*~*~*~* Official AMCAS "Work/Activities" Tips Thread 2020-2021 *~*~*~*

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That makes it easy to say that one of the "plans for next year" is to accept the Service Award that will be conferred in late September 2020 for . . . .

In addition, for schools where I used the secondary "additional comments" essay to do a "why us" or diversity question, would it be okay just to add a blurb at the bottom saying that I was selected for the award? Or should I not do that?

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In addition, for schools where I used the secondary "additional comments" essay to do a "why us" or diversity question, would it be okay just to add a blurb at the bottom saying that I was selected for the award? Or should I not do that?
As long as the prompt is so open-ended, it’s fine to add that blurb to your other comments.
 
Last question sorry! Can I put hours/week in the experience name so I can save some space for the description? If I did so, would that need to be consistent for all activities?
 
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Can I put hours/week in the experience name so I can save some space for the description? If I did so, would that need to be consistent for all activities?
There's no "rule" against this approach, and there's no reason you'd need to do it for every activity. Still, it's not that many characters to add "5 hr/wk" in front or at the end of the description. Or even "10 hr/wk; summer 40 hr/wk."
 
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I am completing med app for 2021 cycle.
I wasn't sure about end date option for ongoing work/volunteer experiences.
You have multiple options, any of which are acceptable. Examples are:
1) Many will enter just the dates and total hours that they have already completed and include mention in the narrative that they hope to continue in that position for xx hours/wk through y/yy/yyyy. This might be the best approach if you aren't completely sure of your end date.

2) Or you can enter the end date that you plan on, no later than Aug 2021, with the projected total hours (completed + future), but mentioning in the narrative the hours completed as of the day of submitting the application. We understand that "life happens" and something might happen to prevent your completion of the expected number of hours.

3) Or, you could use the AMCAS Repeated feature and enter two date ranges and total hours: the first for completed dates and total hours (ending with the current month), and the second (starting with the current month) for the future date span and projected total hours. Both will appear at above the narrative box. ** Note that you cannot enter a future month or the program will not save it, thus the use of the current month twice, as outlined.

The point is to be transparent about completed vs future hours.
 
I have a job where I work as a specimen processor, I saw that in previous forums this was not considered clinical employment because there's no direct patient contact. This job has an added role of doing urine checks on employees with substance use violations and parents who are trying to regain custody of their children through child protective services by submitting to random urine checks. I basically check these patients in, do observed urine checks, and make sure they are not tampering with their urine. I don't do this all day, but it is part of my job as a specimen processor. Would this be clinical employment?
 
I have a job where I work as a specimen processor, I saw that in previous forums this was not considered clinical employment because there's no direct patient contact. This job has an added role of doing urine checks on employees with substance use violations and parents who are trying to regain custody of their children through child protective services by submitting to random urine checks. I basically check these patients in, do observed urine checks, and make sure they are not tampering with their urine. I don't do this all day, but it is part of my job as a specimen processor. Would this be clinical employment?
What type of clinical site do you work in? How many hours of your work week does this role entail? Are your active clinical hours otherwise sparse? Could you split these hours/dates out into another space and have the hours stand on their own?

Many will make the argument that these are not patients, but rather employees or community members. But there is the benefit of working with the general public that adds more value to the experience if you mention it.
 
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What type of clinical site do you work in? How many hours of your work week does this role entail? Are your active clinical hours otherwise sparse? Could you split these hours/dates out into another space and have the hours stand on their own?

Many will make the argument that these are not patients, but rather employees or community members. But there is the benefit of working with the general public that adds more value to the experience if you mention it.

I work in a hospital. My clinical hours aren’t too sparse, but most of it has come from scribing where I rarely interact with patients (500hrs scribing, 100hrs clinical volunteering). I could split the hours I do urine checks because I work overnights and the urine checks usually happen towards the end of my shift in the mornings (5-7:30am), about 10hrs a week. Would it be best to list it as nonclinical employment separate from my specimen processing role?
 
I work in a hospital. My clinical hours aren’t too sparse, but most of it has come from scribing where I rarely interact with patients (500hrs scribing, 100hrs clinical volunteering). I could split the hours I do urine checks because I work overnights and the urine checks usually happen towards the end of my shift in the mornings (5-7:30am), about 10hrs a week. Would it be best to list it as nonclinical employment separate from my specimen processing role?
It is "best" to call your entire work experience nonclinical, but to mention facilitating urine collections for ~10 hours/wk in the narrative so adcomms can make up their own minds about how they consider it. But if you will have less than 150 hours of interactive patient experience by the time you apply, then it would be reasonable to split out the hours and dates you take on this side role and calling it clinical employment. Again, adcomms will decide for themselves, but at least you've highlighted the client interaction that way.
 
