question about clinical experience

[scarlett14]

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hi guys,

i only decided to apply to medical school 9 months ago and i am applying this year (i am currently a senior). thus, i only have about 9 months of clinical epxerience volunteering for a research clinical study at a hospital (ill be at about 11 months-1yr when i apply).

the thing is though, my responsibilities there vary between simple administrative tasks as well as helping out with procedures. unfortunately, there tends to be more of the administrative stuff than there tends to be the actual working-with-patients part. i got to do a lot of that during the summer but so far during the school year ive been mostly assigned administrative stuff so i feel like perhaps this is insufficient clinical experience?

ive also been doing a lot of shadowing but ive been mostly shadowing surgeons since, oddly enough, theyre the only ones who have gotten back to me and let me come observe them. is that not that great either, since what's most valued about shadowing is seeing the doctor-patient interaction, which you obviously dont get to see that much of during surgery?

i do really enjoy the shadowing im doing, i just feel like perhaps i wont have sufficient clinical experience and experience with patient interactions for my application? any input on this aspect would be much appreciated!

 

[LizzyM]

If you feel that you know enough about choosing medicine as a career to apply in June, start medical school in 2014 and work in the field until 2050 or longer, then go ahead and apply this year.

If you feel that you need more time and more exposure to decide if this is the right path for you, then plan to apply in 2014 and start med school in 2015. Once you start down the road, it is very difficult to turn off. Given that you decided rather late in your college career to pursue a career in medicine, it might be reasonable to take a little extra time to be sure that this is the right choice for you.

 

[Meihua]

If you're positive that medicine is what you want, I wouldn't be too worried about how your clinical exposure looks on paper. My only clinical exposure was minimal shadowing (nephrologist, pulmonary critical care, ER) and some neuro research that involved testing patients in the ER (summer + fall while I was applying). The only time it came up was when one interviewer asked why I didn't shadow a PCP (I said that was just how things worked out; he was sort of obnoxious about it but I got in anyway). Talk to more docs about shadowing - do you have any connections through your research, maybe?

If you yourself are uncertain that you've had enough clinical exposure to make a decision, that's a different matter entirely.