Should an undergraduate premed student volunteer with a physical therapist?

[aegistitan]

I was wondering if volunteering for a week (40hours) over spring break would be beneficial for a potential medical school application.

I cannot volunteer in a hospital right now because I did not get my background check in on time, so the closest thing I could find is a local physical therapy office. I would assist the physical therapist, whose patients are mainly seniors. I have no idea if the volunteer position is clinical, or if I would just be running errands for the physical therapist as of yet.

What I was wondering was whether or not volunteering at a physical therapist's practice would come back and haunt me after applying to medical school. Would the adcoms ask me questions such as, "I saw you volunteered in a physical therapist office, why are you applying to medical school?" Or would my time be better allotted doing something other than volunteering with a physical therapist, such as catching up on some school work over spring break?

Thanks for the help in advance!

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[corndogger]

couldn't hurt to see another side of healthcare. at worst you don't have to put it on your application

 

[LVE]

It really can't hurt. A wider view of health care will be good and who knows, you may find your calling in physical therapy.

 

[DokterMom]

It's a great chance to get direct patient-contact exposure; and don't underestimate the medical angles. Some physical therapy clinics have close ties to orthopedic surgery practices, so you may get to have some interaction there.

 

[gyngyn]

Teaching inter-professional collaboration is an LCME focus for MD schools. If you can describe how these two professions productively interacted it could be a plus.

 

[Catalystik]

If you are assisting patients who receive physical therapy in some way, I would look at it as active clinical experience. If you do filing, work in a back office, and never see a client, it is not clinical experience. If the physical therapist can be observed, it would also count as a shadowing experience (and though this would not be physician shadowing, it would help you understand another aspect of a healthcare team). This has the potential to be a very good experience.