Worth it to become EMT?

[Djax99]

Essentially, is becoming an EMT worth it in terms of admissions? For clinical experience, my options are essentially to become an EMT or do clinical volunteering in a hospital? I could possibly also scribe? Would becoming an EMT look more impressive than regular volunteering at a hospital?

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[JimKimSlim]

if you can smell a patient, it’s clinical. If I were you, I would do volunteering and be employed in a field that I’m actually interested in (pharmaceutical, consultant, marketing).

 

[deleted1085718]

EMT is significantly more impressive than hospital volunteering. tbh i doubt anyone cares about hospital volunteering. most people just do nothing as hospital volunteers

 

[deleted1025488]

As someone whose done both, I don't see any reason to hate on hospital volunteering. I don't know if this implies walking around the hospital sanitizing the inpatient units or something, but my experience as a "hospital volunteer" in the emergency department was exponentially more influential towards outlining why I want to be a doctor. I actually got to talk to patients for extended periods of time...I dunno. I guess it depends on what you learn and how you can articulate the experience. If you restock stuff 24/7 as a hospital volunteer I'm sure that probably wouldn't be worth your time.

 

[Putkernerinthehall]

Hospital volunteering can be exceptionally rewarding depending on the situation, environment, and specific tasks one gets to perform. It varies.

 

[EdgeTrimmer]

most people just do nothing as hospital volunteers

Totally wrong, there are several interesting hospital volunteering opportunities. It all comes down what you do and you can talk about the experience in the essays and interviews. Lot of premeds are going for EMT and scribing so nothing special about them either. Also if you have a strong application, you need 100+ clinical hours only.

 

[TelemarketingEnigma]

I think the value will vary based your actual institution/role, and the reaction from adcom will vary by school/person. I know that for me, EMT was absolutely worth it (I worked primarily for my college's volunteer EMS service) and gave me a leg up for the first part of M1. I talked about it frequently in interviews and the admissions dean at my school told us all at orientation that he was excited by the people with EMT experience in the class. My hospital volunteering gig, meanwhile, was incredibly boring and I never talked about it in interviews or beyond. That won't be the same for everyone though. there's some people on SDN who hate on EMTs as a useless premed experience but frankly I don't think most of them have first hand EMS experience, and I've never actually encountered that in any clinical environment so far. There are definitely better EMT gigs than others (as mentioned, transport is usually not so exciting), and scope of practice varies by location, so I would look around your local area to see what your opportunities might be before committing to the training course.

 

[anniekat2025]

I love being an EMT and would highly recommend it. Compared to other options, EMT's get to be involved in treating the patient. Obviously, you have a pretty narrow scope of practice when compared to a paramedic or a provider, but you do get to touch the patient, talk with them, and work as part of a team to make decisions regarding their care. In many cases, you are the first medic that the patient will see on the worst day of their life. That's pretty powerful. I found the work to be incredibly rewarding because it is team-oriented and (at times) fast paced. It was my time as an EMT that pushed me to pursue medicine as a career and I discussed it often in my applications.

Depending on your state, the license can open doors to work in many capacities besides your standard pre-hospital EMS. EMT's work in ED's and in some places can work in more of a primary care setting do "medical assistant" stuff.

 

[RapidEyeMovementLearning]

Essentially, is becoming an EMT worth it in terms of admissions? For clinical experience, my options are essentially to become an EMT or do clinical volunteering in a hospital? I could possibly also scribe? Would becoming an EMT look more impressive than regular volunteering at a hospital?

EMT is better than scribing but takes time to get certified, i think CNA or basic tech jobs are better for pre-meds. More humble and easier to get into.

Anyways, all of these jobs are basically in the same low tier and not viewed as "impressive" when it comes to clinical experience. It will all depend on your ability to talk about the experience and how it affected your desire to pursue medical school. BSN/LPN Nursing is the only job that would stand out.