Is waiting a year better?

[SCUBAchick]

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Hey all,
I'm brand-spanking new to the SDN forums, and I'm so glad this place exists! I'm a little nervous about applying to med schools this year.
I'm a veteran, former Army medic and previously licensed Paramedic. I have 6 years medical experience in pre-hospital and aid station care.
I'm taking the MCAT 27 July, but on practice tests I've been getting 27-31.
My GPA is 3.93, 3.91 science.
ECs:
Honors Program active 3 years, President 2 years
AMSA
Tri-Beta
Phi Kappa Phi
2 REUs- University of Alaska and Johns Hopkins BioREU
4 School Conferences (poster)
1 State Conference (poster)
2 National Conferences (poster and round-table talk)

Not worried about ECs or GPA. More concerned that med schools won't consider my prior medical experience and will focus on me not having official "shadow" time.

Suggestions? Thank you very much. I appreciate anyone's help.

 

[cspringer]

Have you submitted yet? If not, schedule some shadowing ASAP. Make some phone calls on you're study breaks this week and get it done. Everything less looks great.

 

[carnelian]

Being a paramedic is very different from being a physician. You should still try to shadow doctors from different areas to better understand what it's like. Also, any volunteering experience? Are you considering MD and DO schools? Very competitive for DO (mcat and gpa), about average/slightly below for MD (mcat; awesome gpa though!)

 

[SCUBAchick]

Through Paramedic school we did shadow physicians-- ER, ICU, OR, NICU, OB, Peds... really all of the major areas in a hospital. I had ~200 hours shadowing and working with MDs and Nurses through training.
I also worked with MDs in the Army, and worked in a hospital-based unit there. I did sick call, took vitals, history, and in most cases did the full SOAP note which the MD later signed off on. I know this doesn't constitute "shadowing", but I worked closely with an MD in a hospital like setting and had his blessing on treatment procedures I prescribed. Do I need more shadowing past that?

 

[baylorgirl]

you can describe that in your work and activities section. im not very knowledgeable about this, but are there any army-medical school programs? my friend did rotc so she could get automatic acceptance into podiatry school, maybe there's one for med school?

 

[alpinism]

Through Paramedic school we did shadow physicians-- ER, ICU, OR, NICU, OB, Peds... really all of the major areas in a hospital. I had ~200 hours shadowing and working with MDs and Nurses through training.
I also worked with MDs in the Army, and worked in a hospital-based unit there. I did sick call, took vitals, history, and in most cases did the full SOAP note which the MD later signed off on. I know this doesn't constitute "shadowing", but I worked closely with an MD in a hospital like setting and had his blessing on treatment procedures I prescribed. Do I need more shadowing past that?

Nope, your app looks strong, go ahead and apply this cycle.

There really is no such thing as "official" shadowing time, its just spending time observing docs seeing pts. in a hosp/clinic and talking to them about the pros/cons of their job so you understand what you're getting into.

Put down that you have ~200hrs and list the different specialties, but, make sure to enter it as a sepatate activity in AMCAS rather than as part of being a paramedic. Then briefly talk about what you learned/experienced during shadowing and how it influenced your decision to go into medicine.

As for working w/ docs, its not considered shadowing since you're mainly focused on doing your job and not practicing medicine (completely different animals). I had thousands of hrs woking w/ docs as a medic but still got ~250hrs shadowing in undergrad on top of that.

The degree to which an adcom values your clinical experience depends on the school itself and varies widely between med schools. Some schools love non-trads w/ tons of clinical experience and others don't really care and instead will be focused on your MCAT and research.

Apply wisely (schools in your MCAT/GPA range) and broadly (12+) before Sept. and you should be fine. If you haven't already, after you take the MCAT submit AMCAS and start working on secondaries while your waiting for your score to come back.

Good Luck!

 

[MaxillofacialMN]

you can describe that in your work and activities section. im not very knowledgeable about this, but are there any army-medical school programs? my friend did rotc so she could get automatic acceptance into podiatry school, maybe there's one for med school?

Okay, that's not real.