Premed gap year questions: working as MA for a Dental Sleep Clinic

[I Operator]

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Hi everyone,

I am a premed student taking a gap year and have just managed to find a job as a medical assistant at a sleep clinic. However, the doctor at this clinic holds a DDS degree, which I know is more dental than medical. Therefore, I would be doing a lot of dental procedures should I take this job (of course I would still be doing tasks like taking vitals and patient medical+dental histories, which I know MAs working with MDs would do).

Basically, the doctor started off as a dentist but also just expanded to take in sleep apnea patients as well. She therefore has both a dental office and a sleep clinic as well and takes both types of patients. I will be working with sleep apnea patients.

Will this have a bad look when I apply for medical school? Do they care that I worked at a sleep clinic ran by DDS? Should I work as a medical scribe instead (I've heard back from a scribing company). Thanks for any advice!

 

[AJS59]

Hi everyone,

I am a premed student taking a gap year and have just managed to find a job as a medical assistant at a sleep clinic. However, the doctor at this clinic holds a DDS degree, which I know is more dental than medical. Therefore, I would be doing a lot of dental procedures should I take this job (of course I would still be doing tasks like taking vitals and patient medical+dental histories, which I know MAs working with MDs would do).

Basically, the doctor started off as a dentist but also just expanded to take in sleep apnea patients as well. She therefore has both a dental office and a sleep clinic as well and takes both types of patients. I will be working with sleep apnea patients.

Will this have a bad look when I apply for medical school? Do they care that I worked at a sleep clinic ran by DDS? Should I work as a medical scribe instead (I've heard back from a scribing company). Thanks for any advice!

Scribing would be better but if it's one those scribeamerica jobs where you get worked for very low pay...maybe not.

Not an adcom, but I'd argue this is probably clinical enough given that there's the sleep apnea side of this, you're learning good skills and these people are definitely patients.

 

[premed123321]

I think you should keep looking. If you can avoid possible scrutiny, then you should. Especially in a process as competitive as this.

It was hard for me to get a gap year MA job too at first (took a solid 2 weeks of searching-and I sent a lot of apps in those 2 weeks-but was able to find a job with good pay, hours and patient-facing responsibilities).

You don't want to reach the interview stage, and the interviewer gets fixated on "why medicine over dentistry?"

 

[LizzyM]

Does anyone need to know the credentials of the person who runs the clinic?
You don't need a LOR from this experience and you can just put the name of the supervisor without a degree after the name, AFAIK.
Who would care???

You are working in a sleep apnea clinic doing patient facing stuff. It is with patients. You are up-close with them. No one will care who runs the place.

 

[I Operator]

Thank you so much everyone for your feedback! I'll probably end up proceeding with working as a medical assistant here unless I get a better offer!
Hope you all had a great Halloween.

@AJS59 @premed123321 I wish you two the best of luck with your medical school applications and it's great always to know I'm not alone on the premed track!
@LizzyM Thank you so much for the advice; it was very reassuring to hear from the evil queen of numbers herself!

 

[AJS59]

Thank you so much everyone for your feedback! I'll probably end up proceeding with working as a medical assistant here unless I get a better offer!
Hope you all had a great Halloween.

@AJS59 @premed123321 I wish you two the best of luck with your medical school applications and it's great always to know I'm not alone on the premed track!
@LizzyM Thank you so much for the advice; it was very reassuring to hear from the evil queen of numbers herself!

No problem! To clarify I am a MS1 now but happy to pay it forward wherever I can