so much patient contact you can get. Technically even hospital volunteering, which normally doesn't require seeing the patient much-- or doing anything substantial with/to the patient, is "clinical" work.

So no, IMO, there isn't much of a difference (in the adcoms eyes) between scribes, EMTs, etc. You're not going to "stand out" more than someone else because you were a scribe and they were an EMT (or vice-versa)... Way too many people already doing both jobs and applying to med schools with them.

 

[TheMightySmiter]

I dunno, being a CNA has given me incredible patient experiences that I never got as an EMT and that I doubt I could get as just a scribe.

 

[mvenus929]

Often phlebotomy and scribing you can do without any training (scribing moreso, but my old hospital hired a few people who had never drawn blood before, though it took them 2 months to hire me with a full course behind me). You can look into being a unit clerk as well... they often only require a medical terminology course.

Depends on what aspect of healthcare you want to get some experience in. A scribe will work more with physicians, but they tend to only see how things function in one area of the hospital (the ER). Phlebotomists tend not to see physicians that often (I don't think I've seen one since I got onto wards), but work extensively with the nursing and laboratory staff (including pathologists). Unit clerks will work mostly with the nursing staff, but will interact with just about any traveling team in the hospital, including the physician staff. However, they tend not to get much direct patient exposure.

 

[sunshine02]

I've looked online and it said that medical scribes usually require some sort of education/training but I've heard so many people say that medical scribes don't need training. How should I go looking for this job? Is it ideal to contact a hospital and ask if they would like a medical scribe? I'm new to this and don't know how it works so please enlighten me. Also, I've heard CNAs only require a few weeks of training whereas EMT requires months? Can someone shed light on this.

 

[mvenus929]

I've looked online and it said that medical scribes usually require some sort of education/training but I've heard so many people say that medical scribes don't need training. How should I go looking for this job? Is it ideal to contact a hospital and ask if they would like a medical scribe? I'm new to this and don't know how it works so please enlighten me. Also, I've heard CNAs only require a few weeks of training whereas EMT requires months? Can someone shed light on this.

Go onto your local hospital's website, and see what positions they have open, and check the requirements that way. Scribes at my old hospital were called PALs (Physician Assistant Liaison), and they didn't require any specific training, but preferred students who were pre-med.

 

[IV Zulu VI]

I currently work as a Scribe, and yes, it involved a 3 month, science intensive course. At the conclusion we were given a final exam and the top 3 scores were given the oppurtunity to prove their worth in clinical training. If you were able to do this aspect okay, then you got the job. Very difficult to become hired, and usually hospitals only have a few positions availabe. Try looking at the ScribeAmerica website. And as far as clinical experience goes, I CANNOT think of a better job. Working with the physician you get to understand the physician's thought process, and more often than not they will teach you some medicine! I see EMTs in the ER giving a history to the doctors and nurses and then just sit around for a couple hours, we actually have to critically think and write our own histories, something 3rd year medical students do. They are obviously looked over by the physician for accuracy, but more often than not they will agree with your interpretation of the patients issue. In my opinion you can elaborate on this experience better to the adcoms during interviews, and personal statements more than any of the other jobs. I'm not saying becoming an EMT is a bad thing to do, but we're training to be physicians, not veteran EMTs