Medical Jobs for Gap Year

[Chelated_Fe]

Hello everyone, I decide to take a gap year to increase my clinical hours (I currently have 140 clinical volunteering hours in the ICU and 40 clinical volunteering hours doing hospice care as an upcoming senior). I would prefer to get a clinical job instead of doing more clinical volunteering to make a little bit of money. What kind of job do you suggest doing? Additionally, how many hours should I apply with, not including prospective hours post-application? I know that I’ll be doing hours during the gap year, but that will be after I apply.

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[Mr.Smile12]

Finding Paid Clinical Experience - SDN

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[JAK2-STAT3]

There's no one best clinical job, and it more or less comes down to pay and personal preference. Like if you really want to become an EMT or phlebotomist or CNA or scribe or MA or ER tech then go for it. If there's a specialty you think you're interested then by all means get a job in or adjacent to that specialty. I was an MA and thought that it gave me great practice talking to patients, making small talk, not being too awkward around patients, etc. Some states require you to be certified before you can work as an MA though, which may or may not be worth it. Scribing might get you a better look at what a physician does but pays terribly.

Most people on here say that 150 clinical hours is the low end of acceptable. If you are taking one gap year and start a job after graduation you are looking at 1-2 months tops (unless you apply late, which you should not do) of completed clinical job hours on your application. However, if you don't get in next cycle you'll have a year's worth of full-time experience to add to your application.

 

[saxyotter]

Focus less on the hours, more on the quality of your experience. A gap year should give you plenty of “hours.” A lot of people do scribing in a clinic or in the ER, if that’s possible for you do. I scribed, learn so so much, made great relationships. You could also be a MA (medical assistant, also known as a tech) another great way to get patient interaction.

 

[systematicX]

Would highly recommend a scribe job or medical assistant

 

[MD_Maker]

Scribe -> you get clinical knowledge and will be well-prepared for med school. Great option if you have low clinical hours

Clinical research coordinator (CRC) -> you get a mix of clinical knowledge (depending on the position) and access to research faculty. It's possible to get publications and enhance your application

Medical assistant -> my least favorite of the gap year jobs. A lot of variation in the roles and some may offer stronger clinical growth than others. Compared to scribing though, less focus on writing notes which is a core part of medical school (and medicine in general).

 

[Chelated_Fe]

I’m surprised that EMT is not being mentioned as much compared to jobs such as scribing or MA. Is there a reason for that?

 

[Mr.Smile12]

If you do EMT, do community/public EMT instead of event EMT. Much more representative of the challenges emergency rooms face.

I'm not sure if EMT is any less popular, but there has been a growth of campus EMT clubs (again: see my above sentence), so it won't be available to you in a gap year.

 

[saxyotter]

I’m surprised that EMT is not being mentioned as much compared to jobs such as scribing or MA. Is there a reason for that?

There’s is a lot more training for that job, plus not as much interaction with physicians, and odd hours IMO

 

[Chelated_Fe]

Yeah the training does seem to be a little more time-consuming, but I do wonder if it would be easier to obtain an EMT job when compared to an MA job. I have heard of people gaining an MA license and end up never using it.