Working while pre-med

[aspalaceburns]

I am a junior at Marquette University in Milwaukee,Wi, and I am pre-med. My main worry is that I dont have enough clinical/research experience, and I was wondering if anyone could give me advice. I have shadowed a ER doctor and had a private question and answer session with a neurosurgeon. I have about 6 months working as a clincal research assistant at the VA, and I will have about 1 year volunteering at a local ER. The reason that I have so little is because I have to work around 30 hours a week to put myself through school. This and my normal course load takes up most, if not all of my time. I have been trying to find a job in the health care field, but cannot find anything right now. I don't have the money to take a EMT class or a CNA class, and I don't know what to do. I have a 3.73 cGPA and a 3.63sGPA, but I am hoping those go up by the end of the year (I haven't taken the MCAT yet). I was wondering if medical schools would take into account the amount of hours that I work a week because since it is retail, it doesn't have much to do with health care. I have been there four years, and with the bad economy it is the only job i can find.

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[armybound]

Adcoms do understand that people need to take jobs and that they won't always be medically-related. They'll probably be a little more critical of what you do over your summer, so hopefully you tried to get some good experience in over the summer if you had a break from school.

I wouldn't worry too much about it. Life does get in the way of building a resume sometimes.

 

[oaklandguy]

I don't think a lack of clinical hours is going to have a large affect on a medical school acceptance. I believe that it is something that could come up in an interview in which you could answer something like, 'Clinical experience is something I wish I could have attained; however, unfortunate economic circumstances forced me to get a job with no medical relation and I worked hours that did not permit me to get the clinical experience I had wanted' or something similar to that. I don't think it's something that will not allow you to get an interview, but it's something I would probably explain at an interview. Definitely not something to stress over though, no applicant has "everything" and by far no applicant is perfect other than the crazy URM's with 4.0 GPA's and 43 MCATS with 6000 research hours and what not that post on the What are my Chances? section and make us all feel inferior.

 

[MilkmanAl]

Clinical experience is one of the most important aspects of med school admission. You definitely cannot explain away not having it, regardless of your circumstances. Needing a full-time job or two may net you some slack, but you're still going to need the typical 100+ hours or so before you're a viable candidate.

 

[DrYoda]

about 1 year volunteering at a local ER.

This doesn't make it sound like you're severly lacking clinical experience.

But I agree with the others, you do need a decent amount of clinical experience. Maybe you have a day off or free weekends you can use for clincal volunteering or shadowing?

 

[oaklandguy]

You are definitely on the shallow end of how much clinical experience you have, but the reality is that it seems as though you have made an effort to get the clinical hours and working 30 hours a week while being able to get what you have gotten seems respectable. Having more clinical experience could only help you and I wouldn't by any means say that you have enough; but then again your circumstances seem to differ from the norm.

 

[Exalya]

I am a junior at Marquette University in Milwaukee,Wi, and I am pre-med. My main worry is that I dont have enough clinical/research experience, and I was wondering if anyone could give me advice. I have shadowed a ER doctor and had a private question and answer session with a neurosurgeon. I have about 6 months working as a clincal research assistant at the VA, and I will have about 1 year volunteering at a local ER. The reason that I have so little is because I have to work around 30 hours a week to put myself through school. This and my normal course load takes up most, if not all of my time. I have been trying to find a job in the health care field, but cannot find anything right now. I don't have the money to take a EMT class or a CNA class, and I don't know what to do. I have a 3.73 cGPA and a 3.63sGPA, but I am hoping those go up by the end of the year (I haven't taken the MCAT yet). I was wondering if medical schools would take into account the amount of hours that I work a week because since it is retail, it doesn't have much to do with health care. I have been there four years, and with the bad economy it is the only job i can find.

Help

I've had to work, among other things, during my college experience. During an interview I had my interviewer was very sensitive to this fact. I managed to get ~100 hours clinical experience, but no more than that. It was meaningful and I spoke about it well. I think if you really play off of your strengths you'll do fine. Working during college--especially as a pre-med--is really hard.

 

[notoriousmoops]

You can always find the time. Cut back on a part of your life and you'll be able to gain more clinical experience.

 

[Tin Man]

Research isn't too hard to find if you know where to look. Advertise yourself to the science professors and offer to help in whatever way you can, even if it's just ordering chemicals and washing glassware. Usually, it's not too difficult to work your way into a nice research project from that position (like I did). Remember that research is research; it's not necessarily as important to have research involving health care or chemicals as it is to work using research methods and demonstrate an understanding of the process of DOING research. This means that while labs working on AIDS research are great, you can also look to psychologists, sociologists, and even economists for research. Anyone who can conduct valid scientific research in relation to their area should be valid in terms of learning what you need to learn.

Clinical is a little harder, since you can't really work your way into good patient contact without some sort of certification. I've heard of some people working admin jobs at free clinics getting trained to take vital signs, which isn't bad as far as patient contact goes. But if you want to have the chance to WORK in the health care field in a way that you can use as a patient-contact experience, I'd start saving pennies for the CNA class. I did mine over the summer, and was certified within three months of the start date. It's not a tough class, and there aren't many better ways to show the humbleness and dedication to patient care than being a peon's peon.

 

[Sammich117]

You can always find the time. Cut back on a part of your life and you'll be able to gain more clinical experience.

I don't think that's necessarily true or fair. If you have to support yourself, working is really important. And to some extent, it's also important to have a healthy social life in college. So just cutting back on something may not be possible.

IMO