What counts as clinical experience?

[resap]

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I have been helping at a convalescent hospice since the beginning of the year and was wondering if it qualified as clinical experience or simple volunteering. What I do is setup, supervise, and participate in activities with the residents (card games, bingo, etc). Usually it is just me and the activity coordinator managing the games so I get a lot of interaction with the residents. I also visit and talk to residents and help do meals. All the residents have some sort of reason why they need to be in a hospice, and I do have interactions with doctors/nurses every once in a while. However, it isn't the same as say, being in a hospital setting.

Would this type of work fall under clinical experience or volunteering? If not, what exactly qualifies as clinical experience? From searching through previous topics, the main answer seems to be "whatever helps you decide that you want to be a doctor," or "when you can smell the patients." If you think of the residents as patients, then certainly I am within smelling distance. But from what my adviser has told me, volunteering at a hospice only shows that you are interested in what nurses and assistants do. Helping out at the hospice let me see a small part of what kinds of situations I might face as a future physician and I plan to include that in my PS, but ultimately it seems like shadowing a physician should be more important than volunteering at a hospital, which is not the conventional wisdom here.

Thoughts?

 

[deleted357625]

anything in a clinical setting such as a hospital/clinic with patient contact.

 

[resap]

anything in a clinical setting such as a hospital/clinic with patient contact.

The reason I'm asking is because there is some ambiguity in my mind between a resident of a hospice and a patient at a hospital. What is your opinion on whether a resident at a hospice qualifies as a patient? Some of them are receiving nurse care, some participate in exercises with RN's, but some are also just simply recuperating until they get better. They don't call the residents patients, but they are also receiving care.

 

[deleted357625]

Hospice is def fine too do if your having that patient interaction. But, i would recommend some hospital/clinical setting volunteer work. By doing this you will have a better understanding of the health care environment, esp in the ER.
In the ER your interacting with patients, techs, docs, nurses etc all at the same time.

But, overall do what interests you.

 

[NickNaylor]

I would definitely consider time in a hospice clinical experience.

 

[gatorade848]

back in hs i volunteered at surgical intensive care unit for entire summer but i havent really done anything equivalent in college yet... I am senior applying over the summer does my experience in hs count or do I have to get some "fresh" experience asap?

 

[deleted357625]

back in hs i volunteered at surgical intensive care unit for entire summer but i havent really done anything equivalent in college yet... I am senior applying over the summer does my experience in hs count or do I have to get some "fresh" experience asap?

anything you did in HS will not count unless you continued with it after high school. But, besides that, yes you will have to start fresh