Paid vs unpaid healthcare work experience?

[868651]

Hi,
I'm trying to figure out whether I should take a community college course and become a CNA, or just volunteer at a hospital?

Which looks better on a medical school application?

Does it matter?

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[infectiousdisease101]

As long as you can show your experiences have prepared you to be a competent physician, it doesn't matter. You do need clinical experiences to show you can handle patient interactions.

 

[reaction mechanisms]

I would say volunteering beats paid employment as a CNA. I have over 1700 hours clinical employment but then still opted to rack up 100+ hours of hospital volunteering. I think admission committees want to see that you’re active in community service through volunteering.


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[infectiousdisease101]

I highly recommend exploring other career pathways as well.

 

[Sidthekiddd]

In my opinion, try to kill as many birds with one stone as possible.
If you have to work, become a CNA so you can get paid and gain that experience too.

Getting my CNA licence allowed me to have a stable job through college and gave me hands on experience when I volunteered. (I volunteered at a free clinic and my licence allowed me to see patients one-on-one and take vitals/history)

Volunteering is cool and adds to your resume, but stocking gloves/filing papers at a hospital (lol this is from my personal experience volunteering at a hospital) is nothing compared to the hands on experience you get from being a CNA.

 

[868651]

I highly recommend exploring other career pathways as well.

Why? Like what?

 

[infectiousdisease101]

Why? Like what?

Whatever catches your interests. As for your "Why?" question, you're committing your life to a career. If it turns out medicine is not what you thought it was after you've drowned in debt, there's no getting out. Besides, who do you think will be more convincing to an adcom that they should be accepted? An applicant who has only focused on medicine like an obsessive crush? Or someone considered other pathways and decided medicine stood out to them for whatever reason?

If you answer "why medicine?" with some cliche like "I've always wanted to be a doctor", what do you think will happen?

 

[bioboy23]

I would say paid looks better in terms of more responsibilities you have. @Goro once told me that paid clinical experience negates the need for clinical volunteering, but that may have just been my situation only.

If you chose paid clinical, at least do some clinical volunteering. What could it hurt?

 

[infectiousdisease101]

My pre-med advisor sits on an adcom and told me one reason they took a special liking to me was because I gave other career pathways serious consideration. They told me so many of their advisees were focused on medicine "to help people" or "I've always wanted to be a doctor", to the point if my advisor hears that, they drop a truth bomb on them. They also told me not many applicants give other career pathways serious consideration before finalizing on medicine. Of course, this will only work if you've genuinely given other pathways serious consideration. If you really didn't consider other pathways and are only looking to impress adcoms, it's easy to pick out even on the written applications.

 

[getdown]

My pre-med advisor sits on an adcom and told me one reason they took a special liking to me was because I gave other career pathways serious consideration. They told me so many of their advisees were focused on medicine "to help people" or "I've always wanted to be a doctor", to the point if my advisor hears that, they drop a truth bomb on them. They also told me not many applicants give other career pathways serious consideration before finalizing on medicine. Of course, this will only work if you've genuinely given other pathways serious consideration. If you really didn't consider other pathways and are only looking to impress adcoms, it's easy to pick out even on the written applications.

Premed advisors in general are ******ed. They either parrot back nonsense someone else has told them or draw up wrong conclusions from the generally available pool of information. Fact is they do little "advising" and just go through the motions.

And to the OPs original question. If you can work and get paid and get clinical experience doing it that's better than trying to be seem "altruistic" by choosing a true "volunteer" gig. I don't know your situation but having some extra cash is always a good thing. Not everyone has the luxury of just giving away their time for free.

 

[NickNaylor]

Personally I would go with a paid job... at least you’re getting some clinical experience and getting paid to do so. Although being a CNA is a pretty unforgiving position... but then again, I guess that’s the whole point.

I don’t think anyone evaluating your application will care if the work is paid vs. unpaid. That fact doesn’t change what you actually did during that time or what you took away from the experience.

