Not enough EC's

[Grrath]

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I'm currently an M2 with maybe two things available to put as extracurriculars. One of them being a club that I didn't do much in and another abstract that I'm still working on. Between being in a 6-year Bs.Md program and my own general laziness, I'm now in a situation where my CV doesn't really stack up to most. That being said, I know most residency programmes tend not to look too closely at EC's.
How much effort should I put in between now and the end of M4 to get EC's?
Should I even bother trying to do any considering I'm currently studying for Step 1?
Am I totally screwed?

 

[NickNaylor]

Do things if you're interested. Don't if you're not. That said, you should probably have SOMETHING on your app to talk about other than your academic transcript.

You aren't "screwed."

 

[PL198]

I don't get why people think these useless ECs are important. If something is extremely easy to do ( ie you don't even have to go to meetings, you can just write your part of the group) then it's likely to be meaningless for your app.

I feel sorry for the kids in like 40 of these groups because their entire life is currently defined by their features as a medical student since besides studying all they do is coordinate these arbitrary useless events.

 

[Elevencents]

My EC's include going to the gym, sleeping 8 hours a night and having fun. I'm no longer interested in the rat race that is composed of putting meaningless items on my CV that most people would realize I could give two f*cks about.

 

[cbrons]

this isnt premed

 

[Stagg737]

Depends on your EC. One of my buddies is one of the directors of a student run free health clinic in our area which sees a significant number of patients. I would guess something like that, dual degrees, or a bunch of publications would look pretty good and probably benefit the applicant. I'm sure some of the residents/attendings could confirm or deny that. Like others have said though, don't waste your time of random clubs or events unless you're actually interested in them.

 

[PL198]

I still have no idea how those student run health clinics work. are you giving actual medical advice to people? Obviously it's not like treating their meningitis but I still probably wouldn't feel comfortable advising someone on flu symptoms from an actual provider standpoint...

 

[Grrath]

So it would be ok for me to just put off doing anything this semester and just focus on Step 1?

 

[NickNaylor]

So it would be ok for me to just put off doing anything this semester and just focus on Step 1?

Yes, no one is going to care.

 

[deleted564496]

OP-- I'm in the exact same boat as you and have some worries about this as well, so it's nice to see other people say they aren't that important. Just wanted to let you know that you're not the only one!

 

[HBSlim]

I didn't realize that I wanted to apply ortho until 3rd year, so my ECs were lacking. I ended up with only one abstract, plus coaching experiences from before med school. It wasn't an issue and I was happy with the interviews I got. Just focus on step 1 and don't worry about it.

 

[Meh.meh]

OP-- I'm in the exact same boat as you and have some worries about this as well, so it's nice to see other people say they aren't that important. Just wanted to let you know that you're not the only one!

Same.

 

[Stagg737]

I still have no idea how those student run health clinics work. are you giving actual medical advice to people? Obviously it's not like treating their meningitis but I still probably wouldn't feel comfortable advising someone on flu symptoms from an actual provider standpoint...

Kind of? You do see patients as if you were a physician, but everything we do is supervised by a physician that makes sure we aren't missing anything major. I'm only M1, and I don't think we can participate until M2 (we write full SOAP notes by the end of first year, so at least we know the basics) so my knowledge of it is limited at this point. From what I understand, the clinic is mostly for M2s to get some exposure and for M3/4s to get some extra practice in. However, they do see actual patients, present the patient to the supervisor, and get them to sign off on everything. It is essentially run like any free clinic, but run completely by students (administratively).

 

[Psai]

You don't need extra practice in a free clinic as an m3 and especially not as an m4

 

[PL198]

Kind of? You do see patients as if you were a physician, but everything we do is supervised by a physician that makes sure we aren't missing anything major. I'm only M1, and I don't think we can participate until M2 (we write full SOAP notes by the end of first year, so at least we know the basics) so my knowledge of it is limited at this point. From what I understand, the clinic is mostly for M2s to get some exposure and for M3/4s to get some extra practice in. However, they do see actual patients, present the patient to the supervisor, and get them to sign off on everything. It is essentially run like any free clinic, but run completely by students (administratively).

I don't get why the physician doesn't just do it. Can't they see more patients quicker than overseeing the students doing so? I thought the whole point of most of those was to give back to the community.

 

[NickNaylor]

You don't need extra practice in a free clinic as an m3 and especially not as an m4

I'd agree that you don't "need" it, but I've absolutely loved getting back into free clinics as an M4. Teaching clueless M1s and M2s who know next to nothing is a lot of fun and, if you're into teaching/mentoring, can be extremely rewarding.

