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Get nonclinical volunteering hours with an underserved or disadvantaged population.
 
Knock out the MCAT. Mind any required SJTs.

Tutoring/teaching is not considered "service orientation". Your vulnerability is that you lack such activities that are separate from clinical exposure.

More variety in your clinical exposure will also help. It's not apparent you have more than just ophthalmology-related exposure, or that ophthalmology is your main exposure. Why not serve as an optometrist, where there is a similar lack of Cambodian/Hmong providers?
 
biryanisquish said:
Excuse my ignorance here, but would teaching recent immigrants english not be an a service orientation? I really can't do anything else clinically since being a technician pays me at least $15 more per hour than other typical clinical jobs. I don't want to be an optometrist because I want to end up doing surgery, as well as potentially be a general doctor.
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Tutoring is an extension of an academic responsibility to teach what you know. Thus, it's an academic competency.
 
biryanisquish said:
I see, thanks for the help. I was thinking of being a crisis hotline volunteer, would you suppose that would qualify as nonclinical volunteering? Also, do you think I should get clinical volunteering as well I now realize that I don't have any.
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Crisis hotline is nonclinical but not patient-facing compared to being a shelter volunteer counselor (for example). High-touch opportunities are always preferred.
 
biryanisquish said:
I see, thanks for the help. I was thinking of being a crisis hotline volunteer, would you suppose that would qualify as nonclinical volunteering? Also, do you think I should get clinical volunteering as well I now realize that I don't have any.
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The thing is, for nonclinical volunteering you are expected to get outside of your comfort zone., get your hands dirty, deal with people very unlike yourself. IMO being a crisis line volunteer does fit the bill. Find a soup kitchen or homeless shelter and start volunteering.
As to getting clinical volunteering: it is a good thing to expand your experiences and focus. All of your experience is with ophthalmology. It would be good to expand out. Maybe to family med or internal med since you have expressed an interest in pursuing those areas. But it doesn’t have to be volunteering. You could get a job in either of those areas and leave ophthalmology behind.
 
You should shadow anyway, so yes do that but you only really need 50 hours of shadowing. You still need nonclinical volunteering and not a crisis text line. That was okay during the pandemic but now you need to find some face to face experiences. You have to get out of your comfort zone. Get your hands dirty and deal with people unlike yourself.
Good luck on the MCAT.
 
dizzylifeguard2001 said:
As someone who volunteers for the crisis text line, I believe that this is quite insensitive to the impact of the organization. The crisis text line is an AMAZING resource for individuals who need, free immediate support and cannot access in-person therapy. I can assure that I have gotten out of my comfort zone volunteering for this organization, as I de-escalate people from experiencing suicidal thoughts or actually committing the act. Not very many people are comfortable doing this. Do not look down on other people's experiences bc they're not "face to face". If something is personally meaningful to people, they should do it. Crisis prevention and management is important in any specialty, not just psych (which I happen to be interested in, anyways) and I have been able to enhance several interpersonal skills. Granted, this person should not apply to Rush, for example, with little in-person non-clinical volunteering hours, but again, do not toss the crisis text line aside bc it's a virtual experience.
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I believe the 988 is extremely valuable and important. But this is what experiences and discussions with adcoms who vote on applications tell me and what we see in other application cycles. I don't "look down" on the value of these experiences, but until all of medicine is performed through virtual means, adcoms want people used to seeing and touching (when allowed) sick or disabled people up close and in person.

As I suggested, apply those lessons in real face to face situations such as in a shelter counselor position. Do I think it would help health care if we had more people with these skills? Do you believe we don't have enough professionals who do? Why do they not believe this experience is important?

We absolutely need more mental health professionals, and you should be encouraged to pursue clinical psychology. But we are only telling you what we observe or know. Argue the points after you get admitted or get on an admissions committee.
 
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