WAMC— unsure about my clinical experience

[jlgirl25]

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I am asking my question to anyone that might know what exactly constitutes clinical experience. For the past 5 and a half years (since I graduated high school) I have been working at my father’s practice (who is an optometrist) for about 2000 hours and I will continue to do so going forward. I have shadowed one ophthalmologist (for about 20 hours) and I am currently working for a prosthodontist/ periodontist at his practice and I am working as his surgical assistant. My last activity, at least “clinically” would be taking care of my ill grandfather who suffers from dementia and Parkinson’s.

In addition, though I know that this does not count as clinical experience, I have been teaching Hebrew for the past 7 years for about 2000 hours as well. Lastly, I have been volunteering at a local baseball program in the spring and theIr soccer program in the fall for about 500 hours total.

With all this being the case, I wanted to know what my chances were of admission into medical school? I do not know what exactly counts as clinical experience since most of that which I described was never interacting with MDs (aside from the brief shadowing experience). I have not volunteered in any hospitals (which I know is a deterrent), but I have obviously been doing a lot aside from this.

My stats are as follows: 3.63 general GPA
3.43 science GPA
508 MCAT
(although I don’t know if this is relevant, but I minored in Japanese and I have a 4.0 in Japanese)

If anyone could please let me know what my chances are of being admitted into an allopathic medical school, I would greatly appreciate it. So far, I do not know where I stand and I am hoping to apply this upcoming cycle. Thank you for your help.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Please use the WAMC template for a comprehensive assessment.

Subtract your caregiver hours from clinical experience. Any experience in hospital settings where doctors work (not just optometrists) needs to be described. Any outside of the visual specialties given your father's work is crucial.

 

[jlgirl25]

So should I include the work that I do by the prosthodontist/ periodontist and should I continue to work at his practice? Granted, he does have a DDS, but he often has anesthesiologists come in and so we also work with them. Would this be sufficient in terms of clinical experience?

 

[Mr.Smile12]

So should I include the work that I do by the prosthodontist/ periodontist and should I continue to work at his practice? Granted, he does have a DDS, but he often has anesthesiologists come in and so we also work with them. Would this be sufficient in terms of clinical experience?

It won't really help you. Even conversations with the anesthesiologist aren't really the same. You'll have med school faculty wondering why you couldn't find a more conventional opportunity.

Sent from my SM-N960U using SDN mobile

 

[jlgirl25]

In terms of more conventional opportunities, do you mean working as a medical scribe or working in a doctor's office as a receptionist? Would either of these jobs be better?

Would shadowing a local doctor prove to be as useful, or would this not be enough?

 

[candbgirl]

So should I include the work that I do by the prosthodontist/ periodontist and should I continue to work at his practice? Granted, he does have a DDS, but he often has anesthesiologists come in and so we also work with them. Would this be sufficient in terms of clinical experience?

NO. In all of that stuff you haven’t worked with the sick, injured or dying. What makes you think you want to be a doctor and spend the next 30+ years dealing with the sick?
If you want to spend all of that time working with your father go be an Optometrist. If you want to be a surgical assistant for a prosthodontics or anyone else go be one. If you want to be a physician go find opportunities that will expose you to the sick and dying. You need to have direct patient contact for clinical experiences. (Around 150+ hours.)You could talk about working for your father and the periodontist etc but only as it relates to ruling those career paths out. You also need to shadow physicians for at least 50 hours. Start with your primary care doc. It will be very different from what you are doing now. You also need 150+Hours in nonclinical volunteering to those less fortunate than yourself in your community. People very different from yourself-the unserved/underserved-the homeless, disabled, underprivileged kids etc.
Oh, don’t count the hours you spend with your grandfather. We are supposed to take care of and be there for our families. You could talk about him if he led you to medicine but counting the hours you helped him isn't a good look.

 

[candbgirl]

I just reread your OP and you really shouldn’t apply in the upcoming cycle. You are basically applying with no relevant clinical experiences, very minimal shadowing and no obvious nonclinical volunteering. There is nothing on your application that says “ I want to be a physician “ . You have not shown your altruism. You don’t seem to have any nonclinical volunteering with the unserved/underserved in your community. You have not even begun to step out of your comfort zone . It would be a mistake to apply in the upcoming cycle EC wise.

 

[ciestar]

You have no actual experience with actual medical patients. That is a huge problem.