Is working in an ER as good as volunteering in one?

[empty p orbital]

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For the past 1.5 years I've worked 20-30/week as a patient registrar in our local regional trauma center ED. I've learned so much and seen all the doctors in action more times than I can count. It's been a really eye-opening experience into the world of healthcare and I am now keenly aware of many of the difficulties facing the industry today, yet my time there has solidified my desire to become a doctor even more.

I know what it is like to work 14 hours straight, 5pm to 7am, go home for 10 hours and them come back for another 12. During this time I've also been a full-time/year-round science major, doing 10 hrs/week of research, and I got married 6 months ago.

My question is does me being employed in an ER look just as good as me volunteering? I'm just so busy and don't really want to do additional volunteer time in a clinical setting unless it is necessary.

Granted my job isn't technically clinical like being an EMT or something would be, but for the vast majority of undergrad pre-meds I imagine what I do is about as clinical as you can get without violating some hospital's liability policy - (putting wristbands on patients, making their charts, getting their insurance info into the computer, giving them puke buckets, carrying ones who can't walk out of their cars and into wheel chairs, and helping restrain the combative druggie ones, etc.)

Also would any adcom buy it if I listed working there both as employment/clinical exposure and also as some kind of shadowing experience? I haven't ever officially shadowed any of the docs there, but I've seen what they do and how they interact with patients countless times.... I wish there was a way to include in my personal statement or something the time a 500+ pound man went into cardiac arrest in a wheel chair and we just could not lift him onto the trauma table so the doc had to shock him in the wheel chair

I guess its not really that funny, but good grief... he was just so... big..

 

[45408]

I think clinical employment is better than volunteering. It usually involves a much bigger time commitment, and you usually have some actual responsibility.

 

[christina30]

Well, working in the ER is usually better than volunteering because you generally get more patient contact/responsibilities - I've worked as a unit clerk in the ED for 3+ years, so my situation was similar to yours. It's really great experience

 

[LMFAOhaha]

I intern at my local hospital so I actually don't get the ER until my third rotation. From what I've heard, you get to see a lot of procedures for the most part, other than that you'll be making beds and running errands. Can't wait to get in the OR though!

 

[empty p orbital]

I think clinical employment is better than volunteering. It usually involves a much bigger time commitment, and you usually have some actual responsibility.

Really? That's a relief to hear. It is good experience, but I was a little worried about it being employment and me getting paid for it vs altruistic volunteering. It's not that I'm not altruistic... I'm just busy and I can't decide if I should volunteer in addition to what I'm doing or if my time would be better spent improving my application elsewhere.

You seem to have landed a pretty nice job for someone without a BA degree yet and already exposed to a real clinical setting. Is the pay at least decent or just barely enough to survive with?

Yeah its a good job, but like I said I don't really DO much clinically-related stuff... I just SEE lots of it and occasionally when things get busy they might use my man-power for a few minutes.. but most of my job is clerical in nature.. but I guess having good insider perspective on hospital billing, insurance policies, medicare, etc. is somewhat pertinent.

I get paid like $11.75/hr, part-time, so not super great but enough to pay the bills for my wife and I.

How much shadowing should I do in addition to working at the hospital? A "traditional" amount (50 hrs-ish), or could I do less (20-30) and then say I got just as much from observing at work as I did shadowing? Or will adcoms say, "Nice try but working there is employment only... you should have shadowed more doctors when you weren't on the clock."?

 

[Evergrey]

Volunteer somewhere and also work. That would be best, if you can manage it!

 

[FrkyBgStok]

I was once told by a premed advisor that unit clerk/registrar was not considered clinical experience. You can try to explain it but schools MAY look at it as over exaggerating a clerk job to make your app better. That being said, premed advisors seem to know MUCH less than they think they do so your experience may be tip-top.

 

[Catalystik]

As long as you are working directly with sick people (and have good tales to tell) unit clerk or patient registrar is an excellent way to gain clinical experience. It does not however, cover the expectation for community service. However, when the workplace provides clinical experience, your volunteering should be nonmedical in nature: Once a week for 2-4 hours or twice a month would be sufficient, ideally with you giving your time to a cause you care about. Maybe you and you wife could do something at the same site for together-time.

As far as the shadowing, I do think you should invest some spare time doing some formal shadowing, maybe on breaks or at the mealtime at work, with permission. Knowing ER docs will hopefully lead to other contacts with maybe a surgeon or hospitalist, and ideally with an office-based primary care doc, that you can ask for shadowing time, as well. Too many schools expect to see shadowing as a listing, for you to hope they'll "buy it" that you've covered this expectation with occasional observations.

 

[45408]

I was once told by a premed advisor that unit clerk/registrar was not considered clinical experience. You can try to explain it but schools MAY look at it as over exaggerating a clerk job to make your app better. That being said, premed advisors seem to know MUCH less than they think they do so your experience may be tip-top.

It's not as good as being an ER tech - which is about as advanced a position as a pre-med can get without much more training - but I'd consider it clinical experience for application purposes.

I think EVERYONE should shadow at least several specialties, not just for the adcom's sake, but also for yours. If you want to be a doctor, you should see what they do every day.