Medical I'm a wheelchair user, if you're being honest, how much harder is it going to be to get accepted?

[Goro]

I'm a manual wheelchair user with no other apparent disabilities. Most people, right or not, seem to assume that I have a low level SCI from looking at me. I don't really want to tell much more than that. I'm not sending med schools my full medical history and I what to gauge how they are going to respond with just their impression. I also know a fair number of people in similar situations and would like to keep things general so I can share. Besides, for every style/type of applicant that exists a version of them in a wheelchair exists too.

In my head I was kind of imagining responses that look like this if that helps, but will gladly accept any answers you can provide:

Accepted Applicant: Generic Science or Health related major, 3.## GPA, 3.## BCMP, 5## MCAT, # Shadowing hrs, # Leadership hrs, # Volunteer hrs, # Research hrs, # Clinical Experience hrs, # Misc hrs.

Same Applicant but in a Wheelchair would probably need...

I know its super dependent on the applicant, their story, and experiences, but I'm just hoping for a general range to shoot for.

Bonus question, do you have any tips on how to get clinical experience during covid times? This is the one area I'm struggling in. It seems most people do transport, CNA/SNA jobs, or scribing. While hypothetically I could push a wheelchair or bed, I don't think the patient would appreciate the experience much, and I really doubt anyone would be willing to hire me as a CNA/SNA whether or not I could do the job. I could absolutely do scribing, but those jobs just don't seem to exist in my area, and all volunteering has shut down. Would just doing a lot of long term shadowing be enough?

I don't need you to sugarcoat things, I'm very aware of how the world can be, and I would appreciate a realistic answer even if it's not a positive one. If it is well then my day is a little bit brighter, if not then I know what to plan for. If your first thought was that disability status wouldn't affect your answer or that you think there needs to be more physicians with disabilities in medicine, I'm glad you think that way, please keep thinking that way. That being said my personal experiences would tell me the not all of your colleagues do. If you don't believe me take a look at the latest matriculating class of nearly any medical school how many people do you see with with visible disabilities? I know there might not be that many of us to begin with, but we are still underrepresented.

The problem I fear you face is not getting into medical school or getting through it; it's getting a job in residency.

The real question is can you perform the technical demands of Medicine? You will be asked to sign a document that you can. If, however, it turns out that you can't then you could be dismissed from med school.

If you don't believe me take a look at the latest matriculating class of nearly any medical school how many people do you see with with visible disabilities? I know there might not be that many of us to begin with, but we are still underrepresented.

There's a reason for that. And this isn't about being URM, it's about being physically able to to do the job. And that's just for MD; it's even harder for DO, where you need to technical skills to do OMM/OMT.

As such, I can't recommend trying for medical school.

In these times of COVID, scribing might be doable. Otherwise, your health, as well as that of your family and others, take priority over your medical career.

I'll tag some other Adcom members, who are very wise, for crowdsourcing.
@Catalystik
@lord999
@NotAProgDirector
@Mr.Smile12

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[lord999]

We actually have more than one medical student who uses a wheelchair at present and a couple over the years who graduated, and there are reasonable accommodations made for the circumstance (including surgery rotations). It definitely is hard on them, all things being equal. You'll need the standard admission profiles, if a wheelchair is the only handicap (no manual dexterity issues), there is actually a rather straightforward way to accommodate that in medical school and I do not see any reason even informally why an adcom would discriminate on that.

When you license (at least for the states that I am aware of), you will have to explain with medical records those circumstances, you do not have a choice. As for residencies, your disability will probably restrict your postgraduate options but many will work with you (all of the ones that I know who are surgeons were already qualified when they had the medical episode that put them in the wheelchair but were not handicapped before or during training).

 

[Goro]

Thank you for sharing it's encouraging to hear. I wish I new what school it was. There are a hand full of schools that are doing a better job welcoming students with disabilities, but most of them don't do the best job making it public knowledge. It gives the impression that they are few and far between. I know the two schools in my area one of which is fairly well known and been around for a while has never admitted someone in a wheelchair. I do not think most people consciously discriminate, but I have been told directly by people in medicine that would rather not take the risk, and have friends who've been told directly by faculty and admission staff to not bother applying.

What I'm hearing from my Adcom colleagues at a number of schools, and these include Really Top Ones, is that they have admitted wheelchair-bound students, or know of schools that have.

More to follow!

 

[Goro]

Here's one comment:
My best advice is for the applicant to check out the "technical standards" for the schools to which they plan to apply. They often include things like: "the potential to be capable of resuscitation, assist at surgery..."

We are required to post them publicly, so they should be on the school's website.

 

[Goro]

And then there's this:

This is a tough one, as no school would like to discriminate against any qualified applicant based on physical disability.., but they have a strict Technical standards to abide with and legally protect them from any future legal claims.
These standards were adopted after Special Advisory Panel on Technical Standards for Medical School Admissions convened by the AAMC, (Memorandum #79-4) in January, 1979.

Here is direct quote of pertinent section:

“ III. Motor: Candidates should have sufficient motor function to elicit information from patients by palpation, auscultation, percussion and other diagnostic maneuvers. A candidate should be able to do basic laboratory tests (urinalysis, CBC, etc.), carry out diagnostic procedures (proctoscopy, paracentesis, etc.) and read EKGs and x-rays. A candidate should be able to execute motor movements reasonably required to provide general care and emergency treatment to patients. Examples of emergency treatment reasonably required of physicians are cardiopulmonary resuscitation, the administration of intravenous medication, the application of pressure to stop bleeding, the opening of obstructed airways, the suturing of simple wounds and the performance of simple obstetrical maneuvers. Such actions require coordination of both gross and fine muscular movements, equilibrium and functional use of the senses of touch and vision.”

So it all depends on the degree of accommodations he needs or the need for intermediaries to help him receive his education and be active participant in delivering medical care to his patients as this is the true core of our profession!

I have seen medical students and residents come through with severe polio and other paralysis requires braces and crutches that impeded on their agility and speeds but otherwise were technically capable.., not forgetting slew of other minor or major physical and mental disabilities that affected the performance of some and led to the dreadful attritions..!!

I will suggest to your student to go ahead and apply as he might find sympathetic committee but he need to make full disclosure of his technical standards otherwise this might disqualify him later or be cause of rescinding his offer.. especially these days when we are not able to judge the Motor section via virtual zoom interviews!

In our residency program we are trying to judge candidates based on their fine motor skills, color vision and depth perception in order to qualify to be a microscopic surgeons.., otherwise it will be a tremendous waste of resources to make a surgeon disqualified technically many years later..!!

 

[NotAProgDirector]

You can absolutely be a medical student despite being in a wheelchair. There are surgeons who are in wheelchairs -- although many of them completed training first. You'll definitely find that a more complicated path, but probably not impossible.

Interestingly, it's possible that someone who requires a wheelchair might match this year into a program without them even being aware -- might not be mentioned in an MSPE, and no way to tell with virtual interviews.