Summer following 3rd year

[projectpat]

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Hey been reading around SDN for awhile now and been very appreciative of all the info available and now I think it's time for my own post!

Basically I'm wondering what to do this upcoming summer since I personally feel think it's the last summer for me to do something significant in terms of for my application.
A little background info, I'm a GA resident, bio major (chem/spanish minors), I'm taking the MCAT at the end of May and I feel like this summer should be used to fix any 'weak' parts of my application (i.e. clinical experience):

my two options consist of staying at school for 2 months and taking some summer classes like microbiology and maybe a spanish course and hopefully trying to get some additional clinical experience in like shadowing surgeons and maybe volunteering at the local hospital

or..

go back home where I have MANY more clinical opportunities to shadow a variety of doctors in a variety of specialties and relax a little from school

I can confidently say the weakest part of my app right now is clinical experience. I've shadowed a primary care physician every summer during 4 years of high school and 1 summer + few weeks here and there during college. I've also shadowed a radiologist for a week and a surgeon at UF for a week.

My GPA is pretty much set (cum 3.65, science 3.8) so I don't consider the summer classes to help my GPA just ease my senior year load. Also my extracurriculars seem fine.. 1 yr+ biochemical research (medical scope, setting up publication), involved in numerous organizations/honor societies, leadership positions (VP, secretary, events coordinator, etc), community service/volunteerism (blood drives, mentor/tutor program, after school program at community center), extensive class rigor (16+ hours every semester even though I started ahead), mission trip to nicaragua and costa rica for 3 weeks), hold a part-time job and proficient language skills (english, farsi, spanish)

so currently I'm leaning towards coming home since I kinda want a break from school and I really want to focus on 'medical' related activities. Also what constitutes 'CLINICAL EXPERIENCE', does that mean shadowing, direct patient care, etc? Sorry for the long post and any help would be appreciated, thanks!

 

[Catalystik]

You seem to have plenty of shadowing already, which is a passive observership, and which does not count as clinical experience. Clinical experience is where you focus on sick people and interact with them. In shadowing you focus on what the doctor is doing. What clinical experience do you already have?

Your application timeline and plans for the MCAT aren't clear.

 

[projectpat]

Sorry about that I mentioned that I'm taking the MCAT at the end of this month so I'll be applying in this upcoming cycle. I hope to have my application finished by early June and hopefully verified by AMCAS at the end of the month so I can apply as early as possible (I’m mainly shooting for instate schools, medical college of GA and/or Emory).
During my family medicine shadowing rounds, I did get a little patient interaction. I guess as far as interacting with the sick goes, the mission trip to nicaragua and costa rica was a lot of clinical experience, we were basically the doctors when we're we were really only premed students. We did family history, vital signs, physical exam, asked whatever questions we saw fit and tried to match a diagnosis before the actual doctor made her rounds and finalized all the info and made her own diagnosis. One day,I stayed up throughout the night for 10 hours and helped deliver a baby which I will NEVER forget… That was pretty heavy clinical experience as far as I'd say, we would sit face to face and talk for almost an hour before the doctor came. We would split up into 3 triage groups of 4 students and tackle a huge line of patients. We did about 30 patients in total per day, waking up at 6am and finishing by 5pm. I couldn't really perfect any medical techniques because I am clearly not qualified but I mainly tried to fine tune my doctor-patient relationship like forming that bond of trust between the two and really trying to get a feel for the patient's emotion. (all at the same time, speaking/translating Spanish to English)
The only flaw I see with this is that it lasted only 3 weeks, even though I consider it one of my most significant medical experiences. So I guess finding direct clinical experience opportunities seems somewhat difficult unless through a shadowing opportunity, the physician allows you to interact with some patients? Appreciate the help.

 

[nohika]

Typically most pre-meds get their clinical experiences by volunteering at like a hospital or a nursing home. That's what you're lacking, I think.