IONM Tech... Should I be doing more?

[ThatNerdyKid]

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I'm not sure if I should be doing more to gain medical experience before applying to medical school (entering fall 2016). I graduated this past May and have been working for a hospital doing Intraoperative Neuromonitoring for about 6 months now. This position puts me in the operating room for spine/brain surgeries, where I assist surgeons in monitoring the integrity of spinal/brain nerves and nerve roots. I work directly with the monitoring Neurologist for the case, as well as the surgeon. Some of the things I have to do on the job include:

-Reviewing patient medical charts for potential problems
-Meeting with patients to discuss what Neuromonitoring will be doing for them during the surgery as well as confirming symptoms, etc.
-Preparing patients for surgery in pre-op.
-Placement of monitoring electrodes on patients post-induction corresponding to the level of surgery (I decide on these levels myself and consult the surgeon to ask any questions)
-Being aware of what the surgeon is doing at the moment and documenting effectively
-Obtaining baseline data before the surgery begins to ensure the patient's nerves are okay.
-Being present during surgery to alert surgeon and neurologist if there are any deviations from the patient's baseline data

There are more, but that pretty much sums up the big ones.

I have already shadowed 2 neurologists, 1 psychiatrist, and one ER doc for a total of 25 hours before starting this position.

Should I be doing more to build my application or does this sort of experience seem sufficient?

 

[ThatNerdyKid]

No replies for me 🙁

 

[Louis C.K.]

I think this job will definitely cut it for general medical experience. For shadowing, you might want to shadow a few more specialties, especially some primary care ones (fam med, internal med, etc.). If you have time for a few hours per week, I would suggest getting some community service experience such as tutoring underserved high school kids, habitat for humanity, or something that puts you out of your comfort zone and allows you to communicate with and serve those who are different from you. Also, you did not mention MCAT or GPA. If you are within healthy metrics (32+ and 3.6+), then you are good to go. Do you/will you have good LORs? Leadership experience? These are some of the general things that can help you gain an acceptance, and they are certainly no secret here on SDN.

 

[ThatNerdyKid]

Thanks for the response! I haven't taken my MCAT (will be taking 2015 MCAT) but I have a 3.53 CGPA and a 3.3 sGPA. I have 4 LORs, 2 of which I know are good. In terms of leadership experience I was an RA in college and founded a public service student organization, where I served as president for 2 years.

 

[Louis C.K.]

Nice! Everything looks pretty solid. Don't allow yourself to become complacent, do well on the MCAT, and finish strong before the application cycle! If you do all of this, I would think you should see some success. Now another thing you can do to prepare is to educate yourself on the actual application process. Make sure you get the MSAR and apply strategically, targeting mostly schools where your stats are near the averages with a few reaches and a few below your averages. Also, just as important as all of the years spent becoming qualified for medical school is the interview. Seek out people to do mock interviews with who will give you valuable feedback. At schools conducting traditional interviews, you are likely to hear many of the same questions that can be found in books, online, etc., so you will have at least some idea of what you may be asked. However, there are also more and more schools doing the MMI (multiple mini-interview). I actually prefer this method of interviewing, but a lot of people do not because there isn't a real good way to prepare other than having good communication skills and knowledge of bioethical issues. Good luck, it can be an arduous process at times, but if you really want it, you'll do whatever it takes to get in.

 

[shezadeh]

Would this be something good for someone to go into to gain clinical experience? I have a background in Electrical Engineering, and was thinking this would be a good way to get clinical experience. Seems that it is hard to get OR experience...

 

[Pre med 16]

Hello there, I am almost in the same position as you, as I'm just finishing ionm program at UfM. I really hope the ionm would be considered a important info for admission staff. Best of luck