Work Experience as EMT Required?

[pillowfighty]

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Went to my pre-med club meeting with a presentation on how to apply to medical school. The president of the club said that it's becoming more prevalent that you need to have work experience as an EMT or a CNA as a definite requirement, not just clinical volunteering. Just wondering if this increases the chances of acceptance/showing that you're serious.

I am in community college transferring to a UC. Doing research at a different UC. Volunteering at the public library. Going to volunteer at a student clinic soon. Does work experience add to this?

 

[LizzyM]

Rubbish! (Which I'm trying to say rather than bu11sh1t".)
If you want to go into a physician assistant program, it is pretty much required to have had a year of paid work experience as a patient care technician, nurses aide or EMT. But for medical school, not at all.

Many people are taking jobs as scribes while in school or during a gap year but it is far from the majority of successful applicants.

You do need face-to-face experience with patients but it doesn't have to be paid.
Volunteering at the public library is a good service to the community but if you can find something that let's you interact with a segment of society, face-to-face, that you would not otherwise interact with, that would be better. In particular, the homeless and/or hungry, refugees, inner city kids, the mentally ill, non-English speaking adults who are trying to learn English, etc.