How much shadowing and volunteering for DO?

[zukunft195]

---

Members do not see this ad.

I currently have zero hours of clinical volunteering and shadowing. I'm passionate about medicine, so I obviously want to accumulate as much practical experience as I can. However, I'm a non-trad and my schedule is completely packed with full-time work, post-bacc classes, and MCAT self-study.

I haven't taken the MCAT yet, but my cGPA and sGPA will be ~3.6, so I'm not trying to compensate for unusually low stats. Also, I have some non-healthcare-related community service experience under my belt (Americorps service).

What is the minimum number of shadowing and clinical volunteering hours that DO schools will be looking for?

 

[Donna Moss]

.

 

[kamakazi5]

Americorps is awesome but yeah, you really need some clinical exposure. At least 100 hours but more is better.

 

[PowerLifter101]

I currently have zero hours of clinical volunteering and shadowing. I'm passionate about medicine, so I obviously want to accumulate as much practical experience as I can. However, I'm a non-trad and my schedule is completely packed with full-time work, post-bacc classes, and MCAT self-study.

I haven't taken the MCAT yet, but my cGPA and sGPA will be ~3.6, so I'm not trying to compensate for unusually low stats. Also, I have some non-healthcare-related community service experience under my belt (Americorps service).

What is the minimum number of shadowing and clinical volunteering hours that DO schools will be looking for?

I had ~100 hours of clinical work. It was all hands on and very meaningful. It's best to have quality over quantity, for which you can talk about the experience and how it impacted you. I shadowed a M.D. for the majority of the time, but I established a mentoring relationship with a D.O. physician and he wrote my letter.

So, I would primarily focus on getting a good experience vs. a lot of hours. I was not asked for the overall quantity that I had and it was not a negative having ~100 hours.

 

[zukunft195]

Very helpful. Thanks, guys!

 

[AlbinoHawk DO]

I'd say shadow 60+ and 200+ of volunteer work is minimum. Preferable is 80-120 shadow and 300+ volunteer (total for both clinical and non-clinical).

 

[NecrotizingFasciitis]

Quality > Quantity for everything.

That being said, I think 100 shadowing hours is a safe amount to have.

For volunteering I'm not sure.. I had 100-200 and a 2 week international service trip. I had ~4000 hours of clinical experience though from my undergraduate job, so that may have made up for my lower amount of volunteering hours. Not sure.

 

[zukunft195]

I've got my work cut out for me...

 

[NecrotizingFasciitis]

I've got my work cut out for me...

I think if you just start something now and do it a few hours a week, you'll be fine by the time you apply. Longevity in an activity looks good too. I did volunteering in the E.D. a couple hours week over a year and got just over 100 hours for that. Plus it's only a couple hours a week, so not very much of a time burden.