 

[Donald Juan]

I don't get why the physician doesn't just do it. Can't they see more patients quicker than overseeing the students doing so? I thought the whole point of most of those was to give back to the community.

Yes, the attending could see the patients faster, but (at least at my school) students also do all the stuff that the nurses and secretaries would do, like the paperwork, vitals, height/weight, blood glucose, blah blah. But yeah, the attending that is there could see the patients in a quarter of the time it takes. I don't know why you think this makes the attending who spends his night seeing patients for free and training medical students at the same time suddenly not "giving back" to the community.

 

[Psai]

I don't get why the physician doesn't just do it. Can't they see more patients quicker than overseeing the students doing so? I thought the whole point of most of those was to give back to the community.

They are contributing to student education without having the constraints of 10 minute visits with patients sitting in the waiting room. One time, I was with a retired np and learned so much from hin as I was teaching my first year how to do a history, examination and presentation. A lot of those are physicals for various things

 

[seminoma]

I still have no idea how those student run health clinics work. are you giving actual medical advice to people? Obviously it's not like treating their meningitis but I still probably wouldn't feel comfortable advising someone on flu symptoms from an actual provider standpoint...

The one we have is M1s and M2s interview patients and present to an M3 or higher. If there are a lot of M3s/4s around, then the M3 and M4 will go and see the patient to get the info that the M1/M2 missed, then the M3/4 will present the patient to a resident or attending. If there aren't any M3s/4s around, then the M1s/2s present directly to the attending.

It's "student run" in the sense that the med students handle everything from time/date to arranging for enough residents and attendings to be there so it's actually helpful to patients.

 

[Stagg737]

I don't get why the physician doesn't just do it. Can't they see more patients quicker than overseeing the students doing so? I thought the whole point of most of those was to give back to the community.

It's not just to give back, that is only one goal. As others have stated, another very major goal is to give students greater exposure to patients before entering clinical years/residency. I'd be willing to bet that students that start M3 with a couple hundred patient interviews under their belt do significantly better early on than those who get the 10-15 standardized patients the school provides.

The one we have is M1s and M2s interview patients and present to an M3 or higher. If there are a lot of M3s/4s around, then the M3 and M4 will go and see the patient to get the info that the M1/M2 missed, then the M3/4 will present the patient to a resident or attending. If there aren't any M3s/4s around, then the M1s/2s present directly to the attending.

It's "student run" in the sense that the med students handle everything from time/date to arranging for enough residents and attendings to be there so it's actually helpful to patients.

This actually sounds a lot like the model our school will be using. The clinic is new, and I honestly don't know if they're even seeing patients yet. We were just told we'd be able to start volunteering next year as M2s, so maybe next year's M1s will be able to participate.


Back to the original point, our clinic is/will be run by 6 student directors, and I would think being able to put that on a CV would be a worthwhile EC in the eyes of some residencies. Not to mention some of the positions have side perks. For example, there is a 'Director of Recruitment' who is responsible for staffing the supervising physicians/residents which sounds like a pretty stellar way to do some networking to me.

 

[medstudent7860]

I wasn't director but I was treasurer of the free clinic at my school, so I wrote and applied for all of the grants used to fund the free clinic. I know it doesn't sound as good as director, but how good do you think this looks on my CV?

 

[ChEMD]

Guys, you really just need to consider the following: residencies care about things that indicate you will perform well as a resident. What does being a resident entail? First and foremost, providing clinical care for patients. How do they assess how competent you will be coming in? Clinical grades, board scores, and LORs. What else do residencies care about? Well academic programs probably want you to produce original research during your time there. How can they predict if you'll be able to do this? If you have publications showing you've done it before! What's something else a residency might want? They probably want someone that is a normal, caring, hard-working human being who will be pleasant to work with for the next 3-7 years. How do they assess this? Interviews, where you get to talk about all of the things that make you who you are. This is where ECs come in. Notice how it doesn't really matter what ECs you do, as long as you can show you have interests in something. Sure some people will have something that makes them especially unique, but for the vast majority of people, it really doesn't matter what you're involved in, as long as you have something that you can talk about and show that you're more interesting than a stack of books.

 

[PL198]

Yes, the attending could see the patients faster, but (at least at my school) students also do all the stuff that the nurses and secretaries would do, like the paperwork, vitals, height/weight, blood glucose, blah blah. But yeah, the attending that is there could see the patients in a quarter of the time it takes. I don't know why you think this makes the attending who spends his night seeing patients for free and training medical students at the same time suddenly not "giving back" to the community.

I meant it could be more efficient and help more but yeah I guess the student education angle is significant as well