Is Experience Abroad worth it?

[DaGingerbreadman]

Hello all,

This is my first post on this type of platform, lemme know if its not tagged properly or in the wrong place or somn.

I just graduated from undergrad bio/premed in the states. For the last three years I've been resident in England. I'm a dual citizen. My initial plan was to attend medical school in the uk for the reduced med school fees and whatnot, though I've switched to pursuing med school in the states.

I'm in england now and qualified to work here. I've been applying to scribe positions in the US, though now I'm wondering if medical experience here would useful in the states at all? It'd be nice to work here and get experience before settling back in the states. After I settle there the only time I'd come back is for vacation likely. I don't see this as voluntourism per se as I'm a british citizen. If I just shadowed or scribed here I wouldn't be doing work I'm not qualified to do in the states, so nothing unethical. Would this make for more interesting discussions during potential interviews, or would my time be better spent in the US scribing?

I still plan on going back to the states and getting north of 1000 hours of clinical experience there. Eventually I'd hope to do an SMP there...
Thanks

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[LindaAccepted]

Hello all,

This is my first post on this type of platform, lemme know if its not tagged properly or in the wrong place or somn.

I just graduated from undergrad bio/premed in the states. For the last three years I've been resident in England. I'm a dual citizen. My initial plan was to attend medical school in the uk for the reduced med school fees and whatnot, though I've switched to pursuing med school in the states.

I'm in england now and qualified to work here. I've been applying to scribe positions in the US, though now I'm wondering if medical experience here would useful in the states at all? It'd be nice to work here and get experience before settling back in the states. After I settle there the only time I'd come back is for vacation likely. I don't see this as voluntourism per se as I'm a british citizen. If I just shadowed or scribed here I wouldn't be doing work I'm not qualified to do in the states, so nothing unethical. Would this make for more interesting discussions during potential interviews, or would my time be better spent in the US scribing?

I still plan on going back to the states and getting north of 1000 hours of clinical experience there. Eventually I'd hope to do an SMP there...
Thanks

If you're going to have 1000+ hours of clinical exposure in the U.S. your clinical exposure to another healthcare system could enhance your application and add a special perspective to you as an applicant.

 

[Sea Of The Leaf]

I will say that some of my international experiences were seen as big positives by the medical school admissions staff I received feedback from. Multiple schools stated that I was very culturally competent and had unique experiences they were excited to talk with me about.

There are some caveats however. It was not “volunteer tourism” or an organized mission trip. It was a country I am a citizen of (dual-citizenship with US), the native language is my first language, and I spent years of my life living there while growing up. My volunteer work was not clinical in nature and my shadowing was exactly what my shadowing was like in the US. I made it very clear in the application that I was an observer. I also completed around 1,200 clinical volunteer hours in the US.

 

[LizzyM]

All else being equal, its a wash... could be a net positive, it all depends on what else you could be doing with your time.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

First of all, you should know that getting into a medical school in the UK is completely different. You should have taken your A- levels and the UKCAT, such i think are taken at what is considered the high school pre-University level.

If you are switching your plans to become a doctor in the States, it would help you to do a lot of clinical exposure in the States. Doctoring is similar in some ways but the support systems are completely different. In general the UK had universal coverage while the US will not, so social determinants of health are revealed differently. The concept of volunteerism/voluntourism doesn't really fit IMO if everyone in the UK has access to health care except for those who are not British subjects.

Living abroad I think is a growing experience, and I would want to know how you grew personally from that transition.

An alternative is to try to enter as an American to programs like Atlantic Bridge and attend RSCI. I leave that up to you to do the research, and we have the International Medicine forums to help there.

 

[DaGingerbreadman]

First of all, you should know that getting into a medical school in the UK is completely different. You should have taken your A- levels and the UKCAT, such i think are taken at what is considered the high school pre-University level.

If you are switching your plans to become a doctor in the States, it would help you to do a lot of clinical exposure in the States. Doctoring is similar in some ways but the support systems are completely different. In general the UK had universal coverage while the US will not, so social determinants of health are revealed differently. The concept of volunteerism/voluntourism doesn't really fit IMO if everyone in the UK has access to health care except for those who are not British subjects.

Living abroad I think is a growing experience, and I would want to know how you grew personally from that transition.

An alternative is to try to enter as an American to programs like Atlantic Bridge and attend RSCI. I leave that up to you to do the research, and we have the International Medicine forums to help there.

I took the GAMSAT (graduate-level ukcat) this year at the same time as my MCAT, and scored well on both (71, 96th percentile; 513,86th percentile). They require less clinical experience, no extracurriculars, and generally (from my understanding) the applications (at least for the schools I was targetting) are centralized around exam scores.

As I plan to settle in the US, becoming an IMG would make matching residency more difficult.

I'm in need of reinvention (cGPA 2.26; sGPA 2.43) so I intend to do an SMP, possibly preceded by a posbac of some kind if I'm financially capable. My target programs consider socioeconomically disadvantaged URMs. I'm an URM, but I'm not sure if extended experience abroad would damage the narrative of my application. Is that something I should consider?

 

[SahilMehtaMD]

I think both could be good options; however, scribing in the U.S. will allow you to become more familiar with the healthcare system, medical terminology and could allow you to make connections with doctors. Scribing in the U.S. may be more advantageous in the long run.

 

[LizzyM]

Given your gpa, you may have far more success, in a shorter period of time, going to school in the UK. Getting into a US school is a long shot, even with a SMP, maybe less of a long shot than being licensed in the UK and then applying for a residency or fellowship in the US to qualify for licensure here.