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How could I label this experience type and name?
It was part of a psychology course called "Seminar in Applications of Psychology: Childhood Cancer" We volunteered for families living through childhood cancer for one week at a beach in Florida, however the class itself lasted all summer.
 
How could I label this experience type and name?
It was part of a psychology course called "Seminar in Applications of Psychology: Childhood Cancer" We volunteered for families living through childhood cancer for one week at a beach in Florida, however the class itself lasted all summer.
What was YOUR role at the beach activity? How many hours were you serving the children in person vs planning and training for the activity?
 
I was a "Lighthouse Family Retreat Volunteer." Lighthouse was the nonprofit organization. I was assigned to a specific family and did their household chores, planned family events, and spent time with the children so the parents could have some nights out. It was all about giving families a chance to relax and restore relationships. I spent 10 hours a day with the families for 6 days. The rest of the time was devoted to meeting as a class and reflecting on the day's events.
 
I was a "Lighthouse Family Retreat Volunteer." Lighthouse was the nonprofit organization. I was assigned to a specific family and did their household chores, planned family events, and spent time with the children so the parents could have some nights out. It was all about giving families a chance to relax and restore relationships. I spent 10 hours a day with the families for 6 days. The rest of the time was devoted to meeting as a class and reflecting on the day's events.
I suggest listing it under Volunteer-Not Medical/Clinical for 60 hours and calling it something like, Support Person for Childhood Cancer Survivor & Family. Mention the class in your narrative, as it legitimates your providing psychological support.
 
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I suggest listing it under Volunteer-Not Medical/Clinical for 60 hours and calling it something like, Support Person for Childhood Cancer Survivor & Family. Mention the class in your narrative, as it legitimates your providing psychological support.
This helps a lot! Thank you!
 
The "Other" category is a good choice. Or Leadership. Be sure to give the space a title that piques interest, rather than something too generic, like Engineering Class Project. Try to add more detail about your particular (engineering-based) contribution to the effort.
Would it be okay to list 0 hours under "Innovative Medical Business Project"
 
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Why? Are you not able to estimate the hours you contributed to the "group think?"
It was just a lot of miscellaneous hours of brainstorming, market research, creating the product, pitch competitions, etc. But I calculated it for 70, so thanks! I'm submitting the app after this question.. For awards, can I briefly mention winning 3 conference championships on my football team? I couldn't fit it in to the most meaningful, but if that appears as fluff, I will leave it out. I wasn't sure if team awards are acceptable to list.
 
1) It was just a lot of miscellaneous hours of brainstorming, market research, creating the product, pitch competitions, etc. But I calculated it for 70, so thanks!

2) For awards, can I briefly mention winning 3 conference championships on my football team? I couldn't fit it in to the most meaningful, but if that appears as fluff, I will leave it out. I wasn't sure if team awards are acceptable to list.
1) List the 70 hours.

2) Yes, you can list them. There are adcomm football buffs who will be interested.
 
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-I was wondering if caregiving could count as clinical experience.

It involved caring for a direct family member who suffered a med emergency (which ultimately led to him being disabled). I assisted with his daily needs throughout his recovery. Observed and assisted with patient interactions between him and various healthcare workers (Physical therapist, speech therapist, nurses, PCP, other docs, social worker, etc) as he was transferred from the ICU to clinic 1, clinic 2, and at home (where PT sessions continued).

What would disqualify this experience from being classified as clinical experience?
Some schools would give you "credit" for the experience, but I suggest it should be listed under Other (and named something that includes Caregiver), rather than Volunteer or Employment. The experience should not be your sole exposure to active patient interaction experiences, though. You need broader experience that will appeal to a wide range of med schools.

I can see that with careful record-keeping, you might get some (passive) shadowing hours to add to your list under Physician Shadowing/Clinical Observation. Keep in mind that dedicated shadowing, where you get a view of all the physician's activities, would be preferred, so be sure to get some.
 
Hey guys so i used to work as a retail pharmacy technician during undergrad and I am wondering how can i frame this experience for my activities section of AACOMAS?
As a pharm tech I used to pretty much talk to patients every day and physicians occasionally (over the phone though). job duty pretty much included filling out the prescriptions, telling people how much their medication will cost, and sometimes contacting insurance companies inquiring from them about a patient's co pay cost.
 
