Please help me choose

[mrfunnyman]

Out of these two activities, which would you choose:

Option A: Work as a medical assistant/secretary in a busy medical office. Duties include 50% patient contact, which include taking vitals, getting medical history, filling out medical records, etc. The other 50% entails secretary work such as scheduling appointments, photocopying, etc. Prefers 8 hours a week, would lead to an LOR from the MD at the end of the year, and gets pretty good pay.

Option B: Volunteer at the local hospital. 25% of duties are restocking and keeping the site clean. The other 75% is feeding, talking, and playing with the patients. Once in a while you get to observe the staff. Prefers 8 hours a week, would lead to an LOR from the volunteer coordinator, and possible opportunity for leadership positions.

The problem is that I don't really have any real work experience nor any clinical experience. I do a lot of community service, so fitting both of these into the schedule would be hard. Which one would you choose? Or should I just fit in half their preferred hours for both, and risk gaining minimal experience out of them.

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[FutureBostonDoc]

I would say choose whichever one you're more interested in.

If I were to choose, I would choose option A. Seems like you would probably have a better chance there of interacting with doctors and getting a good feel for medicine (I'm just gathering this from how you described it). And you get paid. Best of both worlds.

Good luck!

 

[TexasPhysician]

I would also choose option A, but for other reasons. Medical school teaches you little about how to run an office. This could be extremely valuable experience that will benefit you way into the future. Also, a LOR from a MD is more valuable in my opinion.

 

[SnarkyMD]

Option A.

EVERYONE and their mother volunteers in a hospital, and the duties are kind of annoying. You'll have plenty of time to get lost in a hospital in medical school, no point starting now when you aren't getting credit for it.

I volunteered in a community clinic back in my undergrad days and enjoyed the experience. You'll hopefully get to know the doc and get a good letter out of it. And you'll also learn more about how to navigate this nation's medical system, which, as it turns out, is kind of confusing.

 

[ToBeAnMD]

OP, I agree with above posters. Option A, from your description, sounds like the best experience and also sounds as though it will make your app stand out more. I also agree that an MD LOR would probably be more valuable when applying to medical school. Good luck!

 

[J ROD]

First, get paid with Option A.

Then, go find somewhere to get clinical volunteer experience. You definitely need to have that!

 

[Quadratic]

Do you really have to ask the question? Option A is clearly a better deal.

 

[mrfunnyman]

cool thanks for the responses. I guess I should go ahead and take the job. but I'm worried, would 9 months working in this office be considered enough clinical experience for someone? or would i still have to find time to to do some shadowing and volunteering still

 

[ajkby52]

Why not do both? I think most volunteer programs only require that you be there for 4 hours a week, which really won't break your schedule.

 

[schrizto]

Option A. Duh.

 

[TexasPhysician]

cool thanks for the responses. I guess I should go ahead and take the job. but I'm worried, would 9 months working in this office be considered enough clinical experience for someone? or would i still have to find time to to do some shadowing and volunteering still

9 months of clinical experience should meet the minimum requirements. I would still do more shadowing in other fields if you get the chance though. The biggest problem med students have is choosing a field because you don't get enough exposure to all fields before you have to choose 1.

Definitely still do some volunteering now or down the road. Volunteer experiences are easy to come by.

 

[fever106]

No, 9 months is absolutely NOT enough clinical experience. You will at least need to get an MD degree prior to attending medical school. I would also recommend at least a few years of running your own practice. Doing some academic medicine as well would also be prudent.

 

[decafplease]

fever is right.

Seriously, though, do the MA job. I have 3 years experience as an MA and I love it. Way better than some lame shadowing or volunteer gig. I learned WAY more about the career working beside a doctor than I could by being dragged along shadowing.

You'll get some great interview/secondary fodder. Trust me.