Necessity of Clinical Experience?

[Jacobian78]

So way back in June I went to a volunteer orientation at a local hospital because I figured meaningless, blue-blazer wearing, name tag toting volunteer work is a life or death subject for applications. In short, the program ended up being a pile of crap, and I'm still waiting for my second interview (July 28th) before I can even start volunteering. In the mean time, I started doing some tutoring at a rehabilitation organization in the city. After doing it for about three weeks, I've realized it is hands down one of the best experiences I have ever had. Basically, I spend 2-3 hours a day working with guys who are overcoming addictions and trying to become employable by learning basic reading, writing, math and other skills. I look forward to my shifts and have met some really interesting people through the program.
So heres the question. If I choose to forego the hospital volunteer work and instead continue doing the tutoring, am I looking at a pretty heavy blemish on my application? I've done some shadowing with a pathologist this summer, and am planning on spending a day with a radiologist and anesthesiologist before fall term. I'm not big on doing volunteer work just to say that I do it which is why I would much rather just continue with the tutoring for the summer.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Livingapparatus]

Keep what you got if you enjoy it. I dont think not doing the hospital volunteering would hurt your app at all.

 

[RockHardIce]

Believe it or not, so far this "crap" volunteering is one of the obvious things most pre-meds have on their files along with other good activities...so give it a shot. do part time, but stick with it.

 

[MichiganEMTInt]

It's important, but here are a few things

1. If you were on the adcom, how would someone with little clinical experience convince you they want to be a doctor?

2. Clinical experience does not necessarily equal volunteering in a hospital. That is an obligatory superficial activity that many people do for the very reason.."clinical experience". Do what you enjoy. If you're close enough to smell the patient, you can probably count that as clinical experience.

3. If you don't like doing hospital volunteering, which I don't blame you one bit for, don't do it. If questioned about it at an interview you won't be enthusiastic which might cause some unnecessary speculation on their part. Be safe and stick to what you enjoy rather than what you "have to do".

 

[TexasTriathlete]

I think clinical experience is important if you don't want to make a ******ed decision like applying to medical school when you have no idea what a doctor actually does.

Find a different volunteer program. Or be assertive within this one. Do what you can to land in an ER. Preferably a busy one.

 

[ChubbyChaser]

I think you can claim the one that you actually like is clinical experience, so dont bother with the "crap" one.

Just do some shadowing as well, and youll be ok.

 

[Jacobian78]

To clarify, as of now I'm set on doing pathology, and shadowing in the pathology department set my mind on it that much more. Volunteering in an ER and wheeling out assorted individuals to the curb will really give no insight into whether or not med school is right for me, and I highly doubt it would for anyone else unless you were actually interested in going into emergency medicine. It may shed some light on what it would be like to spend a large amount of time at a hospital, but it's basically analogous to saying that handing out mail at a law firm is going to to give me a taste of being a CEO.

Haha and I should probably make clear that I'm not saying everyone's hospital volunteer work is crap, I was simply referring to the programs in the area around me. I wouldn't stare someone in the eyes who just spent a summer working in a pediatric oncology wing and tell them that was a bunch of crap.

 

[Livingapparatus]

To clarify, as of now I'm set on doing pathology, and shadowing in the pathology department set my mind on it that much more. Volunteering in an ER and wheeling out assorted individuals to the curb will really give no insight into whether or not med school is right for me, and I highly doubt it would for anyone else unless you were actually interested in going into emergency medicine. It may shed some light on what it would be like to spend a large amount of time at a hospital, but it's basically analogous to saying that handing out mail at a law firm is going to to give me a taste of being a CEO.

Its not that its exactly acting like a doctor; however if you watched a CEO a couple times you would have a better idea if you wanted to work in the field.

 

[Jacobian78]

Its not that its exactly acting like a doctor; however if you watched a CEO a couple times you would have a better idea if you wanted to work in the field.

I completely agree, that's why I was wondering if I did a substantial amount of shadowing, would that negate the necessity of doing hospital volunteer work. It would seem that shadowing would give a much more detailed look into the life of a doctor as opposed to seeing glimpses of them while volunteering.

 

[Livingapparatus]

I completely agree, that's why I was wondering if I did a substantial amount of shadowing, would that negate the necessity of doing hospital volunteer work. It would seem that shadowing would give a much more detailed look into the life of a doctor as opposed to seeing glimpses of them while volunteering.

However if you can find the time either now or later I would volunteer just to fatten the application.

Dont give them a reason to keep you out.

 

[Star2008]

I agree, you should just try and get some meaningful clinical work on the side. You don't even need to devote hours and hours on it, just as long as you get some insight from it. Something clinical that you can talk about in interviews to show that you really know what you're going into and how passionate you are about it.

I don't have a lot of clinical exp and I'm still trying to find that really good clinical opportunity b/c all the ones I have now are uneventful and provide me with very limited exposure to the actual medical field. I do, however, have a lot of community service.

