Starting Out

[zazabar]

Hey guys! New here, and just wanted to get some advice on where to progress.

I'm currently 29. Been working in the pharmaceutical industry for the last 5 years as a scientist. I graduated in 2010 with a B.S. in Biochemistry and a minor in Biology. I had a 3.76 GPA as well as undergraduate research experience.

In terms of academic experience, I think I will be okay to pursue admissions into a medical university as long as I can get a good MCAT score. My weakness would be that I don't have volunteer experience working in the medical field. I haven't shadowed doctors or volunteered at nursing homes. And in my current state of employment, it would be hard to do so heavily. (Work 9 hours a day + Wife.)

I wanted to see if anyone had some advice on what I could do to fill in that gap a little bit that wouldn't greatly detract from my family life... assuming there is anything like that.

 

[MamaPsalmist]

Weekends! By the time the next application cycle comes around, you can have 6+ months of clinical experience in a clinic or hospital, and you can definitely fit some shadowing experience in there too. Also, do you get vacations? Plan on using those to get more in depth shadowing too.

Whether or not that greatly detracts from your family life depends on how you and your wife define those terms. My husband and kids are excited about this little adventure toward medical school, so extra hours for needed experiences are not a negative stressor for us. But to each his own.

 

[esob]

Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) it will require some sacrifice to get in, and everything gets laid upon the sacrificial altar. Before I decided to take the plunge my wife and I talked it over on long walks for a couple weeks. Each day we would debate the pros and cons and theorize the best we could about what sacrifices would need to be made, whether we were both willing to accept them, and what we could do in order to offset some of them. I had no plans to even attempt this if she wasn't fully onboard. Thankfully for me she was, but that now means we are already making those sacrifices. Instead of spending a well earned day off together, I'm spending my time volunteering. Instead of working 8 - 10 hrs a day, I'm working 18 to try and get ahead with work before spring semester starts. I think the bottom line is that if you are a non trad and really want to pursue medicine, you will have to accept the fact that things are going to be ugly for 7+ years.

 

[DrESQ]

I'm in a similar position with a 9 hour day and an hour commute both ways to work, so I totally get where you're coming from. A lot of the advice I was given here was to utilize weekends for shadowing and volunteering. You may have an easier time volunteering in hospice or family med environments. A lot of major medical centers have weird requirements for completing X-number of hours of pushing people in wheelchairs and giving directions to visitors before you're even allowed to shadow or see any kind of real clinical stuff.

I'd say if med school is really what you want, giving up 4 hours of a Saturday or Sunday each weekend isn't too bad. Those hours will add up quickly and I'm sure you'll learn a lot in the process. Best of luck to you!