I need to explain my friend a thing....

[mwsapphire]

---

Members do not see this ad.

Okay
My friend is a pre med junior, and I'm about to start volunteering at a hospital to gain clinical experience, as well as volunteer experience. ( I am a sophomore) She worked as an LNA for a bit before quitting because it was too stressful with school, and she's worried about having only 50 ish pateint contact hours. She told me volunteering at a hospital, even if you're in contact with patients, doesn't count because you aren't actually doing anything. I'm trying to convince her to come volunteer at this hospital so she can rack up clinic hours before applying this summer. Where did she heard volunteering doesn't count as clinic hours? How? What? That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard and I don't want this false information ruining her app.
@Goro @gonnif @LizzyM Please help me tell her this is false!
Where did she hear this? Am I just an idiot ?

 

[Goro]

She is dead wrong. We want her simy to.prove that she likes being around sick people and that she knows what she's doing. We don't want her to learn how to place central lines or do EKGs.

Okay
My friend is a pre med junior, and I'm about to start volunteering at a hospital to gain clinical experience, as well as volunteer experience. ( I am a sophomore) She worked as an LNA for a bit before quitting because it was too stressful with school, and she's worried about having only 50 ish pateint contact hours. She told me volunteering at a hospital, even if you're in contact with patients, doesn't count because you aren't actually doing anything. I'm trying to convince her to come volunteer at this hospital so she can rack up clinic hours before applying this summer. Where did she heard volunteering doesn't count as clinic hours? How? What? That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard and I don't want this false information ruining her app.
@Goro @gonnif @LizzyM Please help me tell her this is false!
Where did she hear this? Am I just an idiot ?

 

[efle]

It was too stressful after 50 hours?? Like they attempted less than a month of very part-time work?

What's their plan for clinical hours if they don't want to volunteer and it is too stressful to work?

 

[LizzyM]

What she says is correct for a handful of schools in the US as well as for physician assistant programs but most US med schools count volunteering in hospitals and clinics as "clinical experience".

 

[mwsapphire]

What she says is correct for a handful of schools in the US as well as for physician assistant programs but most US med schools count volunteering in hospitals and clinics as "clinical experience".

Wait wait wait what? What medical schools? D: Please elaborate!

 

[LizzyM]

Wait wait wait what? What medical schools? D: Please elaborate!

There is one in Tennessee -- maybe Quillan?? Its been a long time since I had an ongoing conversation with someone had to apply a second time after buffing their clinical employment in order to get int. Also Rush in Chicago. There may be others.

 

[Lawpy]

What she says is correct for a handful of schools in the US as well as for physician assistant programs but most US med schools count volunteering in hospitals and clinics as "clinical experience".

There is one in Tennessee -- maybe Quillan?? Its been a long time since I had an ongoing conversation with someone had to apply a second time after buffing their clinical employment in order to get int. Also Rush in Chicago. There may be others.

i wonder what is the point of these few schools requiring active clinical experience beyond just volunteering

 

[CharlieBillings]

To play devil's advocate:

When it applying it seems like your experiences are only worth what you can say about them, or what they say about you. Hospital volunteering is going to be a considerably weaker experience than actual working with people or directly with physicians.

 

[BurghStudent]

You could tell her that there are different grades of hospital volunteering. You can greet people coming into the E.R. Or you can help terminal patients make arts and crafts. I did both and you know which one I preferred.

 

[mwsapphire]

To play devil's advocate:

When it applying it seems like your experiences are only worth what you can say about them, or what they say about you. Hospital volunteering is going to be a considerably weaker experience than actual working with people or directly with physicians.

How would you do that though? I'm going to be interacting with patients in the ER so I don't see how that doesn't have value

 

[mwsapphire]

You could tell her that there are different grades of hospital volunteering. You can greet people coming into the E.R. Or you can help terminal patients make arts and crafts. I did both and you know which one I preferred.

I'm not greeting, I'm making rounds and talking to patients while they wait. Also watching docs interact with them. My fellow volunteers are aspiring trauma nurses.

 

[tantacles]

How would you do that though? I'm going to be interacting with patients in the ER so I don't see how that doesn't have value

No one said that it didn't have value. The point is that hospital volunteering is not an incredibly robust extracurricular activity and that, for example, working as a medical assistant would provide more relevant or substantial experience. It's not an all-or-nothing kind of thing; it's just that getting people blankets and glasses of water isn't that special.

