Importance of having a medical job before applying?

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Hi all, am a post-bac looking to boost my application before applying in a year or two. Was wondering if you all could look at my info real quick and give suggestions on areas for improvement:
-Starting year long volunteering program next month at a local hospital (200 hrs total)
-Active member of medical fraternity that does plenty of outreach/community service
-Planning on starting a research internship in the next year (hopefully 6 mo-1 year long)

Was wondering two things in particular: 1) Is it important I work in the medical field prior to applying? It seems the only jobs around are EMT and the cost of the classes plus the time they take seems to be counter-productive. 2) Are things outside organizations worth putting on applications? For instance, I write screenplays (have about 8, haven't sold any though), swim regularly (3 x a week), and play guitar.

Should I drop those things for tangible extracurriculars like writing competitions or swim teams or a band? My only concern is that they will take up a lot of time so unless this is hurting my app I'd like to avoid taking more time away from studying to do more structured activities.

Thanks for the help!

 

[Forthegood]

1) Don't do things just to get in. That being said, clinical experience is a good thing. The volunteering may suffice for applications sake, but depends on the type. More is better, but best is dependent on what you get out of it. Variety is also a nice perk. Don't do the EMT thing. Shadow your interests and things you know nothing about. Ask good questions (the juicy questions that are hard to answer... ask how often the person feels like they made the right choice in careers, not how many atria the heart has)

2) If I were you, I would group all of these ECs onto 1 of the openings on your primary app. At the interview, they will not remember you as the 3.94 GPA/36 MCAT or whatever you are. They will remember you as the screenplay writer.

 

[MadEvans]

A clinical job is good. But, don't work so much that the rest of your application suffers. I've worked 36 hours per week throughout college and regret it, big time. My EC list is shorter than the average bear's, since I've taken all my time up in one job my whole academic career.

It's a good paying, decent clinical exposure job... but, it has severely limited the rest of my opportunities to network and find other cool things to involve myself in. Keep it up with the screenplays; you've got to have some passion to already have written 8 of them.

 

[Mobius1985]

You can list your authorship of screenplays under "Hobbies/Avocations" or under "Other," either with other similiar activities, or on its own if you want to highlight it and have the spaces. This activity is definitely 'space-worthy.'

Your list of activities is shaping up nicely.