Is this shadowing, volunteering, or both?

[stayathomemom]

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I'm having trouble deciding what I should classify this as in regards to the AMCAS app.

If I am going through my teaching hospital's volunteer department, working to gather data for a research project, and the method of data gathering is shadowing a general medicine team rounding on patients (and writing down things like time spent presenting, interruptions, etc.), how do I classify this on my med school application: shadowing, volunteering, research? Can it be more than one thing?

While you're here, another unrelated question: can I make one of my 15 experiences a general "clinical volunteering" experience with all of my different clinical volunteer positions lumped in there in the description? I have WAYYYY too many experiences if I seperated out all of the different volunteer experiences. (I have 15 years of volunteering over 4 hospitals; none of these are measly 4 hour afternoon projects.)

 

[AllBleedingStops]

Research. And I doubt you could fit the seriousness of that much volunteering into the few characters you are given in 1 description, or even in one of the 3 most significant spaces (how do you have 15 years by the way? Even for a non-trad this seems odd).

 

[Goro]

I'm having trouble deciding what I should classify this as in regards to the AMCAS app.

If I am going through my teaching hospital's volunteer department, working to gather data for a research project, and the method of data gathering is shadowing a general medicine team rounding on patients (and writing down things like time spent presenting, interruptions, etc.), how do I classify this on my med school application: shadowing, volunteering, research? Can it be more than one thing?

While you're here, another unrelated question: can I make one of my 15 experiences a general "clinical volunteering" experience with all of my different clinical volunteer positions lumped in there in the description? I have WAYYYY too many experiences if I seperated out all of the different volunteer experiences. (I have 15 years of volunteering over 4 hospitals; none of these are measly 4 hour afternoon projects.)

It's clinical research, and the patients are subjects, rather than patients

AND if you're not seeing how clinicians approach the practice of Medicine, then you're not even shadowing.

 

[stayathomemom]

Research. And I doubt you could fit the seriousness of that much volunteering into the few characters you are given in 1 description, or even in one of the 3 most significant spaces (how do you have 15 years by the way? Even for a non-trad this seems odd).

Sorry, 15 years since undergrad, and there hasn't been continuous clinical volunteering. It was a terrible attempt to assuage the fears of young undergrads who are still trying to get a good smattering of experiences. Thank you for your reply!

 

[stayathomemom]

AND if you're not seeing how clinicians approach the practice of Medicine, then you're not even shadowing.

Can you expand on this? Beyond watching them as they do their rounds, examine patients and sometimes do procedures while there, and making a care plan, what else am I missing as far as "how [they] approach the practice of Medicine"? I am not being argumentative, I am just naive.

 

[Catalystik]

While you're here, another unrelated question: can I make one of my 15 experiences a general "clinical volunteering" experience with all of my different clinical volunteer positions lumped in there in the description? I have WAYYYY too many experiences if I seperated out all of the different volunteer experiences. (I have 15 years of volunteering over 4 hospitals; none of these are measly 4 hour afternoon projects.)

Yes, or you can group them into two spaces so you have more room for description. Or you can designate the activity as Most Meaningful (you can do this for three activities on AMCAS) and get an extra 1325 characters above the usual 700. Or you can omit (or summarize briefly) some of the long-ago volunteering and focus on the more recent years.

 

[Goro]

Can you expand on this? Beyond watching them as they do their rounds, examine patients and sometimes do procedures while there, and making a care plan, what else am I missing as far as "how [they] approach the practice of Medicine"? I am not being argumentative, I am just naive.

The bolded IS how they approach the practice of Medicine (and also lets you see what thier day is like).

 

[stayathomemom]

The bolded IS how they approach the practice of Medicine (and also lets you see what thier day is like).

Oh, ok, so since I am bearing witness to those things, it is also shadowing? Your original reply seemed like it wasn't even shadowing, so that's where I got confused. Do I have pick either research or shadowing for AMCAS purposes (or, in the description, indicate that the scope of the experience touched on both aspects)? Thank you for all your help.

 

[Catalystik]

Do I have pick either research or shadowing for AMCAS purposes (or, in the description, indicate that the scope of the experience touched on both aspects)?

Yes, you can only pick one category for the space. Besides using the narrative description to elaborate, you can also create a name for the space that suggests all its components.

 

[stayathomemom]

Thank you!! This application can be so confusing, and I feel like one small misunderstanding about it can reflect poorly on me at best or be disastrous at worst, so I appreciate all your help.

 

[Catalystik]

Thank you!! This application can be so confusing, and I feel like one small misunderstanding about it can reflect poorly on me at best or be disastrous at worst, so I appreciate all your help.

When the time comes for you to fill in the application, SDN sponsors a thread each year specifically meant to help with the Activity section. See my signature line above for a link to this year's Tips thread.

 

[LizzyM]

I concur that this is research but I suspect that the physicians and other team members are the subjects and the patients are not even subjects but might play a part as a variable. It is either an observational, descriptive study or setting up some comparisons among teams or based on some other variable (demographic characteristics of patients, for example).

For shadowing, I would recommend finding a physician who will let you go along for an entire day from start to finish including rounding and all of the other work of the day. It would be nice to see what a hospitalist does and then do the same with someone who has an ambulatory-based practice.

 

[stayathomemom]

I concur that this is research but I suspect that the physicians and other team members are the subjects and the patients are not even subjects but might play a part as a variable. It is either an observational, descriptive study or setting up some comparisons among teams or based on some other variable (demographic characteristics of patients, for example).

Yes. For the second sentence, the first is true.

For shadowing, I would recommend finding a physician who will let you go along for an entire day from start to finish including rounding and all of the other work of the day. It would be nice to see what a hospitalist does and then do the same with someone who has an ambulatory-based practice.

Thank you for that advice. 🙂

 

[stayathomemom]

When the time comes for you to fill in the application, SDN sponsors a thread each year specifically meant to help with the Activity section. See my signature line above for a link to this year's Tips thread.

Thank you. I'll definitely check out that thread!