Medical Mission Trip?

[bahdahboom]

I've seen this talked about on the pre-med forum but I'm interested in how a mission trip is viewed for residency apps. I wanna go into EM and seeing how I don't have any solidified plans for my break before 2nd yr, I was thinking of going on a short mission trip and serve in a clinic abroad. I wouldnt be going necessarily to boost my resume (i've been thinking for yrs to go on a mission trip) but I'd like to know if it has any real positive effect to adcoms for residency. Plus I wanted something substantial to say I did over the summer.

Thanks!

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[njtrimed]

I've seen this talked about on the pre-med forum but I'm interested in how a mission trip is viewed for residency apps. I wanna go into EM and seeing how I don't have any solidified plans for my break before 2nd yr, I was thinking of going on a short mission trip and serve in a clinic abroad. I wouldnt be going necessarily to boost my resume (i've been thinking for yrs to go on a mission trip) but I'd like to know if it has any real positive effect to adcoms for residency. Plus I wanted something substantial to say I did over the summer.

Thanks!

My only experience on medical missions was as a healthcare professional doing the same job I did here abroad. We always had a few med students and residents that worked with the attending physician who ran the trip, and while they were welcomed by everyone, they weren't particularly helpful unless they were at least PGY2 or higher in training. That may be different in other cases, depending on the kind of mission you're doing. I have no idea how residency directors view this kind of work from applicants, but it seems like many of them view missions very positively and support current residents who go on missions.

 

[gcuddles]

I can't speak about how it looks for PDs, but if you choose your trip wisely, they can be enormously helpful. I participated in one over my spring break this past year that's a student organization on campus. In addition to the community service/volunteer hours for my Dean's Letter, I also got a TON of hands-on experience. But that was the nature of the trip: the students do the history, do the physical (all overseen by the physicians) and really learn. As a first year, I got to do an intra-articular joint injection, which was super cool. Additionally, I'm now gaining leadership experience as part of the e-board for the group. There's also great networking with the physicians who also attend, and mine was in a beautiful place, so the trip was overall more than worth it.

 

[iBS1972]

My understanding is that it's great as self-enrichment and perhaps something to talk about during interviews. If you're just going for the sake of putting something on the resume, it's only slightly more than useless. It will not compensate for other weaknesses in your application. Residency programs care much less about extracurriculars than medical schools.

 

[candbgirl]

Does your school have one? Loyola does and students and docs go for a couple of weeks in the summer. Maybe your school has something similar.


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