Why so much stress on clinical experience?

[hurryskurry]

---

Members don't see this ad.

My question is, it seems that medical schools want to diversify their applicant pool and get more liberal arts majors involved, so why is there such a stress on clinical experience and shadowing?

The surgeon I shadowed with told me he didn't have any shadowing when he applied to med school, and was an English major. He attended Wake Forest, I'm guessing about 12 years ago.

But on this forum people are suggesting you have 100+ hours of both shadowing and volunteering. If medical schools, in general, want to have a diversified applicant pool, shouldn't they discount shadowing/clinical experience as "signalling" either one's interest in or ability to be a good physician?

Liberal arts majors typically won't know how to play the same games as pre-meds, and most liberal arts majors aren't required to take science classes, and if they are they are often for "non-science majors." So I'm confused by the contradictory messages.

 

[gyngyn]

We want you to know what you are getting into, without regard to major.

 

[GrapesofRath]

You won't convince any ADCOM you know what you are getting into and know that you actually want to be in medicine without direct exposure to the field itself and what it is exactly that physicians do and doing some activity in a clinical setting itself.

Taking an applicant who doesn't actually know what they are really getting into is taking a risk on the med schools part. Med school admission is risk adverse. That's all there is to it.

 

[cherubb3]

How else will you think you know what you're getting into? House? 😉

 

[Goro]

Would you buy a car without test driving it?

Buy a new suit without trying it on?

How do you know that you want to be a doctor? That you just know? Imagine how that will go over with Adcoms!

Do you know what a doctor's day is even like?

How can you prove to us that you really want to be around sick and injured people for the next 40 years? Some of them are not nice people.

This is why you need clinical experience and shadowing. You need to show us that you know what you're getting into.


My question is, it seems that medical schools want to diversify their applicant pool and get more liberal arts majors involved, so why is there such a stress on clinical experience and shadowing?

That was then, this is now.
The surgeon I shadowed with told me he didn't have any shadowing when he applied to med school, and was an English major. He attended Wake Forest, I'm guessing about 12 years ago.

Diversified means different backgrounds, experiences and viewpoints. It doesn't mean "don't bother looking before you leap into a career that will start you out $250K in the hole, and take 7-10 years of training!"

But on this forum people are suggesting you have 100+ hours of both shadowing and volunteering. If medical schools, in general, want to have a diversified applicant pool, shouldn't they discount shadowing/clinical experience as "signalling" either one's interest in or ability to be a good physician?

Well, tough. We expect people to look before they leap. It's not like there aren't resources available. Google is your friend. You should know how to do research; you'll be expected to look things up as a clinician.
Liberal arts majors typically won't know how to play the same games as pre-meds, and most liberal arts majors aren't required to take science classes, and if they are they are often for "non-science majors." So I'm confused by the contradictory messages.

 

[chemist16]

Plenty of English and humanities pre-meds shadow doctors and volunteer clinically. It would be very difficult to express why you know you want to go into medicine if you have zero clinical volunteering or shadowing.

Liberal arts pre-meds are required to take the same pre-reqs as other pre-meds. The reason med schools accept students of all majors is because a student who can excel at English plus the necessary science pre-reqs is just as likely to succeed in med school as a math major who also did well in the science pre-reqs.

 

[dog_swag]

How else will you think you know what you're getting into? House? 😉

Wait...so you mean I can't be a cardiologist/intensivist/surgeon/pathologist (all at the same time) like Dr. Chase?

And more importantly, I can't use recreational drugs while treating patients?

 

[Redpancreas]

My question is, it seems that medical schools want to diversify their applicant pool and get more liberal arts majors involved, so why is there such a stress on clinical experience and shadowing?

The surgeon I shadowed with told me he didn't have any shadowing when he applied to med school, and was an English major. He attended Wake Forest, I'm guessing about 12 years ago.

But on this forum people are suggesting you have 100+ hours of both shadowing and volunteering. If medical schools, in general, want to have a diversified applicant pool, shouldn't they discount shadowing/clinical experience as "signalling" either one's interest in or ability to be a good physician?

Liberal arts majors typically won't know how to play the same games as pre-meds, and most liberal arts majors aren't required to take science classes, and if they are they are often for "non-science majors." So I'm confused by the contradictory messages.

