Volunteering Question

[IAmNotaRobot]

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Hi, Longtime lurker here.

I've submitted my AMCAS, and I'm about ready to submit my AACOMAS, but I have a problem. I don't have any clinical volunteering. I have some experience with clinical volunteering from high school (Doesn't count, and isn't in the app), and I have 150 hours of shadowing, ~200 hours of non-clinical volunteering.

How necessary is clinical volunteer experience? I have no problem signing up to do the volunteering, but I just haven't had a chance to do it. Also, It's not in my AMCAS. Is this something I could explain at secondaries and interviews, or is my chance to talk about it gone?

Thanks so much for your help

 

[lmn]

It's generally considered essential to dedicate a fairly substantial amount of time to clinical volunteering to show your commitment to a medical profession. Shadowing is not a replacement for this. Generally people aim for 150 hours of clinical volunteer work over a long term amount of time, unfortunately you are past this point for this cycle for the most part. I would get involved in some clinical volunteer work ASAP and continue doing it through the entire next year, if you manage to get an interview despite not having one of the "basic" boxes checked off then you can update them there about your work. Or you can send in an update to your schools (if they accept it) once you have started and gotten a decent amount of hours to start with and tell them your plans to continue it through the year. Worst case, you will fix this deficit for your reapplication next cycle.

 

[deleted407021]

Clinical experience is what is important. It can be work, research or volunteering. You will certainly run into trouble not having a decent amount of clinical exposure.

Heed the above post.

 

[el_duderino]

Experience with patient contact is virtually mandatory. Shadowing does not count.

 

[IAmNotaRobot]

Okay,

I just filled out a couple of forms to try and do hospital volunteering, but that can take as long as six weeks to get started. There are some nursing homes near my house that I could probably get into faster. Would that be good enough, or should I wait on the hospital experience.

Additionally, how important is it for me to then notify the med schools of this change in my application? Would it just be easier to include this in my secondaries?

Thanks again

 

[NickNaylor]

Not sure why people are saying shadowing doesn't count - how is that not clinical experience? Almost the entirety of my clinical exposure was shadowing-related.

Clinical volunteering experience is unnecessary as long as you have some sort of clinical exposure. As @J Senpai said, the important point is that you have clinical exposure period, not necessarily how it was gathered. This is important as you want people to take you seriously when you say that you want to be a physician and talk about why you think you will perform well in the role of a physician. Clinical volunteering does not give you any better or worse of an answer over shadowing in this regard.

 

[el_duderino]

Presumably, it's because you typically don't interact with patients while shadowing and medical schools want to see that you actually know what patient interaction is like, and that you have some idea what you're getting into.

 

[NickNaylor]

Okay,

I just filled out a couple of forms to try and do hospital volunteering, but that can take as long as six weeks to get started. There are some nursing homes near my house that I could probably get into faster. Would that be good enough, or should I wait on the hospital experience.

Additionally, how important is it for me to then notify the med schools of this change in my application? Would it just be easier to include this in my secondaries?

Thanks again

If you are seriously concerned about this being a weakness in your app, then I would wait a bit to see if any interviews come in and then send an update later on. Some secondaries will provide you space to give updates though this is not universal.

Again, what is important is that you get some kind of clinical experience, not necessarily the particular venue. However, do understand that schools will see this experience exactly for what it is (last minute gathering of hours), so be sure that you're discussion of your clinical experiences is both genuine and insightful. Do the most you can with the limited amount of exposure that you have.

 

[NickNaylor]

Presumably, it's because you typically don't interact with patients while shadowing and medical schools want to see that you actually know what patient interaction is like, and that you have some idea what you're getting into.

IMO you can do this perfectly adequately in the shadowing role. Just because you're not interacting with patients directly doesn't mean that you can't understand what that interaction entails. Astute observers and those that take advantage of shadowing experiences (rather than discounting them as a hoop to be jumped as is often done on SDN) can and do make clear that they took something away from the experience.

Clinical volunteering as a de facto requirement is news to me. I'm skeptical.

 

[IAmNotaRobot]

Not to incite anything, but I didn't see this as a serious weakness in my application until about 10 minutes ago (when I was told it was). As it's something I was meaning to do anyway, I have no problem volunteering even if there's a possibility that it won't count for anything.

But I have a couple more questions
-Should I hold my DO application until I get started with something?
-Is clinical volunteering dependent on setting? (Nursing home=rehab center=hospital?)

 

[Catalystik]

Gaining active clinical experience through skilled-nursing home or inpatient Alzheimer's unit volunteering is fine. A senior center, assisted living, senior daycare, or retirement home isn't the same thing and should be avoided, as you want to interact with sick folks to get the most out of the experience.

The AMCAS application doesn't allow one to enter future activities and I'd be surprised if the AACOMAS application does either, since so many "plans" fall through for various reasons.

I hope you mentioned the HS clinical experience in your PS.