Is one "source" of clinical experience enough?

[Doctoscope]

I am fortunate enough to have found solid clinical experience during this time (taking patient vitals, translating for patients, signing patients in, and sometimes "MAing" for the physician). I think I'll be able to stay here for awhile, and rack up about 500+ hours here.

This experience is not at a large hospital, but rather at a small local clinic. It's a primary care/specialty clinic, but 80% of the work is specialty work. There's also some nonclinical stuff involved, like dealing with/verifying insurance, patient charting, and billing.

If I volunteer here for about a year and a half, would that be sufficient for this to be my only source of clinical experience? Or do I need to also find something at a larger hospital, like Kaiser, to gain experience with a "hospital setting"? (I'll also be volunteering through a hospice, which is incredibly meaningful but not as a "reliable" source of hours, simply due to the patient population.)

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[JimKimSlim]

Looks good. I think it’s better to gain experiences from multiple different specialties rather than focusing on only one. Also, quality > quantity (minimum 200 hours IMO).

 

[Catalystik]

I am fortunate enough to have found solid clinical experience during this time (taking patient vitals, translating for patients, signing patients in, and sometimes "MAing" for the physician). I think I'll be able to stay here for awhile, and rack up about 500+ hours here.

This experience is not at a large hospital, but rather at a small local clinic. It's a primary care/specialty clinic, but 80% of the work is specialty work. There's also some nonclinical stuff involved, like dealing with/verifying insurance, patient charting, and billing.

If I volunteer here for about a year and a half, would that be sufficient for this to be my only source of clinical experience? Or do I need to also find something at a larger hospital, like Kaiser, to gain experience with a "hospital setting"? (I'll also be volunteering through a hospice, which is incredibly meaningful but not as a "reliable" source of hours, simply due to the patient population.)

What are the specialties?

 

[Doctoscope]

What are the specialties?

Pain management/sports medicine. Given that, would volunteering at just this one clinic + hospice be sufficient for clinical exp?

 

[Catalystik]

Pain management/sports medicine. Given that, would volunteering at just this one clinic + hospice be sufficient for clinical exp?

Yes.

 

[Doctoscope]

Looks good. I think it’s better to gain experiences from multiple different specialties rather than focusing on only one. Also, quality > quantity (minimum 200 hours IMO).

There is an "internship" around me where you have to pay something $300 to work as a free CNA/MA at big hospitals, but you do get to rotate through a few different departments. I just can't get behind the idea of paying THEM money so I can provide ~$4000 worth of free labor.

 

[Goro]

I am fortunate enough to have found solid clinical experience during this time (taking patient vitals, translating for patients, signing patients in, and sometimes "MAing" for the physician). I think I'll be able to stay here for awhile, and rack up about 500+ hours here.

This experience is not at a large hospital, but rather at a small local clinic. It's a primary care/specialty clinic, but 80% of the work is specialty work. There's also some nonclinical stuff involved, like dealing with/verifying insurance, patient charting, and billing.

If I volunteer here for about a year and a half, would that be sufficient for this to be my only source of clinical experience? Or do I need to also find something at a larger hospital, like Kaiser, to gain experience with a "hospital setting"? (I'll also be volunteering through a hospice, which is incredibly meaningful but not as a "reliable" source of hours, simply due to the patient population.)

1000% fine!

 

[JimKimSlim]

There is an "internship" around me where you have to pay something $300 to work as a free CNA/MA at big hospitals, but you do get to rotate through a few different departments. I just can't get behind the idea of paying THEM money so I can provide ~$4000 worth of free labor.

You already have pretty solid clinical hours enough for most schools (top schools start looking at your research experience, which I'm not sure if you have plenty).

I only suggested gaining experiences from multiple specialties purely for gaining exposure to different fields of medicine. In my case, through clinical experiences at different settings, I was able to determine what specialties I will certainly NOT pursue.

 

[Banco]

Sounds like a great experience and better than what most have in terms of quality and quantity. I had something very similar to you with about half the hours, and then about 50 hours of shadowing. Was more than enough and interviewers loved my medical assistant type experience as it was much more hands on than most.

Don't do that BS "internship," it's a scam asking you to pay and adds nothing to your application. You could if you want just shadow different specialties for a couple dozen hours until application time, but otherwise I think your experience should give you plenty of insight and things to talk about at interviews.