Worried about foreign Clinical Experience

[yourmcatbuddy]

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[cj_cregg]

You need to have clinical experience in the US - part of the reason for getting clinical experience is to understand how the healthcare system works and the day to day work of physicians and other healthcare workers. I would say this is a must. Knowing how it works from a theoretical/system standpoint is not the same thing as knowing how it works as a person working in it. You need to see physicians actually working with patients, writing notes, coordinating with other healthcare providers, etc. I would say 50 hrs of shadowing (including primary care) and 50 hrs of something like hospital/ER volunteering, hospice volunteering, etc would be adequate. Better yet, if you're applying next year, get a job as a CNA, MA, scribe, etc.

It would also be a big help to your app to have some US volunteer work, clinical or not. You need to show an interest in helping people in your own backyard, and have exposure to underserved communities here to help you better care for them as a physician.

 

[LizzyM]

If you've already submitted your primary, the die is cast. Let's see how this cycle plays out for you. If you can do some volunteering in a US healthcare setting beginning as soon as possible and not stopping until after interview season is over, you'll have something to say at interviews, if you get any. Your MCAT is very strong and your GPA is okay so you might get some traction despite the deficits in your experience. We won't know until this time next year. In the meantime, work on clinical and non-clinical experiences in the US so you have something to talk about at interviews and something to put on your application if you have the misfortune of being a reapplicant.

 

[LindaAccepted]

If you start ASAP, you may even be able to include current clinical in secondaries or in later updates to schools that accept them. The key point is to start.

Plus, if you are not accepted this year, you will be positioning yourself for a successful reapplication effort by addressing a weakness in your qualifications proactively.

 

[yourmcatbuddy]

If you've already submitted your primary, the die is cast. Let's see how this cycle plays out for you. If you can do some volunteering in a US healthcare setting beginning as soon as possible and not stopping until after interview season is over, you'll have something to say at interviews, if you get any. Your MCAT is very strong and your GPA is okay so you might get some traction despite the deficits in your experience. We won't know until this time next year. In the meantime, work on clinical and non-clinical experiences in the US so you have something to talk about at interviews and something to put on your application if you have the misfortune of being a reapplicant.

Thanks for the reply. Any recommendations on what type of clinical experiences I could aim for asap? I'm assuming CNA/scribe/EMT would take time so would volunteering be my only option? Same for nonclinical - assuming volunteering?

 

[yourmcatbuddy]

You need to have clinical experience in the US - part of the reason for getting clinical experience is to understand how the healthcare system works and the day to day work of physicians and other healthcare workers. I would say this is a must. Knowing how it works from a theoretical/system standpoint is not the same thing as knowing how it works as a person working in it. You need to see physicians actually working with patients, writing notes, coordinating with other healthcare providers, etc. I would say 50 hrs of shadowing (including primary care) and 50 hrs of something like hospital/ER volunteering, hospice volunteering, etc would be adequate. Better yet, if you're applying next year, get a job as a CNA, MA, scribe, etc.

It would also be a big help to your app to have some US volunteer work, clinical or not. You need to show an interest in helping people in your own backyard, and have exposure to underserved communities here to help you better care for them as a physician.

I do have 50 hours internal medicine and 50 hours heme/onc shadowing at a hospital but I don't have the hospital or nonclin volunteering in the U.S.; all of that is abroad. If I started asap, how could I bring this up in my application since I've already submitted my primary?

 

[yourmcatbuddy]

If you start ASAP, you may even be able to include current clinical in secondaries or in later updates to schools that accept them. The key point is to start.

Plus, if you are not accepted this year, you will be positioning yourself for a successful reapplication effort by addressing a weakness in your qualifications proactively.

When you say I could include it in secondaries, do you mean I would write a description about my experience in an essay or would there by a way to explicitly talk about the hours I'm getting similar to the primary app? Basically trying to figure out how much of the hole in the app I can fill

 

[LizzyM]

Unless you find a clinical job ASAP and you have the necessary credential to be hired, it is most likely that your hours will come from volunteering in a hospital for the clinical experience and in a volunteer setting working with people different from yourself... food pantries, soup kitchens, homeless shelters, services for kids from under-performing schools (tutoring, after-school drop in centers, athletics, mentoring -- things that keep high-risk kids off the streets).

Secondaries may include a prompt that will lend itself to writing about what you've done since you submitted the primary. Some schools will signal to you that they will accept up-dates to your application and you could send one of those (just an email message to the admissions office) in mid-September to inform the school of your summer activities and signal your continued interest in that school.

If you are asked at interview if you have any updates to your file or if you've started anything new since you submitted the primary, you can mention these new activities.

 

[cj_cregg]

I do have 50 hours internal medicine and 50 hours heme/onc shadowing at a hospital but I don't have the hospital or nonclin volunteering in the U.S.; all of that is abroad. If I started asap, how could I bring this up in my application since I've already submitted my primary?

If that IM/heme-onc shadowing is in the US, you MIGHT be okay this cycle. You would need to submit an update once you have accumulated a significant number of hours or write about it in your secondaries.

To be totally honest with you, personally, if I were reviewing your app, no US clinical experience or volunteering would be a dealbreaker for me even with your scores (caveat: the school I review for is more mission-oriented and less concerned with metrics). I would start volunteering locally as soon as you possibly can, something clinical if possible, and in the meantime work towards finding an opportunity for MA, CNA, etc. training/work to continue throughout the year so that you are ready for another cycle.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

I’m a nontrad who’s been out of college for 3 years. I have 300 hours of clinical volunteering and 300 hours of nonclinical volunteering. But both of these were overseas. I’m worried if this will be okay for my app as I’ve already submitted my primary. I’ve heard you should have US experiences but in my case it’s foreign. I do have ~2k research hours in the US and also ~4K hours as a life science consultant who learned extensively about the US healthcare system and had to hold lots of discussions with doctors in our research to support biotech and pharm clients in research.

My gpa is 3.7 and mcat is 520.

Will I be okay on the EC side?

So I ask this question: were these activities part of the Peace Corps or a similar nationally reputable NGO?

Yes you still need some clinical experience in the United States, but I am wondering. 300 hours each is not that much given the number of gap years you claim.

The consultancy work could help you get some insight on the health care system, but I don't know what questions you were working on. It might help if you are going to a policy direction. The biotechnology or pharmaceutical work could help you in medical affairs.