I see where you're coming from. The reason it's done is so that schools can be sure that applicants made an attempt to understand how you work in medicine. Even if it's signalling, it's still the medical school's way of knowing you at least saw someone who is doing what you hope to be doing in the next 7-10 years. Now, whether they verify that shadowing is a different question. What perturbed me during the season is that one time a school said they were impressed with my shadowing hours??? Like that takes any effort lol.

 

[Kelevra]

Well, tough. We expect people to look before they leap. It's not like there aren't resources available. Google is your friend. You should know how to do research; you'll be expected to look things up as a clinician.

This should be stickied by itself.

 

[Jimmy Jones]

The surgeon I shadowed with told me he didn't have any shadowing when he applied to med school, and was an English major. He attended Wake Forest, I'm guessing about 12 years ago.

it was super easy to ge tinto medical school 20 years ago you just had to be white and above average intelligence or URM. look at the AMCAS from the 90s it was literally 3 pages long (the last page was just your signature) you didn't need shadowing and people routinely took the MCAT on a whim with a few nights of study

http://almostblack.com/hidden/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/2-Full-AMCAS-Applicationpg1.jpg

http://almostblack.com/hidden/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/2-Full-AMCAS-Applicationpg2.jpg

http://almostblack.com/hidden/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/2-Full-AMCAS-Applicationpg3.jpg

 

[CharmanderMD]

I don't see the connection between science classes and clinical experience. It's not like you get exposure to patients in biology or chemistry classes. Why should being a humanities major change the expectation that you understand what being a doctor is about?

 

[Banco]

The hours behind an activity are often less important than what you actually learn. So its not good to look at it like "I need 100 hours of shadowing and volunteering", but more like "What can I do to get a good exposure to practicing medicine and patient care".

I know multiple people who were accepted without clinical volunteering, but they got some sort of patient contact through other experiences (research, jobs etc.) They all had shadowing though. I also know people who got in but had 0 shadowing, but significant clinical experience through other means.

 

[Grace184]

Wait...so you mean I can't be a cardiologist/intensivist/surgeon/pathologist (all at the same time) like Dr. Chase?

And more importantly, I can't use recreational drugs while treating patients?

You just sunk my battleship

 

[MMADoc]

Also its for the applicants own good. Becoming a physician is at least a 7 year (medical school + 3 year residency) roller coaster of a journey that has serious life impact (massive debt and wasted years) if you cant/will not finish the ride. What if an applicant never saw a bleeding patient before and realizes they faint at the sight of blood? Going to be real difficult to make it through medical school and residency. Or if an applicant realizes that medicine is nothing like House/Grey's Anatomy/Scrubs until their third year and they actually hate talking to patients? Now they are in massive debt and are financially committed to doing something they may hate just for the money and no one wins.

So making it an unofficial requirement for applicants to get clinical experience hopefully helps with the self weed out process. Not to mention that you will have plenty of days (weeks and months too) of hating medicine and wanting to quit...if you don't love it deep down, life can be hard.

 

[chocoholicsoxfan]

Also its for the applicants own good. Becoming a physician is at least a 7 year (medical school + 3 year residency) roller coaster of a journey that has serious life impact (massive debt and wasted years) if you cant/will not finish the ride. What if an applicant never saw a bleeding patient before and realizes they faint at the sight of blood? Going to be real difficult to make it through medical school and residency.

My once uncle fainted at the sight of blood as an MS2, and he is currently an interventional cardiologist.

 

[MMADoc]

My once uncle fainted at the sight of blood as an MS2, and he is currently an interventional cardiologist.

Once is usually not a problem. Its the applicants that have fainted multiple times at the sight of blood that I start to I wonder how they think they will pass the third year rotations that have lots of exposure.

 

[chocoholicsoxfan]

Once is usually not a problem. Its the applicants that have fainted multiple times at the sight of blood that I start to I wonder how they think they will pass the third year rotations that have lots of exposure.

Lol I think you misread. He didn't faint once. He fainted multiple times. He was my once uncle because he used to be married to my aunt and now they're divorced, so he's not technically my uncle anymore.