How important is varied clinical experience?

[UVAbme2009]

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I had my pre-screening for my pre-health advisor interview, and I was told that I need more varied clinical experience. I'm in my junior year, but I decided to go this route last June. So I haven't had much of an opportunity to expand my clinical experience. I plan on getting in what I can over spring break and during the summer since I literally have no time to do anything outside of class, research, MCAT prep, volunteering, organizations, and my what little free time I get.

I've shadowed a nephrologist in a kidney clinic, a vascular surgeon for an angioplasty, and a gastroenterologist for a gastric bypass. The three experiences totaled about 13 hours. I absolutely loved each one, especially the angioplasty since I was able to scrub in and actually help out with the surgery. I was planning on observing the same surgeon that did the angioplasty, but being told that I need more varied experience is sort of deterring me from doing that. I want to be a surgeon. I'm positive about that. So do I really need to have more varied experiences? Or should I stick with what I really enjoy?

 

[RySerr21]

I had my pre-screening for my pre-health advisor interview, and I was told that I need more varied clinical experience. I'm in my junior year, but I decided to go this route last June. So I haven't had much of an opportunity to expand my clinical experience. I plan on getting in what I can over spring break and during the summer since I literally have no time to do anything outside of class, research, MCAT prep, volunteering, organizations, and my what little free time I get.

I've shadowed a nephrologist in a kidney clinic, a vascular surgeon for an angioplasty, and a gastroenterologist for a gastric bypass. The three experiences totaled about 13 hours. I absolutely loved each one, especially the angioplasty since I was able to scrub in and actually help out with the surgery. I was planning on observing the same surgeon that did the angioplasty, but being told that I need more varied experience is sort of deterring me from doing that. I want to be a surgeon. I'm positive about that. So do I really need to have more varied experiences? Or should I stick with what I really enjoy?

stick with what you enjoy. if you enjoy it though you should have more than 13 hours to show that, which it seems like you are planning on doing, so you should be fine.

most every doctor i have shadowed has been involved in orthopedic surgery or sports medicine. its cuz thats what i enjoy. i'm not gonna shadow an oncologist if thats not what i am interested in and i have the oppotunity to shadow someone that does something i am intersted in, you know?

 

[futuredrcrawfor]

I think by varied he means not all shadowing. If you want to shadow the cardiologist again do so... but I think he is talking about clinical volunteering in a different setting, helping patients etc...

I have a few types of clinical experience but under shadowing I have only done 2 specialties as of today (I might do 1 more soon though). I did family medicine since I was thinking about that and then Pediatric Hematology/Oncology- which is what I want to do. While seeing a surgery might be cool it isn't what I love so why do it- instead I did 60 hours with Hem/Onc and spent time with different doctors in the sub-divisions of the field.

 

[UVAbme2009]

I think by varied he means not all shadowing. If you want to shadow the cardiologist again do so... but I think he is talking about clinical volunteering in a different setting, helping patients etc...

I have a few types of clinical experience but under shadowing I have only done 2 specialties as of today (I might do 1 more soon though). I did family medicine since I was thinking about that and then Pediatric Hematology/Oncology- which is what I want to do. While seeing a surgery might be cool it isn't what I love so why do it- instead I did 60 hours with Hem/Onc and spent time with different doctors in the sub-divisions of the field.

That is an excellent idea. Still, this advisor said I should look into observing different types of physicians (IM, cancer center, pediatrics, etc.). I currently volunteer in a dialysis center, which I really enjoy. However, they don't even consider that clinical experience. Not a problem with me, as I will get more hours of clinical in. It's just a matter of when I have the time to do it.

 

[xrevision]

13 Hours over 3 specialties? I think you need quite a few more hours than that to convince people that you really know what you're getting into.

 

[UVAbme2009]

13 Hours over 3 specialties? I think you need quite a few more hours than that to convince people that you really know what you're getting into.

It was only three experiences. Like I said, I didn't decide to do this until June 2007. I got what I could in during the summer while still working full time. I just don't have time to get clinical experience while I'm in school. So I plan on getting more during spring break and over the summer. I'm obviously never going to get 100s of hours like some people, but I think I can get 50-75 hours before the end of summer. I do know what I'm getting into as I maintain a good relationship with my boss, who will be Chief of Nephrology at UVA come this summer.

 

[tf2medic]

I had my pre-screening for my pre-health advisor interview, and I was told that I need more varied clinical experience. I'm in my junior year, but I decided to go this route last June. So I haven't had much of an opportunity to expand my clinical experience. I plan on getting in what I can over spring break and during the summer since I literally have no time to do anything outside of class, research, MCAT prep, volunteering, organizations, and my what little free time I get.

I've shadowed a nephrologist in a kidney clinic, a vascular surgeon for an angioplasty, and a gastroenterologist for a gastric bypass. The three experiences totaled about 13 hours. I absolutely loved each one, especially the angioplasty since I was able to scrub in and actually help out with the surgery. I was planning on observing the same surgeon that did the angioplasty, but being told that I need more varied experience is sort of deterring me from doing that. I want to be a surgeon. I'm positive about that. So do I really need to have more varied experiences? Or should I stick with what I really enjoy?

vascular surgeon = angioplasty? i think you mean cardiologist...that's what my dad does and he's definitely a cardiologist haha. anyways, angioplasties are only minor surgeries, though. if you are really into surgery you should try to shadow a fullout surgeon who does all kinds of different types of surgery. i don't know what the exact name would be but a few summers ago i shadowed surgeons who did everything from knee surgery to open heart surgery. if you really liked angioplasties...which the surgery part only includes like a little insertion in the groan area...then you'll be blownout by major surgeries!

