Personal Care Assistant

[Ignatius413]

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Hey Guys,

I wanted to ask about my job as a personal care assistant to several clients I've been tending to for the past 5 years (a lot of hours I can't even begin to count). I graduated college last year and took a year off before applying for this cycle and I wanted to ask if being a PCA for two people w/ special needs (autism) and a number of health problems would be considered a plus on the application. I don't really have any clinical volunteering hours, but I do have upwards of 400+ hours of Non-clinic volunteer, a science publication on nature as a co-author, 3 years of being an RA, good mcat/grades and good LORs. I'm a bit concerned post submission since a lot of peeps argue on the definition of "clinical experience". I have a good amount of doc shadowing as well.

Duties included taking my clients to doctors visits, lab testing, (holding their hands and calming them down when the doc or nurse are taking vitals/inspecting ears, mouth and nose or sticking them with needles) making sure they stuck to diet/medication schedule, cleaning them up after accidents and doing a lot of recreational activities. I've been helping them all navigate around cities and interact with people when they're doing errands. My recent client is really having problems walking around, bathing and even standing in the bathroom due to med cycling and seizures, so I've been working with him a lot more since coming back from vacation.

I wanted to get your guys' thoughts on this since I'm trying to decide if I'm lacking in the clinic exposure aspect of my application and if I ought to start doing some on the side shadowing at a hospice.

Sorry if this is a stupid question, but the wait for II's has got me second guessing my app (I only have one at U of Minnesota - Twin Cities so far).

 

[Pusheen]

That sounds like a great experience imo. You sound like a really kind and patient person. I think it would give you a lot to talk about if you had to reapply.
I'll defer to the adcoms here though.

 

[mcatjelly]

If you have this experience and you say you've shadowed docs as well, then I think you're good to go.

 

[JB50]

I'm gonna answer with another question. How could it be bad experience?

I'm a PCA/PCT as well. It's been amazing to have those experiences shine through during interviews. Tangible experiences are way better than "well, if that actually happened, I would..."

 

[Sardinia]

@JB50 Same acronym, different scope of practice.

Personal care associate.
Patient care associate / patient care technician.

Both are indispensable jobs when it comes to healthcare.

 

[Ignatius413]

Thanks Guys. I do my best not to talk to any pre-meds still in uni while I'm out and about, but there's been a few instances where the conversation lilts to what I've been doing since graduating and whether or not PCA work is "valid enough" to count as a healthcare related experience. I've been out of the loop for a while so I thought to ask just to alleviate some II waiting stress.

Coincidentally, I've got another II today from the University of Kansas. Again, thanks a lot for the encouragement.

 

[LizzyM]

Not to make this a check box but you have:
volunteerism (you give your time to help others)
shadowing docs in clinical settings (you know what health care settings are about)
work experience with clients with special needs
work experience as an RA (peer leadership)
research with pubication

This seems to be the whole package! Bravo!

 

[zurc2014]

I'm gonna answer with another question. How could it be bad experience?

I'm a PCA/PCT as well. It's been amazing to have those experiences shine through during interviews. Tangible experiences are way better than "well, if that actually happened, I would..."

This. I spoke of my PCT experiences at every interview 🙂