Which gap year job would be most beneficial?

[noticemeadcomsenpai]

Howdy everyone. I'm a graduate and re-applicant. I recently got an offer to work as an outpatient scribe. I'm also looking for research opportunities. These research opportunities would be higher paying than scribing, and I'm interested in research if I ever get into medical school. However, this is the only job offer I currently have and I would love to gain more clinical experience (I have about 90 hrs with shadowing but I'm not sure if this is good as apparently it wasn't enough for the previous cycle).

Should I take the scribing job or continue looking for research? Would really appreciate any advice. Thank you.

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[DrHart]

If you have no other clinical volunteering, do scribing. If you have a ton of clinical volunteering already, do research.

 

[aspiringmd94]

Definitely scribing. Research is great, but med schools are primarily concerned with whether or not you know what it's like to be a doctor and so they are more concerned with clinical exposure than researching.

 

[Dr. Slimthick]

I say scribing. All my interviews had lots of questions about my scribing experience, while my research experience was only given a cursory glance. I suggest that if you do scribing take advantage of any leadership opportunities like being a trainer also if you can. I'm chief scribe at my site and every single school I interviewed at had tons of questions about it.

 

[noticemeadcomsenpai]

This is completely dependent on where OP interviews.

I had two schools never ask me about research and whenever I brought it up, they would not comment on it. All they wanted to hear about was community service, clinical experience, shadowing, etc.

I had two other schools that never asked about clinical exposure, and went into depth about my research experience.

My advice - Do whatever you'll excel the most in. Neither of these jobs alone would I classify as impressive or unique. Having a stellar LOR, publication, presentation, promotion - now that's better.

Thank you for the advice! I actually had a counselor at one school I plan on applying to ask if I've done scribing. Its tough though to gauge how important research vs. clinical experience is to certain schools. Either way I will try to put in full effort into whatever I end up doing.