Hey guys so i used to work as a retail pharmacy technician during undergrad and I am wondering how can i frame this experience for my activities section of AACOMAS?
As a pharm tech I used to pretty much talk to patients every day and physicians occasionally (over the phone though). job duty pretty much included filling out the prescriptions, telling people how much their medication will cost, and sometimes contacting insurance companies inquiring from them about a patient's co pay cost.
Read this: What is the best environment to get clinical experience as a job?

Ask a more targeted question if you are unclear.
 
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My university offers healthcare internships with hospitals and other healthcare facilities for a semester, we do get 3 academic credit hours for it, but there is no grading. It is listed as pass/ fail in the transcript and not counted in your GPA calculation.

Can these be listed as extra curricular health care activity ( as clinical volunteering) on the AMCAS application, since we are getting academic credit for it, or will these be considered as part of academic activity and not clinical volunteering ?
This is a curricular activity. For AMCAS, you'd use Other (rather than Employment, Volunteer, or Extracurricular) as the tag for the activity. The name you give the space will indicate whatever element(s) of the internship you wish to emphasize.
 
I'm currently volunteering at a free clinic. I help schedule patients and get the resources for things they need help with outside of medicine.

Due to the pandemic, the clinic is mostly online through Zoom right now. For this reason, we get to sit in with the doctor and see them interact with the patient. Does this count as shadowing?
I would count it. You are with the physician in a clinical environment, watching his interactions with patients, and seeing what his work there entails (hopefully including administrative activities in addition to the Zoom meeting).
 
I've been recently offered an internship for next summer (2021), however, I apply to medical school in late May (yes, I'm applying as soon as I can). The internship starts in June and it lasts 7 weeks. I graduate in December 2021.

What should I do in this case? Should I add it to the experiences' sections even though I'm only starting it after I apply?

and If I do, what should I put on the description?
Might you tack mention of your acceptance to the internship onto the end of another similar experience description, or whichever one inspired you to apply for the internship? If it's not in its own space, you won't need to say much (if anything) about mission, role, impact, etc.
 
I've have recently started a job as a COVID-19 case investigator for the local government at my hometown. In this role, I interview patients who have recently tested positive for COVID-19 about their symptoms, possible exposure settings, etc. and provide guidance for quarantining/isolating at home. These interviews are conducted over the phone.

Question: Could this be classified as clinical experience?
I'd consider it clinical; you are interacting with current patients in a helpful way, albeit by phone. At my school, this year's screening prompt is worded in a way that would oblige any of our adcomms to give your experience points as "Clinical." Next year might be different. Other schools are different. You would be wise to apply when you can list in-person patient interaction as well.
 
For anyone needing a second pair of eyes to look over their app, I'm willing to help out. Will probably only be able to help out the first few that message me, with my schedule but would love to give back. Also for those who want more professional help, I had used Fiverr to find someone to look over my stuff for residency apps, thought it was great.
 
I’ve been working as a PT aide for the past year now and I’ve seen a lot of debate on whether this is a good clinical experience for medical school.

I interact a lot with the patient on a day to day basis, their therapy sessions usually last an hour and there is a lot of dialogue between me and the patient. I explain a certain exercise and give them basic answers to some of their concerns. Of course the conversations are more complex than just “explain exercise #1, then #2, etc.” Also, I’ve gotten a pretty good feel of how a small clinic setting functions (there are 5 of us in total). There is a lot of teamwork involved, communication, insurance issues, anatomy in my normal day of work.

So my question is, why is this clinical experience not taken account (by some people) for when applying to medical school?
I think it's a terrific active clinical experience and I find it hard to believe it wouldn't be "counted."
 
Hey Catalystik, I've read many of your AMCAS Work/Activities posts and found them super helpful, so thank you for what you do.

I'm having trouble fitting all of my activities into 15 AMCAS slots, so I would appreciate some advice on which activity I should omit. I promise you, I made sure there's no fluff. I've also tried to group as many activities as possible in order to make more space.

10 of my activities are pretty unique and can't be grouped with anything else. For instance, being a helicopter pilot. I wish I could describe my activities more, but many of my activities are incredibly identifying.

So! My current dilemma is deciding whether to omit "Honors/Awards/Recognition" or "Teaching Assistant." I'm getting a very important LOR from the professor I was a TA for (his LOR will help tremendously with a red flag in my application), so I really think I should mention my TA position. However, I also have several academic awards that I want to mention.

