Residential Treatment Center Clinical?

[Kageyam]

I worked for some time as a "coach" at a youth residential treatment center. These youth struggle with depression, mood disorders, anxiety, and other mental health-related disorders. As a coach, I supervised the youth to make sure they were behaving while helping them manage their daily tasks - they lived at the center so a lot of time was spent talking about their progress and keeping them busy. We had some daily clinical responsibilities like medication checks that required us to look into the students' mouths and make sure they weren't stashing away their medication. We would also chart their progress nightly and create conflict reports for specific instances of misconduct.

I initially planned on marking this activity as nonclinical employment, however, an advisor considered this clinical experience. I'd love to get some extra input!

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[Wataheal]

I had a similar activity on my application and marked it as a clinical experience. I found schools were really interested in the experience too!

 

[cj_cregg]

I think you could get away with either listing it as clinical or nonclinical. If there are doctors/nurses taking care of these kids as well at the center on a frequent basis I'd say definitely clinical.

 

[LizzyM]

Don't mistake what you are asked about in an interview with what is important to the school. Usually we ask about things that are unusual because otherwise interviewing 50-100 pre-meds can be same-old, same-old.

What did you call these people when you spoke of them collectively. Were they "patients" or "residents" or something else? It could go either way but I'd tend to call it employment "non-clinical" and let someone bump it if they thing you are "too modest". The alternative is that you call it "clinical" and someone gets pissy and begs to differ.

 

[Kageyam]

Thank you all!