Is volunteering as red cross first responder also considered a clincal experience?

[papi_md]

Hello sdn,
Im planning to go to med school. Currently I work as an IT consultant and I hold a degree in physics. As I mostly read here in sdn, non trad students should get clinical experience regardless. I live in the philippines btw and would like to go to a US or even carribean med school. Currently IM taking BLS training in red cross and start to eventually volunteer as a first responder. Will this suffice or even considered as a clinical experience? In my country, no doctors allow shadowing or hospitals that offer any hospital volunteering (except if you are a resident doc or nurse). How about volunteering in blood letting events? Are they also considered as clinical experience? Thanks!

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[mk04447]

If you work with patients it's clinical experience.

 

[Tyrone.]

I have my EMT certification where I live, but I can't work with the agency here because it's a full time only agency, so it'd be a real pain and probably foolish to try and pull 36+ hours on a truck (it's A-B shift, so you can't just say you wanna work weekends) and a full time course load. I'm trying to find an alternative with my certification but not having much luck.

 

[EUmedicinestar]

absolutely! Anything that shows that you care about people's health

 

[__AVI8R__]

I have my EMT certification where I live, but I can't work with the agency here because it's a full time only agency, so it'd be a real pain and probably foolish to try and pull 36+ hours on a truck (it's A-B shift, so you can't just say you wanna work weekends) and a full time course load. I'm trying to find an alternative with my certification but not having much luck.

Are there any volunteer ambulance corps in your area? Volunteer as much or as little (barring any minimum hour requirements) as you'd like.

 

[Tyrone.]

Are there any volunteer ambulance corps in your area? Volunteer as much or as little (barring any minimum hour requirements) as you'd like.

Not unless I'm willing to drive about an hour out of the city, unfortunately. The agency that hired me is HUGE and it covers the entire city. It just built a brand new head quarters and added 60 new fully-loaded ALS trucks to their fleet. And they have about 600 employees and growing. Kind of a work-for-them-or-not-at-all deal. I've thought about just volunteering at free health clinics for underserved populations, because we do have those here. I'm sure I'm qualified enough to treat them, as far as vitals, IM shots, glucose checks, immunizations, asthma treatment and such. That's pretty easy routine work compared to what I'm used to in EMS, but I'd love to help if they could use it.

 

[__AVI8R__]

Not unless I'm willing to drive about an hour out of the city, unfortunately. The agency that hired me is HUGE and it covers the entire city. It just built a brand new head quarters and added 60 new fully-loaded ALS trucks to their fleet. And they have about 600 employees and growing. Kind of a work-for-them-or-not-at-all deal. I've thought about just volunteering at free health clinics for underserved populations, because we do have those here. I'm sure I'm qualified enough to treat them, as far as vitals, IM shots, glucose checks, immunizations, asthma treatment and such. That's pretty easy routine work compared to what I'm used to in EMS, but I'd love to help if they could use it.

Italics for emphasis are my own.
"What exactly is clinical experience? I think that our ADCOM friend on this forum sums it up best: "If you are close enough to smell patients then it is clinical experience." -@LizzyM What you need to do is put yourself into a clinical environment. It can be something as simple as volunteering in the hospital. You do NOT need to do any form or paid work or learn any specific skills/procedures. This is not PA school. Medical school will start you from the beginning with everything. Therefore it doesn't matter if you were a lowly volunteer in a hospital emergency department, or part-time emergency medical technician (EMT), you will start at the beginning. Now while some schools might place a premium on paid clinical work, I wouldn't suggest doing it, and will explain why later. What I'm trying to say here is that all you need to do is smell the patient, as our ADCOM friend suggests. You do NOT need to poke, prod, lance, or do anything else with the patient. Just remember that the minimum will get you by, and is the smartest way to go."

Source: Planes2Doc's Ultimate Guide to Maximizing Your Medical School Application

Disclaimer: I am a pre-med
If you can volunteer at a free health clinic, it does not interfere with your grades, and you are interested in it then it is the best place to volunteer. Don't let ECs mess up your grades thinking that an EC will salvage a low grade. Good luck!