How broad does clinical experience need to be?

[samosamosa]

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Hi SDN! I am a fulltime medical technician in an ophthalmology clinic. My job includes taking patient history, doing vision exams, charting, pupil dilations, etc. - basically lots of patient contact. However, this clinical experience is limited only to ophthalmology.

Should I get more clinical experience in a different field, such as ER or primary care? I have done hospital volunteering in the past (200 hours doing escorting and patient discharge), and I have shadowed a primary care doctor (~10 hours). Is this enough variety to show I know what medicine is all about, or should I look into something like scribing at an ER to broaden my clinical experience?

 

[freedoctor17]

You're fine, I literally had around 100 hours of volunteering (60 in one department and 40 in another) and it seems to have been enough for all the schools that sent me interviews.

 

[chemdoctor]

You're fine, I literally had around 100 hours of volunteering (60 in one department and 40 in another) and it seems to have been enough for all the schools that sent me interviews.

Only 100 hours? Lemme guess... 4.0/520 student?

 

[candbgirl]

Do you only have 10 hours of shadowing? Shadowing is different than your clinical experiences. It’s passive as opposed to active(what you are doing at your job). If you really only have 10 hours bump that up to around 50.

 

[freedoctor17]

Only 100 hours? Lemme guess... 4.0/520 student?

Well 100 at time of applying and and 30 more future ones that I completed (listed them as future on app though).

Yes my stats are high but I also have a ton of non clinical volunteering (800 hours with an organization I've been with since highschool, 200 hours working with underserved in my community), tons of good research experience with presentations, TA'd a bunch of courses, worked full time over Summers and part time all throughout school, and worked hella hard on my essays and personal statement on top of having excellent letters of rec.

Stats are important but not enough on their own. I've worked hard to get where I am.

Sorry if I made it seem like just the 100 hours of volunteering are all you need, what I should have said is you have plenty of good clinical experience and you should just keep working on the rest of your app/enjoying life.

 

[freedoctor17]

Do you only have 10 hours of shadowing? Shadowing is different than your clinical experiences. It’s passive as opposed to active(what you are doing at your job). If you really only have 10 hours bump that up to around 50.

Also a good point, I had 50 hours across different specialties/primary care

 

[chemdoctor]

Also a good point, I had 50 hours across different specialties/primary care

Yeah that makes sense. That's great! You've earned it. I thought you meant just 100 hours of volunteering... I was gonna say... WHAT?

LOL but good job on everything! I hope to someday be getting interview invites!

 

[freedoctor17]

Yeah that makes sense. That's great! You've earned it. I thought you meant just 100 hours of volunteering... I was gonna say... WHAT?

LOL but good job on everything! I hope to someday be getting interview invites!

Lol my bad I just realized I did say volunteering and not clinical volunteering. Yeah I probably wouldn't have heard back from many people with just that. I know others with higher stats than me still waiting to hear back I'm guessing due to not having much else on their app.

Sorry I got defensive but I still find it hard to believe I'm here half the time considering when I think back to where I started off so I got a little irked.

Good luck!

 

[Catalystik]

Hi SDN! I am a fulltime medical technician in an ophthalmology clinic. My job includes taking patient history, doing vision exams, charting, pupil dilations, etc. - basically lots of patient contact. However, this clinical experience is limited only to ophthalmology.

Should I get more clinical experience in a different field, such as ER or primary care? I have done hospital volunteering in the past (200 hours doing escorting and patient discharge), and I have shadowed a primary care doctor (~10 hours). Is this enough variety to show I know what medicine is all about, or should I look into something like scribing at an ER to broaden my clinical experience?

With the hospital volunteer time plus the clinical employment your active clinical experience will be broad enough. For the passive observation, I agree that 10 hours of physician shadowing is too sparse (about 50 hours being the average listed). Another 40 hours with the same primary care doc would be fine, or you can branch out to other specialties if you prefer.