Some questions for ECs

[Laureatebarrel]

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Hi all, I have a few questions that need to be answered:
1/ What is shadowing? And do I need some kind of experience or knowledge about the job that I am shadowing to apply?
2/I volunteer in a pretty famous hospital near where I lived but all I do is taking out bags of used clothes and refill boxes since I am not allowed to do otherwise and most of my time is spent with nurses and I do not know any physicians or doctors for that matter. Sure I will write this in my application because that is the only volunteering I have since I was working and studied full time. Do you think I should look for something else?
3/ Right now due to family's issue I am unable to study for a while. Do you think that look bad on my application later? Im trying to self study for the MCAT right now. And also looking to do some volunteer or ANY volunteer to help boost my abysmal EC profile. (Im not too worried about my GPA and scores)

 

[AnthroMD]

Hi all, I have a few questions that need to be answered:
1/ What is shadowing? And do I need some kind of experience or knowledge about the job that I am shadowing to apply?

2/I volunteer in a pretty famous hospital near where I lived but all I do is taking out bags of used clothes and refill boxes since I am not allowed to do otherwise and most of my time is spent with nurses and I do not know any physicians or doctors for that matter. Sure I will write this in my application because that is the only volunteering I have since I was working and studied full time. Do you think I should look for something else?

3/ Right now due to family's issue I am unable to study for a while. Do you think that look bad on my application later? Im trying to self study for the MCAT right now. And also looking to do some volunteer or ANY volunteer to help boost my abysmal EC profile. (Im not too worried about my GPA and scores)

1. Shadowing gives you the opportunity to follow a physician in their daily practice to get a feel for what a day in the life of a physician is like. Typically, no prior experience or application is required. Simply ask around and see who is willing to give you the opportunity. It is practically a MUST have EC for applying.

2. I would consider finding something better. This sounds like a hospital volunteer position I had in high school to fulfill requirements for Florida Bright Futures. Although, how much better is variable and will depend on the hospital in which you volunteer. It is doubtful that you will have much contact with physicians as you are a volunteer and most places restrict how much access you have to patients.

You can always try finding some community organizations that give you indirect patient contact in the context of public charity/wellness events and the like.

3. Are you saying you don't have time for college or studying for the MCAT? If you are taking a break from college, some schools will ask you why you did not complete college in 4 years. In which case you will need to provide a truthful answer based on your family situation. Typically the answer is family problems or personal health problems. I'm not sure if it will look bad or not, it's really up to the discretion of each school. Some schools are obviously more understanding than others.

Good luck!

 

[Laureatebarrel]

Thank you for your answer. I cannot go to college right now if that is what you wonder about but I am self-studying right now for the MCAT. Btw, have you done shadowing? How is it like? What is "going through a daily life"? Do you just observe what they do and do nothing else?

 

[Laureatebarrel]

1. Shadowing gives you the opportunity to follow a physician in their daily practice to get a feel for what a day in the life of a physician is like. Typically, no prior experience or application is required. Simply ask around and see who is willing to give you the opportunity. It is practically a MUST have EC for applying.

2. I would consider finding something better. This sounds like a hospital volunteer position I had in high school to fulfill requirements for Florida Bright Futures. Although, how much better is variable and will depend on the hospital in which you volunteer. It is doubtful that you will have much contact with physicians as you are a volunteer and most places restrict how much access you have to patients.

You can always try finding some community organizations that give you indirect patient contact in the context of public charity/wellness events and the like.

3. Are you saying you don't have time for college or studying for the MCAT? If you are taking a break from college, some schools will ask you why you did not complete college in 4 years. In which case you will need to provide a truthful answer based on your family situation. Typically the answer is family problems or personal health problems. I'm not sure if it will look bad or not, it's really up to the discretion of each school. Some schools are obviously more understanding than others.

Good luck!

Thank you for your answer. I cannot go to college right now if that is what you wonder about but I am self-studying at the moment for the MCAT. Btw, have you done shadowing? How is it like? Is it a one day thing or how long should it be?

 

[Dranger]

The advantage I had in nursing school was the ability contact and talk to physicians a lot so my clinical hours actually meant something. We would discuss school plans, lab values ( Na+/K balancing, Cytochrome p450 rationale and interpreting ANA results blah blah) and treatment reports into some depth then they would continue on their rounds or give me some further advice.

The problem with volunteering that you have no real schooling or license to enable you to actually work with the physicians. You have no hand in patient care and thus any physician time spent with you delays rounds and charting for hospitalists.

