Interviews coming up with limited clinical experience

[rolltide7749]

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I am applying to medical school a year out of undergrad, and I have interviews coming up in a few days.

I spoke to an adcom member today from a school is not offering me an interview. She mentioned that my application lacked significant direct patient contact, which is true. I worked for a summer in a private GYN office as a student intern, have done an average amount of shadowing, and tons of volunteering with the underserved community (but not in a medically/clinically-related way.

Obviously, there's nothing I can do NOW to bolster my application for these upcoming interviews. If I choose to reapply in the next cycle, I will certainly focus on this aspect of my application.

I know questions will come up about this in my interviews, so how do you suggest I present the information/spin "minimal patient contact" in a positive way?

 

[TheWeeIceMan]

I wouldn't try to spin limited clinical experience into a positive. I would just focus on proving to your interviewer that you know what you are getting into, even without a ton of volunteering.

 

[armybound]

There's no positive to spin it in to.

As Wee said, focus on how the little contact you've had impacted you.

 

[LizzyM]

Without breaching anyone's privacy, think of an inspirational experience or two that you experienced in a clinical setting. Ever be present when a doctor delivered bad news or discussed end of life care? did you ever have to step out of your comfort zone and "step up to the plate" so to speak and do something that helped you grow or provided you with a better picture of what a physician's role in patient care or in society involves? Have you ever been touched by a patient's expression of emotion in an interaction with a physician?

Think of a few things along those lines that you can speak of despite your limited exposure to medicine.

 

[TheShaker]

This is a problem that I went through too since I have limited clinical experience. Like most people say, it's not about the hours, it's about what you took away from it. I think that you get vastly diminishing returns after a certain amount of hours volunteering in the clinic and that number is quite low. Just speak in a way that will convince them that you have a good understanding of why you want to go into medicine and that you learned what you needed to learn from your experience. It takes a bit of reflection, but you would be surprised how many talking points you've gotten from your limited experience.