whenpeanutmetbutter
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- Jul 10, 2020
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Originally I asked this over at r/premed and while I got some excellent feedback I wanted to cross-post to see if anyone else had more thoughts / suggestions / clarity to share:
Title is pretty self-explanatory but for context here's what I'm talking about:
I've been a massage therapist for about 13 years. I've worked primarily with what is called "medical massage," e.g. clients post car accidents, surgeries (mastectomies, open heart surgeries, etc), those with chronic conditions looking for respite care (rheumatoid arth. generalized anxiety disorder, etc), pregnant women, and athletes dealing with chronic issues. I've always just rented a room somewhere, sometimes it was within another office (chiropractor's office) but most of my working life was spent in professional buildings. I took medical insurance for years and as such navigated doctor's referrals, insurance requirements and billing, wrote progress notes as necessary, and spent a fair amount of time charting to track my clients goals and changes.
I had previously thought that because of the nature of my work it would probably count as clinical experience. And I've seen posts here(r/premed) that say if you are "close enough to smell the patient" then it's clinical. BUT my pre-med advisor mentioned it might not count because it wasn't in a hospital (though I did do a hospital internship in massage school in 2007) or a nursing home, etc. I wanted to get people's opinions here in part because I don't know that my pre-med advisor totally understood the nature of my work. After our meeting it occurred to me that she might have thinking about massage from the more "relaxing" point of view (e.g. what you'd get in a spa), not treatment massage which is much more akin to what a PT would do for some hands-on treatment.
Any help is appreciated!
Title is pretty self-explanatory but for context here's what I'm talking about:
I've been a massage therapist for about 13 years. I've worked primarily with what is called "medical massage," e.g. clients post car accidents, surgeries (mastectomies, open heart surgeries, etc), those with chronic conditions looking for respite care (rheumatoid arth. generalized anxiety disorder, etc), pregnant women, and athletes dealing with chronic issues. I've always just rented a room somewhere, sometimes it was within another office (chiropractor's office) but most of my working life was spent in professional buildings. I took medical insurance for years and as such navigated doctor's referrals, insurance requirements and billing, wrote progress notes as necessary, and spent a fair amount of time charting to track my clients goals and changes.
I had previously thought that because of the nature of my work it would probably count as clinical experience. And I've seen posts here(r/premed) that say if you are "close enough to smell the patient" then it's clinical. BUT my pre-med advisor mentioned it might not count because it wasn't in a hospital (though I did do a hospital internship in massage school in 2007) or a nursing home, etc. I wanted to get people's opinions here in part because I don't know that my pre-med advisor totally understood the nature of my work. After our meeting it occurred to me that she might have thinking about massage from the more "relaxing" point of view (e.g. what you'd get in a spa), not treatment massage which is much more akin to what a PT would do for some hands-on treatment.
Any help is appreciated!