Shadowing work definitely provides you with more glimpses into real medicine in an hour than often weeks of volunteering can provide, but it doesn't sound as good as taking the time to contribute to that patient care.

I think you'll benefit from your tutoring work and stand out to the adcom. It'll show your passion for helping others, but they really do care about clinical. You can help ppl in nearly all profession, but what makes medicine for you?

 

[HoboCommander]

What you just described is actually clinical experience.

 

[WinterLights]

No clinical is a death sentence UNLESS you have a sufficient amount of ECs and shadowing.

 

[Law2Doc]

I think clinical experience is important if you don't want to make a ******ed decision like applying to medical school when you have no idea what a doctor actually does.

Find a different volunteer program. Or be assertive within this one. Do what you can to land in an ER. Preferably a busy one.

I think this is the point that too many premeds miss. While adcoms require clinical experience, you aren't really doing it for them. You are doing it because it's foolhardy to get onto a road costing $150k and requiring a minimum of a decade long committment of school and training unless you really truly know what the path you are on is all about. So you in part are doing the clinical stuff to be able to make an informed decision. So it's really about maturity -- a mature person researches and investigates his decisions, rather than just launch into a career based on the experiences of a family member or TV character. The whole reason adcoms require clinical experience, repeatedly ask the "why medicine?" question, and generally make folks go through such an ordeal to get into med school is because this path really isn't for everyone, and has pretty significant financial barriers to extricating yourself once you go down this road. So you have one shot to not make a bad decision for yourself, and it requires investigation, aka clinical experience. It should be something where you get exposure to doctors, patients, the interaction between the two, and see what doctors do all day. So yes, they require it, but it's more out of kindness (saving folks from themselves) than anything else. You have to know what you are getting yourself into. If you don't, you aren't ready for med school.

 

[LizzyM]

May I make a suggestion? Approach the pathologist you have or will shadow and ask if there is anything you can do in the lab as a volunteer. There may be a research project that has been set aside for lack of time to do the some of the simple tasks like pulling paraffin blocks, pulling path reports or case files or chasing information in medical records, etc. This sort of research is research but it would also give you some hand-on experience in the pathologist's work place.

I'd say that with tutoring, shadowing and some time in the path lab as a volunteer, you'd be in good shape.

 

[jult24er]

I think this is the point that too many premeds miss. While adcoms require clinical experience, you aren't really doing it for them. You are doing it because it's foolhardy to get onto a road costing $150k and requiring a minimum of a decade long committment of school and training unless you really truly know what the path you are on is all about. So you in part are doing the clinical stuff to be able to make an informed decision. So it's really about maturity -- a mature person researches and investigates his decisions, rather than just launch into a career based on the experiences of a family member or TV character. The whole reason adcoms require clinical experience, repeatedly ask the "why medicine?" question, and generally make folks go through such an ordeal to get into med school is because this path really isn't for everyone, and has pretty significant financial barriers to extricating yourself once you go down this road. So you have one shot to not make a bad decision for yourself, and it requires investigation, aka clinical experience. It should be something where you get exposure to doctors, patients, the interaction between the two, and see what doctors do all day. So yes, they require it, but it's more out of kindness (saving folks from themselves) than anything else. You have to know what you are getting yourself into. If you don't, you aren't ready for med school.

One example of a pre-med who got "clinical experience" and then said, "not for me" ?

 

[JDOC13]

It would seem that shadowing would give a much more detailed look into the life of a doctor as opposed to seeing glimpses of them while volunteering.

Clinical experience like volunteering is not necessarily meant to give a detailed look into the life of a doctor. It's meant to see how you handle being around sick people. That's why premeds usually shadow AND volunteer - they get to observe the life of a doctor AND work with sick people.

 

[gujuDoc]

It's important, but here are a few things

1. If you were on the adcom, how would someone with little clinical experience convince you they want to be a doctor?

2. Clinical experience does not necessarily equal volunteering in a hospital. That is an obligatory superficial activity that many people do for the very reason.."clinical experience". Do what you enjoy. If you're close enough to smell the patient, you can probably count that as clinical experience.

3. If you don't like doing hospital volunteering, which I don't blame you one bit for, don't do it. If questioned about it at an interview you won't be enthusiastic which might cause some unnecessary speculation on their part. Be safe and stick to what you enjoy rather than what you "have to do".

Expanding on the above--all of which I agree with---You may not hospital volunteer but you should have clinical experience that proves you've had contact with patients. volunteering in other capacities outside of hospitals i.e. hospice or nursing homes counts. Volunteering as an EMT or working as an EMT or other clinical hospital job or medical assistant, nursing assistant, etc. also count.

Volunteering abroad also counts. Shadowing counts. There's tons of options to get clinical experience. if you are multilingual being a translator counts as well.

 

[RockHardIce]

I dont want to introduce another thread to let my messege out, but surprisingly enough, I have actually began to like volunteering in a big hospital I will tell you why- because I get to do the easy jobs while the docs and nurses are the ones with all the responsibilities.

Is there something wrong with me