I don't think these two activities are as important as my other ones, but it's hard for me to omit one. I've considered combining the two, but that doesn't make much sense either.
What are your academic awards going to tell me that your year-by-year and composite GPAs won't?

Do you have any other activity that covers teaching/tutoring/mentoring or coaching?
 
1) I'm in a prestigious honors program. Certain medical schools seem to love applicants from my honors program (its a very small honors program, but one of us gets into Columbia and Stanford every year), so I think it's pretty important that I mention it somewhere in my application. I've also won a couple of big research competitions.

I could technically fit all of the above in one of my research slots, but boy would it be crowded.

2) And yes, I do. It's actually my only non-clinical volunteering activity (I teach classes to homeless kids). Because it's my only non-clinical volunteering activity, I can't label it as "teaching."
1) If the classes are marked as Honors (H) on your college transcript they will also be marked on your AMCAS application.

Winning research competitions is important to include if you're aiming for research-strong med schools (I am referring to projects with results, and not to proposals for which you got into a program). See what you can do about squeezing them into the affiliated Research space or maybe Presentations/Posters/Publications spaces (if any). Alternatively, be sure your LOR writer mentions them.

2) You're right, you have to list it under Volunteer-Not Medical/Clinical or your application will be handicapped, as well as for the other reasons mentioned above.
 
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1) This is super helpful! Thank you.

You're right, my honors courses are marked as such on my transcript, but it was more of a "name-dropping" matter haha.

I actually am applying to research-strong schools! And I'll work on including those awards in my Research space :)

2) Sorry, one more question: I'm using three spaces for my research experiences, but the rest of my activities are all over the place. It's almost like I have too many different interests. Is it important to have a clear theme in your extracurriculars list?
1) :thumbup:

2) No. And I rarely see that sort of cohesiveness. College is the time to try new things, after all. But it is nice to see some transitional statements, like, "Because I saw/learned/did xxx, I decided to yyy."
 
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So the 210 hours I spent shadowing three different specialties in Prague was for nothing?

I wasn't planning on using that experience to substitute for any US shadowing, but I was going to put those hours under my "shadowing" slot (I don't have space to give it its own slot).

I'm Czech, so I wanted to learn about Czech culture and spend time in the place where my grandfather grew up. Should I just include those hours in my "shadowing" activity slot and mention that I wanted to learn about different healthcare systems?
As long as you have adequate US physician shadowing, you can mention the international shadowing in the same space as an aside (separate the hours), but if you do, be well prepared for a "Compare and contrast the two healthcare systems" sort of interview question. Alternatively, include it in the PS as part of your path to medicine if you won't have an incredibly graceful and succinct answer to that question.
 
I'm about to start a new activity this weekend volunteering at a hospice center. However, because of COVID restrictions, I'm currently not allowed to see patients. I'm starting off delivering heart pillows and making cards for patients and families.
1) Would this be considered non-clinical volunteering?
2) f so, would it be fine if I listed this activity twice on my application once I'm able to visit with patients.
1) Yes.
2) Yes, you can list it in two categories, both clinical and nonclinical volunteering, in two different spaces (but the same organization), but keep your own tally of the hours in each role, as the hospice may not do it for you. Don't double count the hours.
 
I have been working with the red cross for a while now. I have mainly worked as a disaster relief volunteer and as a member of a program that delivers food to those in needs. I would like to know if it is best to list both as Red Cross Volunteer and sum up all hours or if I should make an entry for each one of them. I'm asking since in the case my supervisor gets called to verify my job he would probably know my total hours worked, but not how many I worked at each specific job.
As they are both Volunteer/Community Service-Not Medical/Clinical, and since one supervisor can attest to your involvement with both roles with their aggregate hours, it seems best to list them in a single space, adding the hours together, but writing two descriptions in the narrative space.
 
In my sophomore summer, I was employed in a lab but the PI had most of my work focused on spinning the technology out of the lab. I helped to write an SBIR grant with him, went with him to meet with investors about the technology, contacted the office of technology management.

My problem is I just don't know what this would be classified as for AAMC or if it would even matter.
It doesn't fit the usual use of the Research tag, which is engaging in hypothesis-driven scholarly investigations, using the scientific method, so it would go best under Employment-Not Medical/Clinical.

It's an interesting activity as entrepreneurial experiences are not often seen on med school applications. Be sure to mention the involvement in grant writing and meeting with investors, etc. If you have any personal involvement in innovative solutions, be sure to flaunt it.
 
