Memory Care Enrichment Activity Leader for Clinical Hours?

[aburyy]

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I recently applied as an Enrichment Activity Leader for a memory care center. Would this count as clinical experience? Here is the description of the responsibilities:

• Leading and teaching small groups of cognitively impaired seniors in our award winning therapeutic Whole Brain Fitness programs.
• Preparing materials and conducting relevant research to confidently lead engaging memory enrichment activities
• Assisting with Cognitive Assessments, tracking and trending of resident participation and maintaining compliance related documentation

Thank you!

 

[AsclepiusAdvisingLLC]

Clinical experiences are meant to emulate what it will mean to practice medicine and working with a diverse patient base. This experience sounds like a wonderful volunteering opportunity, but it does not seem to qualify as a clinical experience in the same way that working as a scribe, EMT, or other clinical position would. Admissions committees want to see that you've exposed yourself to a variety of different clinical experiences before matriculated so that they can ensure that you want to dedicate your life to the practice of medicine. If you believe that this experience qualifies as a testimony to your desire to practice medicine, then you should include it in your application. However, I would be hesitant to qualify it as a clinical experience.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

On the surface, it's clinical-adjacent because of the assessments you may be trained to deliver. It feels more like kinesiology for older patients/clients except it addresses their brain function (too). Nothing wrong with that. Don't let it be your only evidence of clinical exposure.

Of course, in your description, you also seem to mingle in terms suggesting it's "research". Be careful with this.

 

[AJS59]

To me it reads clinical, and I don't think it reads like research (research to me is conducting research with the purpose of answering a scientific question). Still, you'd be better off avoiding the word "research" if possible to avoid confusion

 

[LizzyM]

To me it sounds like clinical psychologist-adjacent work (employment or volunteer). These types of assessements are conducted by clinical psychologists as therapy and to assess changes over time in older adults, particularly those in cognitive decline.

My definition of "clinical experience" requires the word "patient". I do not see that word in any of the three job tasks. If they aren't patients, it ain't clinical for the purposes of pre-med. Not to say it isn't a valuable experience of becoming comfortable working with older adults but you will need a clinical experience working with PATIENTS in addition to this work.

 

[DrFutureDO]

Sounds clinical to me .

 

[Goro]

I recently applied as an Enrichment Activity Leader for a memory care center. Would this count as clinical experience? Here is the description of the responsibilities:

• Leading and teaching small groups of cognitively impaired seniors in our award winning therapeutic Whole Brain Fitness programs.
• Preparing materials and conducting relevant research to confidently lead engaging memory enrichment activities
• Assisting with Cognitive Assessments, tracking and trending of resident participation and maintaining compliance related documentation

Thank you!

If you're considering this to be research, it's not clinical because you're using research subjects.
Clinical exposure is about being with sick and injured people.

 

[TheRealBibFortuna]

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To me it sounds like clinical psychologist-adjacent work (employment or volunteer). These types of assessements are conducted by clinical psychologists as therapy and to assess changes over time in older adults, particularly those in cognitive decline.

My definition of "clinical experience" requires the word "patient". I do not see that word in any of the three job tasks. If they aren't patients, it ain't clinical for the purposes of pre-med. Not to say it isn't a valuable experience of becoming comfortable working with older adults but you will need a clinical experience working with PATIENTS in addition to this work.

Would the title of “patient” extend to “resident” for ALF, SNF, memory care, etc. so long as the job itself is clinical in nature? My primary clinical experience was at such a location and nobody seemed to bat an eye.

 

[LizzyM]

Would the title of “patient” extend to “resident” for ALF, SNF, memory care, etc. so long as the job itself is clinical in nature? My primary clinical experience was at such a location and nobody seemed to bat an eye.

If you are a patient care technician in SNF or ALF, then the word "patient" is in the job title. But if you are calling bingo numbers or playing the piano, it is not clinical. Some people are prickly about the people in nursing homes being "residents" and not "patients" as patients suggests that the person's life revolves around being ill rather than they are a person who is now residing in a facility that can provide the services and supervision they need to live with safety and security.