Obtaining Patient Care Hours while working a full time non med job.

[Jules Derm]

Hello!

Any advice or recommendations for obtaining Patient Care Hours while already working a full time job that isn't in the medical field? I work 40 hours a week in Corporate World, and wondering without quitting my job if anyone has been in this situation and was able to find a way of still obtaining hours and in what ways? I started looking online and it mentioned phlebotomy as one option. The certificate training is pretty flexible and I could attempt to find a part time job doing that on the side of my full time job. Other than that I was unsure if maybe hospitals offered part time work or positions/volunteering that would fall under acceptable Patient Care interaction.

Thanks in advance!

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[theonlytycrane]

Easiest and least time consuming would just be a weekly clinical volunteer.

 

[LizzyM]

You need "clinical exposure" which can be paid or volunteer. You don't have to actually touch the patients, just be in close proximity to them. That said, there are some roles you can assume as a volunteer with minimum training. VA Hospitals and children's hospitals are always looking for people to hang out with the patients, play games with them and just talk & keep them company. I had a grad student (who went on to medical school) that had a weekly gig holding babies in a NICU. Both of these are possible on weekends. A Friday or Saturday late night shift in an emergency department might be a possibility-- just communicating with patients and families and being of assistance in whatever way you are asked to the point where you learn to anticipate the needs of the staff members you assist.

 

[sedgeshaveedges]

You definitely don't need to quit your job! In addition to weekend and late night volunteer hours mentioned above, you might look into the possibility of early morning hours -- a few years ago I when I was working full-time and my evenings were largely taken up by taking classes part-time and playing a sport with a substantial practice schedule, I was able to get an "early bird" volunteer shift in a surgical prep unit. Being there at 5am made for some long days, but it also allowed me to fit clinical volunteering around my work hours.

 

[AnotherLawyer]

You need "clinical exposure" which can be paid or volunteer. You don't have to actually touch the patients, just be in close proximity to them. That said, there are some roles you can assume as a volunteer with minimum training. VA Hospitals and children's hospitals are always looking for people to hang out with the patients, play games with them and just talk & keep them company. I had a grad student (who went on to medical school) that had a weekly gig holding babies in a NICU. Both of these are possible on weekends. A Friday or Saturday late night shift in an emergency department might be a possibility-- just communicating with patients and families and being of assistance in whatever way you are asked to the point where you learn to anticipate the needs of the staff members you assist.

@LizzyM What are your thoughts on someone with around 1000 hours of clinical experience over a decade ago. Assume an otherwise competitive applicant, to include recent shadowing, with a relatively successful and interesting career in the interim. I know recent clinical experience is still required, but how much would you look for in a case like this?

 

[LizzyM]

@LizzyM What are your thoughts on someone with around 1000 hours of clinical experience over a decade ago. Assume an otherwise competitive applicant, to include recent shadowing, with a relatively successful and interesting career in the interim. I know recent clinical experience is still required, but how much would you look for in a case like this?

Why did that person get that clinical experience back then? Altruism? Thinking about a career? Pressure from family or a community service requirement for school? needed a paid job and that was available? How did the person choose the interesting interim career. At this point, at this age, how does this person know that medicine is the right career for them? The concern is that recent experiences should inform such a major decision and that one should avoid making another career error (as did the guy who switched from civil engineering to medicine only to find he'd gone out of the pot & into the fire).

 

[AnotherLawyer]

Why did that person get that clinical experience back then? Altruism? Thinking about a career? Pressure from family or a community service requirement for school? needed a paid job and that was available? How did the person choose the interesting interim career. At this point, at this age, how does this person know that medicine is the right career for them? The concern is that recent experiences should inform such a major decision and that one should avoid making another career error (as did the guy who switched from civil engineering to medicine only to find he'd gone out of the pot & into the fire).

Let's say altruism (unpaid). No pre-health ambitions at the time. All pre-req coursework is recent. I guess my question more specifically is if medical schools feel a typical applicant needs x or more hours of patient exposure to make an informed decision, does it stand to reason that someone with >>x hours of exposure a decade prior may only need some lesser amount of exposure now to be sure it's still what he wants to do? The answer may very well be no. I'm just curious.

 

[LizzyM]

Let's say altruism (unpaid). No pre-health ambitions at the time. All pre-req coursework is recent. I guess my question more specifically is if medical schools feel a typical applicant needs x or more hours of patient exposure to make an informed decision, does it stand to reason that someone with >>x hours of exposure a decade prior may only need some lesser amount of exposure now to be sure it's still what he wants to do? The answer may very well be no. I'm just curious.

Hard to say. Keep in mind that anything that was done in HS and not continued later doesn't generally count at all (I would count things such as Olympic medals won in HS but I'm not hard core about "No HS stuff"). Also, the question for non-trad career changers is "how do you know that this is what you want?" and recent clinical exposure is needed to show that you have a recent experience to inform your decision. Ideally, one starts this at or before one begins the pre-reqs. Given that pre-reqs take ~2 years, I'd like to see steady exposure over 2 years with at least 2-4 hours per week in a clinical setting over that time. This can be a combination of shadowing, volunteering and working.

 

[Medellin123]

I have a quick question, I just started a full-time job this past November and am not applying until this upcoming cycle. All my volunteer (both clinical and non-clinical) were during college. Is it sufficient to have an adequate amount of hours then or should I continue to volunteer on the weekends?

 

[Medellin123]

Hard to say. Keep in mind that anything that was done in HS and not continued later doesn't generally count at all (I would count things such as Olympic medals won in HS but I'm not hard core about "No HS stuff"). Also, the question for non-trad career changers is "how do you know that this is what you want?" and recent clinical exposure is needed to show that you have a recent experience to inform your decision. Ideally, one starts this at or before one begins the pre-reqs. Given that pre-reqs take ~2 years, I'd like to see steady exposure over 2 years with at least 2-4 hours per week in a clinical setting over that time. This can be a combination of shadowing, volunteering and working.

I have a quick question, I just started a full-time job this past November and am not applying until this upcoming cycle. All my volunteer (both clinical and non-clinical) were during college. Is it sufficient to have an adequate amount of hours then or should I continue to volunteer on the weekends?

 

[LizzyM]

I have a quick question, I just started a full-time job this past November and am not applying until this upcoming cycle. All my volunteer (both clinical and non-clinical) were during college. Is it sufficient to have an adequate amount of hours then or should I continue to volunteer on the weekends?

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