How to really count clinical hours?

[emergencypremed]

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I have been working as an EMT for nearly 5 years and will be applying to medical school this year. I have received conflicting advice on what number to use in the hours section when listing my clinical EMT experience.

Should it be the number of hours I was physically at the fire house on call for the community?
OR
Only the the number of hours actually spent with patients?

These are two very different numbers. Both large after 5 years, but still very different numbers. Suggestions?

 

[GoSpursGo]

If they are both large numbers, why not report both? As you're alluding to, you made a significant investment of your time to be available. A question that always comes up is "yeah but how much of that time did you actually care for patients." If it's still a large number then I think you get the best of all worlds to give both numbers.

 

[LizzyM]

You could report the number of hours serving patients in the field for aver hours per week (or however it is reported) and then in the narrative say that you spent an additional x hours (or an average of x hours/wk) on call at the firehouse. It is understood that those hours are spent studying, eating, socializing, relaxing, cleaning and restocking the rig, and maybe inservice training, too.