I have a question about this: I was rejected by a school, and they mentioned confusion over my zero hours listed on my AMCAS for this activity. I don't think this was the major reason I was rejected though, because they said they still knew that I did the activity.

Do you think I should send an update letter to all of my other schools now correcting this "zero" hour listing on my AMCAS primary?
I don't think it will make a difference to your application, but it would give you peace of mind.
 
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I currently work full-time on a non-clinical study. The center I work in has recently started a COVID-19 study, and is seeking current staff from other studies to fill in on the COVID-19 study until they can hire more staff. If I decided to work on the COVID-19 study for a few months, I'm wondering if it would count as clinical experience. My responsibilities would include recruiting and consenting participants in an inpatient hospital setting and completing surveys with the participants. I could also potentially be collecting biospecimens and be in direct contact with patients who are known to be infected with the virus.
Sometimes you get a choice in how to label an activity if it covers multiple categories as this one does. If you "need" it to count as clinical experience due to otherwise sparse active patient experience at the time you apply, you can call it Employment-Medical/Clinical but mention the research aspect in the name you give the space and in your description (where you'll also give details of your role interacting with current patients).
 
I'm taking a CCMA course and we have to do 200 hours of internship. Can I include that on my medical school application for clinical experience, etc?
Yes, you can include the internship hours, but since they aren't employment or volunteer, for AMCAS, you'd list them under Other and give the space a name that reflects both patient interaction and the curricular connection. Be sure not to include meetings, teaching sessions, travel time, etc that are not patient contact hours. Keep a log.
 
I recently started a hospice volunteering position, but the issue is that I can only visit home patients at the moment as opposed to also being able to visit patients at facilities due to COVID-19 restrictions. Many of these patients are not comfortable with having volunteers come over due to the virus causing there to be some variation in the experience I am having. I was able to visit a patient a couple of times, but due to the rise in cases, they decided that it would be best to have me stop coming in for now.

In the meantime, the volunteering coordinator offered that I volunteer at their hospice center where I can still interact with patients, but of course, the interaction is very different. Here, my responsibilities include helping nurses call patients to see how they're doing and to tell them when their aide services will be. I also greet patients and their families if they decide to come in. Of course, when another patient in my area asks for a volunteer, I will return back to seeing patients face-to-face. However, my question is would it be okay to group these hours with the rest of my clinical hours? I, of course, would specify that some of these hours were spent doing this as opposed to seeing the patient in person. The majority of the hours should ultimately be from visiting the patients too. I am a bit far from applying, but it would be nice to group these hours because they should be more minimal compared to the regular patient visits so having another AMCAS space for them seems like a waste.
Yes you can group the in-person hospice hours with the patient phone contacts, patient greeting, and family interaction time.
 
I've started volunteering this week at a free local health clinic for underserved people in my community and I'd like to describe some of the things I'm going to be doing to see if I can qualify this as clinical experience. I:
-Will be taking patient's temperature before they walk in and converse with them about symptoms to see if they are experiencing any related to COVID
-I call patients by phone to see confirm appointments coming up with them
-I help patients schedule their follow up appointments
-When talking to patients, I sometimes need to use a medical translator to discuss referring them to our main hospital for a procedure they need done if they speak a different language than English

There's probably more to the job, but today was my first full day and a lot of it was learning to use Epic. Any ideas if these count as clinical experience?
Yes, it's a Volunteer Clinical Experience for med school application purposes.
 
I've started volunteering this week at a free local health clinic for underserved people in my community and I'd like to describe some of the things I'm going to be doing to see if I can qualify this as clinical experience. I:
-Will be taking patient's temperature before they walk in and converse with them about symptoms to see if they are experiencing any related to COVID
-I call patients by phone to see confirm appointments coming up with them
-I help patients schedule their follow up appointments
-When talking to patients, I sometimes need to use a medical translator to discuss referring them to our main hospital for a procedure they need done if they speak a different language than English

There's probably more to the job, but today was my first full day and alot of it was learning to use Epic. Any ideas if these count as clinical experience?
Yes, it's a Volunteer Clinical Experience for med school application purposes.
 
Would experience as a Patient Health Screener during COVID [be clinical] (July-August: 250 hours)? I was the first person patients encountered at an Orthopedic Private Practice (Employment). I asked them a series of questions (Cough, Fever, Shortness of Breath, Exposure to anyone with COVID in last x days, etc)...then I take their temperature, and depending on all the other stuff, give them an evaluation form they need and allow them to be officially admitted for their appointment. I had to make some discretionary decisions (temperature high based on sickness or weather outside/temp misread, assess if Patient has physical needs that would require physical assistance, cough due to cold?, muscle aches due to recent surgery or illness, date of last covid test & results).