My advice is to actually talk to the nurses and learn as much as you can about meds, labs, treatments and the pathophysiology of admitting diagnoses from patient charts (HIPAA depending).

As for boosting your our ECs try to do some summer research or become an EMT/CNA

EDIT: You can't even get grants or loans to attend a community college? Really?!

 

[sunflower18]

Thank you for your answer. I cannot go to college right now if that is what you wonder about but I am self-studying at the moment for the MCAT. Btw, have you done shadowing? How is it like? Is it a one day thing or how long should it be?

Shadowing length depends on the physician and what you request, really. For one of my shadowing experiences, I shadowed one or two afternoons a week during the school year and one or two mornings a week during the summer. This ended up being about 150 hours of shadowing total, and I feel like all of it was a great use of time. On the other hand, I recently shadowed another physician for three full days in one week. This ended up being about 25 hours. By the end of that week, I had seen enough to know that I was not terribly interested in her specialty, and would not be too inclined toward going back and shadowing more. However, I always have interest in shadowing with the first doctor. I really think that the length of the experience depends on how well you and the doctor get along and how much interest you have in the specialty.

Something that you should just keep in mind about your college situation -- it is understandable if you have to take a semester or year off of schooling for something medical or family related. That's fine. But you probably shouldn't be self-studying for the MCAT unless you've taken the pre-requisites and are involved with the extracurriculars needed for medical school. There are a few reasons for this.
1) You will do better on the MCAT if you've learned what you need to know from a classroom environment. Hands down. You may be an independent learner, but there is a LOT of information on this test and it's very important that you go in understanding at least the majority of it.
2) You need a bachelor's degree in order to get into medical school, and MCAT scores expire at most schools after 3+ years. If you take the MCAT before you start your education, you will need to retake it because it will have expired by the time you would be matriculating into med school. Thus, it would be a waste of time, money, and resources to take it prior to starting school.

If you have already finished school or if you are taking a break from it in the middle, then maybe this doesn't all apply to you. From the way you were talking about it, it sounded like you hadn't started college yet. Please keep this information in mind, though, as it will be very important when you go to fill out applications!

Also, something to keep in mind -- you said "physicians or doctors" in your first post, and I just want to make sure you know that they are the same thing. Physician = medical doctor. I hope that helps! 🙂

 

[Laureatebarrel]

Shadowing length depends on the physician and what you request, really. For one of my shadowing experiences, I shadowed one or two afternoons a week during the school year and one or two mornings a week during the summer. This ended up being about 150 hours of shadowing total, and I feel like all of it was a great use of time. On the other hand, I recently shadowed another physician for three full days in one week. This ended up being about 25 hours. By the end of that week, I had seen enough to know that I was not terribly interested in her specialty, and would not be too inclined toward going back and shadowing more. However, I always have interest in shadowing with the first doctor. I really think that the length of the experience depends on how well you and the doctor get along and how much interest you have in the specialty.

Something that you should just keep in mind about your college situation -- it is understandable if you have to take a semester or year off of schooling for something medical or family related. That's fine. But you probably shouldn't be self-studying for the MCAT unless you've taken the pre-requisites and are involved with the extracurriculars needed for medical school. There are a few reasons for this.
1) You will do better on the MCAT if you've learned what you need to know from a classroom environment. Hands down. You may be an independent learner, but there is a LOT of information on this test and it's very important that you go in understanding at least the majority of it.
2) You need a bachelor's degree in order to get into medical school, and MCAT scores expire at most schools after 3+ years. If you take the MCAT before you start your education, you will need to retake it because it will have expired by the time you would be matriculating into med school. Thus, it would be a waste of time, money, and resources to take it prior to starting school.

If you have already finished school or if you are taking a break from it in the middle, then maybe this doesn't all apply to you. From the way you were talking about it, it sounded like you hadn't started college yet. Please keep this information in mind, though, as it will be very important when you go to fill out applications!

Also, something to keep in mind -- you said "physicians or doctors" in your first post, and I just want to make sure you know that they are the same thing. Physician = medical doctor. I hope that helps! 🙂

Sorry for not making things clearer in my first post but I have (mostly) finished all my prerequisites. The problem right now is I am not so confident in taking the test and since my EC is so poor I think self-study while doing some EC would be great. And the reason why I am not finishing my bachelor would take so long a post that I think it is unreasonable to mention it here but BIG thanks to all advice 😀