 

[Law2Doc]

13 Hours over 3 specialties? I think you need quite a few more hours than that to convince people that you really know what you're getting into.

I think that is the read between the lines about the "you need more varied clinical experience". What you've got is a good start, but your 13 hours isn't going to look like much compared to the dude who worked with EMS or volunteered in the ED a few hours a week for a couple of years. While you want to be a surgeon, unfortunately observing surgeons doesn't give you great clinical exposure in terms of what adcoms are seeking. You need something where you actually observe interaction between doctors and awake patients. One adcom told me that in her opinion, a good clinical experience is one where the premed has "a substantial chance of being thrown up on". Meaning something where you are up close and personal with awake patients. Volunteering often affords this. Shadowing less frequently does. Worry less about surgery related experiences now. Worry about good clinical experiences. You'll get more than enough time in the OR later.

 

[futuredrcrawfor]

That is an excellent idea. Still, this advisor said I should look into observing different types of physicians (IM, cancer center, pediatrics, etc.). I currently volunteer in a dialysis center, which I really enjoy. However, they don't even consider that clinical experience. Not a problem with me, as I will get more hours of clinical in. It's just a matter of when I have the time to do it.

Do you work with patients in dialysis or just do stock or paperwork? If you are with patients it is clinical. I agree with the above poster about working with awake patients. I am pretty sure LizzyM (the adcom member is is so sweet to post on here for us neuroticm premeds) has a quote on her sig line that is something alone the line of "If you can't smell the patient it isn't clinical experience" I am pretty sure talking is included in that concept.

I wouldn't worry about shadowing in all those specialties that is what the clinical rotations are for during the 3/4 years of medical school. Almost everyone who enters medical school changes what they want to be during those anyways (or so says the doctors I talk with and work for) but do find an area to shadow in where you can watch the doctor and patient interact.

 

[UVAbme2009]

Thanks for the advice. I do work with patients in the dialysis center. Just the usual things like get food, drink, make them comfortable, talk with them for hours, etc.

I definitely got the angioplasty wrong. I'm pretty sure it was a mesenteric artery reconstruction. Big difference, I know.

 

[tf2medic]

I think that is the read between the lines about the "you need more varied clinical experience". What you've got is a good start, but your 13 hours isn't going to look like much compared to the dude who worked with EMS or volunteered in the ED a few hours a week for a couple of years. While you want to be a surgeon, unfortunately observing surgeons doesn't give you great clinical exposure in terms of what adcoms are seeking. You need something where you actually observe interaction between doctors and awake patients. One adcom told me that in her opinion, a good clinical experience is one where the premed has "a substantial chance of being thrown up on". Meaning something where you are up close and personal with awake patients. Volunteering often affords this. Shadowing less frequently does. Worry less about surgery related experiences now. Worry about good clinical experiences. You'll get more than enough time in the OR later.

yeah, this guy is right i guess but you should still shadow surgeons to get an idea of what they do. i'm pretty sure observing patients who are asleep falls under "varied" clinical experience haha. i have like 100 hrs of shadowing from just one summer since that's all i did that summer. i did a bunch at the ER and they let me shadow whoever i wanted. i found the doctors who actually let me come in the rooms with them and i followed them everywhere. they'd take me in, introduce me, and then leave me with interesting patients while they went off to take care of the patient next door. some of the doctors even made up **** for the patient to do just so they could show me certain symptoms haha. also, a REAL good place to lookup is your local VA. I did most of my shadowing there and all it was was contact with awake veterans. one of the adminstrators of one of the wings setup a complete schedule for me where i was rotated from speciality to speciality. spend one full day with radiology, the next with cardiology, the next with surgery, the next with the lab, etc. and spent most of my time sitting in an internal medicine doctor's clinical office seeing and interacting with all sorts of different kinds of patients as they came in for their yearly checkups.

it also helps to know ppl in the field, though, who will find you these opportunities. i did this back at home during the summer after freshman year and my dad hooked me up with all this. it worked well because one doctor would introduce me to the rest as "this is...son of Dr...." and then got instant offers to take me around haha. however, where i go to school i have no connections to the medical field or hospitals and it's much harder to find stuff. if you don't know anyone, they many times will just have you transport files, wheelchairs, and whatnot.

 

[LizzyM]

Thanks for the advice. I do work with patients in the dialysis center. Just the usual things like get food, drink, make them comfortable, talk with them for hours, etc.

I definitely got the angioplasty wrong. I'm pretty sure it was a mesenteric artery reconstruction. Big difference, I know.

UVAbme2009, what you have been doing in the dialysis center is a clinical experience for the purposes of applying to med school. Certainly, you should list it on the AMCAS as Volunteer, Medical/Clinical.