Depending on how close they were to 99.6, how many times they read that temperature, and my observations from the evaluation form (we had specific policies to follow, but many were based on personal judgement), I'd make a decision. Sometimes it'd be fine, sometimes it wouldn't, but I had to relay all of that information to the Doctor, through the front desk: sometimes they decided they would not admit the patient, and always personally thanked me in these instances and others (one Doctor was pregnant); other times my discretion was overruled and the patient was admitted.

I had to find the patients name on the forms with the Patient Info and confirm identity while ensuring other patients sensitive information were kept private (many patients wanted to look for their name on the private forms, which was a little lesson I had to learn early), I also had to give people masks who didn't have them, communicate in Spanish for certain Patients who arrived before or their translator (not a part of my job, but came in handy), and deal with all the people that wanted to take my head off.

Shadowing I just followed the PA (running an underserved/at-risk Family practice clinic) by himself (I guess there's a doctor that supervises, but I've never seen him). I go around to the different Patient rooms, and then go back to his office with him and watch him do all the paperwork on the computer, and then we go over each case. Figured it'd help me get a picture of if I really want to be a Doctor and help me learn the differences between the Doctor, NP, and PA.

@Catalystik
Yes, this activity would be deemed Employment-Medical/Clinical for med school application purposes.

The shadowing can be included on the application, and is a nice start considering the limitations getting clinical exposure during COVID times, but be sure to get physician shadowing, too. Take advantage of your contacts in the workplace.
 
Hey, I wanted to ask a question here because I figured you'd be able to answer. I am sending an update to schools about a publication. Is there any acceptable way to write the citation for a pub without writing out the full citation? What about just listing the DOI? I ask because some schools have very short character limits on updates
 
Hey, I wanted to ask a question here because I figured you'd be able to answer. I am sending an update to schools about a publication. Is there any acceptable way to write the citation for a pub without writing out the full citation? What about just listing the DOI? I ask because some schools have very short character limits on updates
Best to use PMID#. If that’s not possible, give enough info to find the article on PubMed PLUS the DOI. Severely truncating the citation is fine.
 
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I was granted the opportunity to host an online Health Expo for my community. This consists of virtual meetings, seminars, workshops and discussions about physical health, covid and the community, mental health, hair health, personal hygiene amongst other things. I was wondering whether to categorize this ec as either a nonclinical experience or an other extracurricular?
You could list it as Teaching (if you are doing so), Leadership (if you are overall in charge and delegating tasks to others), Extracurricular or Volunteer-Not Medical/Clinical (if you are not paid and assist more generally). Sometimes you get to pick the category when multiple labels might apply, so as to best balance your application.
 
While in graduate school I volunteered as a wrestling coach at an inner city Chicago high school. During the second season the head coach became ill for an extended period of time, and I had to take over the head coaching duties on top of work and school. The experiences fulfilled my volunteer hours through my graduate program. However, I am torn on whether to put this experiences down under non-clinical volunteering, leadership experience, or extracurricular activity. My only reason being that this is not the typical type of non-clinical volunteering experience that I see other students have (Ex. volunteering at soup kitchen, homeless shelter, etc.). Do you think it would be ok to put this as a non-clinical volunteering experiences?
 
While in graduate school I volunteered as a wrestling coach at an inner city Chicago high school. During the second season the head coach became ill for an extended period of time, and I had to take over the head coaching duties on top of work and school. The experiences fulfilled my volunteer hours through my graduate program. However, I am torn on whether to put this experiences down under non-clinical volunteering, leadership experience, or extracurricular activity. My only reason being that this is not the typical type of non-clinical volunteering experience that I see other students have (Ex. volunteering at soup kitchen, homeless shelter, etc.). Do you think it would be ok to put this as a non-clinical volunteering experiences?
Entering it as non clinical volunteering is the best choice, assuming you were not paid extra after taking on Head Coach duties, if you do not already have a lot of hours in that category. It could also be entered as Teaching (of which coaching is a form, in general, or Extracurricular). Leadership would apply only for the time you were in charge of other coaches. If that was the case, and you were not paid, you can add that designation to the title of the Volunteer space, to make clear the experience covers more than one category.
 
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