How Bad Will This Hurt My Chances?

[Chemist0157]

Here's the deal. I come from a small town of about 11,000 with a small hospital. My town's hospital usually serves just to stabilize a patient so they can be flown to a bigger, better hospital. I'm hoping to get involved so I can have this in my ECs. At the moment, I have a 4.0 (going into my 6th semester) and a 27Q (plan to do alot better this coming January).

I plan to see if I can shadow a doctor there or do some volunteer work there, but will it mean anything to adcoms when there is really not that much going on at my hospital? I guess I could hit up some of the private practices around town...

How much does this kind of thing need to go for it to be considered experience? I'm afraid it really won't matter that I spent many, many hours at my less flashy hospital! Should I be worried?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[aaj117]

No one is even going to look at what hospital it was. the important thing is whether or not you have a meaningful experience there. If the lack of action means that you will be able to do nothing but fold laundry or carry samples, then you might not get much out of it or have much to talk about during your interviews. If you become close with a physician there and he or she lets you see the rare interesting case that may wander in every once in a while, then it will help you. Also if you find that an area with a hospital like this has different needs than a big flashy hospital, you may decide that rural medicine is the thing for you, and this could help you even more. not only will it affect your decision to go into medicine, but there are specific programs and scholarships you can apply for because some of these areas are in so much need.

 

[AlexMorph]

Here's the deal. I come from a small town of about 11,000 with a small hospital. My town's hospital usually serves just to stabilize a patient so they can be flown to a bigger, better hospital. I'm hoping to get involved so I can have this in my ECs. At the moment, I have a 4.0 (going into my 6th semester) and a 27Q (plan to do alot better this coming January).

I plan to see if I can shadow a doctor there or do some volunteer work there, but will it mean anything to adcoms when there is really not that much going on at my hospital? I guess I could hit up some of the private practices around town...

How much does this kind of thing need to go for it to be considered experience? I'm afraid it really won't matter that I spent many, many hours at my less flashy hospital! Should I be worried?

Stop being a pre-med who worries about insignificant stuff. Are the doctors at your tiny hospital any less than doctors at a big time hospital? It definitely counts as meaningful clinical experience. You just might have to spin it a little, but volunteering at your hospital is a perfectly good thing to do.

 

[Chemist0157]

Stop being a pre-med who worries about insignificant stuff. Are the doctors at your tiny hospital any less than doctors at a big time hospital? It definitely counts as meaningful clinical experience. You just might have to spin it a little, but volunteering at your hospital is a perfectly good thing to do.

Lol, I know, I'm horrible, right?

I just didn't know so I asked. Thanks for the comments!

 

[smq123]

Here's the deal. I come from a small town of about 11,000 with a small hospital. My town's hospital usually serves just to stabilize a patient so they can be flown to a bigger, better hospital. I'm hoping to get involved so I can have this in my ECs.

What an anti-climactic post. When I first started reading this, I thought you were going to end with something catastrophic, like "I accidentally killed the patient while they were working to stabilize him, so that he could be flown to a bigger, better hospital. How bad will this hurt my chances?"

It's not a big deal if your hospital isn't very big or very busy. Don't worry so much about it.

 

[DoctaJay]

Trust me my friend, what matters most is the quality of time you spent at the hospital, not the name of the place. If you were at a big name level 1 trauma hospital but all you did was organize the patient's files, then your "shadowing experience" lacked quality. If you were at your smaller hospital, yet you had patient contact, and were able to really see what a doctor does in a normal day, then you had a quality shadowing experience

 

[nogolfinsnow]

What an anti-climactic post. When I first started reading this, I thought you were going to end with something catastrophic, like "I accidentally killed the patient while they were working to stabilize him, so that he could be flown to a bigger, better hospital. How bad will this hurt my chances?"

I had the exact same thought. Bummer.

But to the OP, adcoms want to see "meaningful experience" and that you understand what it means to be a doctor. You should be able to get this shadowing any doctor. And the more stuff you get to do, the more you have to talk about in your PS and (hopefully) interviews

 

[LikeClockWork]

I shadowed at tiny (tiny!) family practice clinics in rural Kentucky for a month and got asked about it at both of my interviews. No one seemed to care the size of the place, just what I got out of it. Since the doc had lots of time to talk to me, and never really got many pre-meds shadowing him, we spoke many times at length about the whole medical profession. Going to a smaller hospital may get you more exposure than a bigger place that you could just get ignored at.