How do you log hours?

[jgad1]

How are you supposed to log your shadowing hours, ECs, community service, and things of that nature? I have heard several different things and was just wondering if someone could give a straight forward answer. Are signatures required on these thing? Also, how do submit your hours on an application? Thank you!

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[Hirro]

Keep a log of the hours so you have them for future reference. Also, write down things that may be important (i.e. observed this, learned this today about the patient-doctor interaction. Really felt the connection between X and Y). I'm not talking about what you learned about anatomy. I mean write down the emotional and behind-the-scenes work. "Patient only now received care 2 weeks later due to insurance issues" "Family cried as Dr. Z assured them all Mr. X was going to be fine in his hands" You want to remember these situations and be able to talk about them meaningfully.

If you were to talk to an interviewer the day after shadowing and they asked "Did you learn anything interesting during your shadowing", what would you say? Write that down so you can remember it. One big thing that I gained from shadowing was seeing the "dark side" of being a physician. Patients died, others had bad outcomes, etc. I learned there's no way you will be able to save everyone. Find things like that and write them down.

You don't need signatures, etc. You just submit your hours as they were. The application's hours listed is done on an honors system.

 

[jgad1]

Easiest thing is keep track of hours in speeadsheet or other app per activity for yourself so you can refer to it when filling out AMCAS. You dont need any sort of formal log book with signatures. The only think you need is a contact who can say “yes he worked here”. Hours can estimates (ie 125 150 etc). I also
Suggest having a rough context expression for time and length : example “summer research intern” 500 hours: worked approx 30 hours a week for 8 weeks over 2 summers. Yes the hours dont exavtly match and that is fine. But as an adcom I can read that hours per week over length and instantly put that activity in context with the rest of the applicants life/schedule

Awesome. That is pretty much what I have been doing. I was just being sure. Thank you!

 

[Catalystik]

How are you supposed to log your shadowing hours, ECs, community service, and things of that nature? I have heard several different things and was just wondering if someone could give a straight forward answer. Are signatures required on these thing? Also, how do submit your hours on an application? Thank you!

If you are doing community service through an organization, they often have a volunteer coordinator who keeps track of your hours. Don't relay on that though, as computer systems are unreliable. And coordinators change jobs. Keep your own record, check it against the record of the person or office who you will use as the required Contact to attest to your involvement. Ideally, they will match your records.

The AMCAS application asks for start month and end month and total hours. If the involvement is intermittent, like only during the school year, you can include up to four timeframes per activity. For the contact you need the name, title, and either a phone # or email address. You have 700 characters to describe the activity. You get 1325 extra characters for the three activities you decide are Most Meaningful to you.

 

[jgad1]

If you are doing community service through an organization, they often have a volunteer coordinator who keeps track of your hours. Don't relay on that though, as computer systems are unreliable. And coordinators change jobs. Keep your own record, check it against the record of the person or office who you will use as the required Contact to attest to your involvement. Ideally, they will match your records.

The AMCAS application asks for start month and end month and total hours. If the involvement is intermittent, like only during the school year, you can include up to four timeframes per activity. For the contact you need the name, title, and either a phone # or email address. You have 700 characters to describe the activity. You get 1325 extra characters for the three activities you decide are Most Meaningful to you.

That is great to know. Thank you for your input!

 

[jgad1]

I will strongly agree with above but want to add two points.
1) to extend what you saw and learned, think about what it means for characterirics or qualities of a physician. To that end all applicants should be familar with AAMC core comptencies. It will help think about themes to present in your application and how experience support them

2) hours are the honor system when applying but move to trust and verify after acceptance. Most schools will make some level of due diligence to see if you W&A are accurate by reaching out to contacts. This is not usually some indepth investigation but quick contact. Something along the lines of calling and asking if you worked there maybe about hours. Many volunteer places are informal so often there arent any records you did or even anyone who remembers you. If the contact says “I dont know if he was here but we usually have students from the college here for the summer” good enough for verification.

Between your PS, EC descriptions, MM, interview, LOR, and contacts, most applicants are not going to have an issue.

I understand. Thank you for your input!