I'm not greeting, I'm making rounds and talking to patients while they wait. Also watching docs interact with them. My fellow volunteers are aspiring trauma nurses.

This kind of experience is a clinical experience; it just isn't robust.

 

[GinnyWeasley]

Okay
My friend is a pre med junior, and I'm about to start volunteering at a hospital to gain clinical experience, as well as volunteer experience. ( I am a sophomore) She worked as an LNA for a bit before quitting because it was too stressful with school, and she's worried about having only 50 ish pateint contact hours. She told me volunteering at a hospital, even if you're in contact with patients, doesn't count because you aren't actually doing anything. I'm trying to convince her to come volunteer at this hospital so she can rack up clinic hours before applying this summer. Where did she heard volunteering doesn't count as clinic hours? How? What? That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard and I don't want this false information ruining her app.
@Goro @gonnif @LizzyM Please help me tell her this is false!
Where did she hear this? Am I just an idiot ?

3 of the schools I interviewed specifically mentioned that as long as we have some evidence that we did something- shadow doctor/volunteer at hospital it was fine. We didn't need to have a large amount of hours. For me at least, 50 hours was plenty. Tbh, a lot of people that volunteered at the hospital just stood in the front and greeted patients. I would think that if she has 50 hours of something more substantial it would be okay. I volunteered at a hospital and while I wrote my description on my app, the schools I mentioned above said that they reason they don't regard it as highly as other things is because of the variety of what people do at the hospital. I volunteered on the surgical floor, so I feel that I def was exposed to seeing medicine in action, but someone who volunteered in the gift shop would have a different experience.

 

[mwsapphire]

3 of the schools I interviewed specifically mentioned that as long as we have some evidence that we did something- shadow doctor/volunteer at hospital it was fine. We didn't need to have a large amount of hours. For me at least, 50 hours was plenty. Tbh, a lot of people that volunteered at the hospital just stood in the front and greeted patients. I would think that if she has 50 hours of something more substantial it would be okay. I volunteered at a hospital and while I wrote my description on my app, the schools I mentioned above said that they reason they don't regard it as highly as other things is because of the variety of what people do at the hospital. I volunteered on the surgical floor, so I feel that I def was exposed to seeing medicine in action, but someone who volunteered in the gift shop would have a different experience.

So so long as you can make value of your experience ( say what you saw , how you interacted with patients. Poorer patients come to the ER, for example), it's good?

 

[mwsapphire]

Also I don't wanna do the LNA thing because the course costs so much money and I don't know if I'd even like it. Also, I can move to a different section of the hospital if I'd like. Also, I'd like to mentor some of the other volunteers so that can count as leadership of some sort? I'm pretty sure.

 

[GinnyWeasley]

So so long as you can make value of your experience ( say what you saw , how you interacted with patients. Poorer patients come to the ER, for example), it's good?

Tbh, it never really came up. None of my interview questions ( I had 9 IIs) really got into volunteering/medical experience. Sure, if volunteering at the hospital is what made you want to become a doctor that's one thing, since a question that came up a lot was "why do you want to be a doctor". But basically everyone that interviews has some medical experience. Some people just did what I did and just volunteered at the hospital. While others actually became MAs/CNAs and were more hands on. I never discussed it in my essays either.

 

[mwsapphire]

Tbh, it never really came up. None of my interview questions ( I had 9 IIs) really got into volunteering/medical experience. Sure, if volunteering at the hospital is what made you want to become a doctor that's one thing, since a question that came up a lot was "why do you want to be a doctor". But basically everyone that interviews has some medical experience. Some people just did what I did and just volunteered at the hospital. While others actually became MAs/CNAs and were more hands on. I never discussed it in my essays either.

Cools :3 Also , you can make an argument that anything can be useless. LNA's spend more time around nurses, not docs. EMT's spend more time being on call and driving than actually doing medically relevant things, etc.

 

[GinnyWeasley]

Cools :3 Also , you can make an argument that anything can be useless. LNA's spend more time around nurses, not docs. EMT's spend more time being on call and driving than actually doing medically relevant things, etc.

I never said it's useless. I'm saying that people put down they volunteered at the hospital while having virtually 0% patient contact. This still counts when you put it on your app. Whereas even if an LNA spends more time with nurses or an EMT spends more time driving, they are still much more involved in patient care, even more so than a volunteer. I'm saying that it's good to have clinical experience because everyone that interviews has it.