 

[infectiousdisease101]

Premed advisors in general are ******ed. They either parrot back nonsense someone else has told them or draw up wrong conclusions from the generally available pool of information. Fact is they do little "advising" and just go through the motions.

And to the OPs original question. If you can work and get paid and get clinical experience doing it that's better than trying to be seem "altruistic" by choosing a true "volunteer" gig. I don't know your situation but having some extra cash is always a good thing. Not everyone has the luxury of just giving away their time for free.

I'm guessing you got told off by a pre-med advisor? One of your previous posts wrote "I didn't choose medicine ... medicine chose me." Did you try running that or some other cliche by your pre-med advisor and it didn't end so well?

 

[getdown]

I'm guessing you got told off by a pre-med advisor? One of your previous posts wrote "I didn't choose medicine ... medicine chose me." Did you try running that or some other cliche by your pre-med advisor and it didn't end so well?

No that was me being facetious. You don't get to be at least as far along as I am without knowing how to play the game a little bit. But I do remember all the useless "advice" they gave me and all the stupid hoops I had to jump through to get their stupid committee letters. These people actually toured Caribbean medical schools paid for by those very same schools and then would advice students about those schools. Sure, I'd take a free vacation too but I definitely got the distinct impression they were impressed by the whole show and dance.

 

[infectiousdisease101]

No that was me being facetious. You don't get to be at least as far along as I am without knowing how to play the game a little bit. But I do remember all the useless "advice" they gave me and all the stupid hoops I had to jump through to get their stupid committee letters. These people actually toured Caribbean medical schools paid for by those very same schools and then would advice students about those schools. Sure, I'd take a free vacation too but I definitely got the distinct impression they were impressed by the whole show and dance.

I don't know what kind of advisor you had but mine sits on an adcom of a school, so I would like to think their advice hold substance. You're saying all are "******ed" because your experience was bad.

 

[LizzyM]

In this entire thread, the biggest shock is someone claiming to be an attending physician using the word "******ed" to describe pre-med advisors. The dictionary now calls that term "dated, offensive".

You need clinical experience. Getting paid for that experience is, in my mind, a win.
Some schools are going to want to see community service. While some people like the two birds-one stone idea of doing clinical volunteering, some adcoms are on to this and are going to prefer candidates who have clinical experience (paid or unpaid) plus a non-clinical community service activity. Shoot for a minimum of 100 hours (average ~3 hrs/mo for 3 years) for non-clinical community service and you've checked the box. If you are inclined to do more, great!

 

[getdown]

In this entire thread, the biggest shock is someone claiming to be an attending physician using the word "******ed" to describe pre-med advisors. The dictionary now calls that term "dated, offensive".

I understand where you're coming from and I'm sorry if that offended you or anyone else but I don't choose words to be politically correct despite my position as an attending physician. Everyone has their own respective positions on these social topics which ultimately has no bearing on their ability to perform their clinical responsibilities and that's all I'm going to say on the issue. In an effort to not further derail this thread, I won't be responding to any further comments. Thank you all and have a wonderful day.

 

[LizzyM]

I understand where you're coming from and I'm sorry if that offended you or anyone else but I don't choose words to be politically correct despite my position as an attending physician. Everyone has their own respective positions on these social topics which ultimately has no bearing on their ability to perform their clinical responsibilities and that's all I'm going to say on the issue. In an effort to not further derail this thread, I won't be responding to any further comments. Thank you all and have a wonderful day.

Which is why the "ignore" function is so useful. Frankly, I do believe that using "******ed" (or "gay") as a slur does give rise to questions about one's ability to perform clinical responsibilites in a respectful manner to patients regardless of their intellectual abilities (or sexual orientation). There is nothing here related to a "social topic", it is a matter of being respectful of people. You could have said that the advisors were stupid or inept or idiotic but instead you stooped to use a word that that is socially inappropriate.

 

[aldol16]

Go with the paid job if you're indifferent to the very different job roles these positions entail. Getting paid for getting clinical experience is always nice. You can volunteer your time elsewhere if you're more passionate about something else. Volunteers at hospitals don't get to do much anyway and your time could be used in a more rewarding fashion.