Would this be considered clinical experience experience...?

[Lyssh]

Hello everyone, I hope this is the right forum. I'm trying to plan out my path for med school (already have a B.S. in Psych with volunteer/intern/research experience) and figure out how I am going to work in finishing pre reqs and clinical experience. I was able to volunteer for the International Rescue Committee in undergrad for around 3-4 months. I was in the Wellness Clinic working with refugees who were victims of torture, many suffering from mental and physical disabilities as a result. Duties included helping them apply for medical benefits and accompanying them to doctor appointments as a 'patient advocate' of sorts. Part of this was also an internship where I had to write up a case study each week.

I still plan on doing shadowing and some volunteering at an urgent care/emergency room, but I just wanted to know what this would be categorized under, since it wasn't technically in a hospital setting 100% of the time.

Thank you for any guidance!! 🙂

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[popopopop]

I did pretty much the same thing for a few years. I listed it under both clinical and non-clinical volunteering per TMDSAS, because they encourage you to do "double-dip" sort to speak. For AMCAS, not sure if they allow that. My logic was the same as yours. I helped a lot of people through clinic visits so I considered them patients. Just make sure this isn't the only clinical experience you have though.

 

[Lyssh]

I did pretty much the same thing for a few years. I listed it under both clinical and non-clinical volunteering per TMDSAS, because they encourage you to do "double-dip" sort to speak. For AMCAS, not sure if they allow that. My logic was the same as yours. I helped a lot of people through clinic visits so I considered them patients. Just make sure this isn't the only clinical experience you have though.

Ah, okay, that makes a lot of sense! I definitely want to get some shadowing from various doctors so I can get different perspectives on the profession, no question there. Thanks for your help! 🙂

 

[DPTinthemaking15]

Sorry to bring this thread back up, but I have a question regarding clinical experience. I'm a former Physical Therapy student and I have around 2,000 hours as a PT aide. Around 1,000 of those hours were in a hospital. So I'm not sure if that will count as clinical experience, or if it is considered something totally different. We mainly went into the rooms and helped the patients post-op. Some of the things we accomplished were teaching them how to use a walker, how to exercise, or helping the nurses with patients. I've got around 50 shadowing hours but I know clinical experience is crucial as well.

 

[popopopop]

Sorry to bring this thread back up, but I have a question regarding clinical experience. I'm a former Physical Therapy student and I have around 2,000 hours as a PT aide. Around 1,000 of those hours were in a hospital. So I'm not sure if that will count as clinical experience, or if it is considered something totally different. We mainly went into the rooms and helped the patients post-op. Some of the things we accomplished were teaching them how to use a walker, how to exercise, or helping the nurses with patients. I've got around 50 shadowing hours but I know clinical experience is crucial as well.

I was a PT aide too lol. It counts as clinical, yes.

 

[DPTinthemaking15]

I was a PT aide too lol. It counts as clinical, yes.

Awesome!!! This is going to sound insanely stupid, but will both AMCAS and AACOMAS accept those hours as clinical experience?

 

[popopopop]

Awesome!!! This is going to sound insanely stupid, but will both AMCAS and AACOMAS accept those hours as clinical experience?

Of course! You're in a position to actively treat a patient so it's definitely clinical.

 

[DPTinthemaking15]

Of course! You're in a position to actively treat a patient so it's definitely clinical.

Cool! I thought it had to be under the supervision of a Physician. Thank you so much! I'm less stressed now lol

 

[AnotherLawyer]

Cool! I thought it had to be under the supervision of a Physician. Thank you so much! I'm less stressed now lol

The typical volunteer "clinical" experience consists of rolling patients around in wheelchairs from point A to point B, restocking drawers, and greeting people at the ED welcome desk. There is no interaction with a physician 99.9% of the time. This is not to be confused with shadowing, which is with a physician and which you definitely should do. The purpose of the former is to convince medical schools you are okay being around patients. The purpose of the latter is to demonstrate you have some clue regarding what doctors do.

 

[DPTinthemaking15]

The typical volunteer "clinical" experience consists of rolling patients around in wheelchairs from point A to point B, restocking drawers, and greeting people at the ED welcome desk. There is no interaction with a physician 99.9% of the time. This is not to be confused with shadowing, which is with a physician and which you definitely should do. The purpose of the former is to convince medical schools you are okay being around patients. The purpose of the latter is to demonstrate you have some clue regarding what doctors do.

That makes sense! Luckily, I've been shadowing a Physician for a few weeks. I've got another question if you don't mind answering. I'm shadowing a DO Vascular Surgeon. So I know that will fulfill my DO LOR (90% of my apps will go to DO schools), but do I need to shadow Primary Care or other type of Physicians? My Pre-med advisor said I should be fine without it, but I have a hard time believing that.

 

[Kokonaut]

This is a relieving thread to read. I had wondered somewhat about what exactly clinical means as it can take on various contexts. For instance, I have a background not terribly dissimilar from the OP. In my context it would be counseling and direct patient contact. Interestingly for clinical social work it has a fairly limited scope in terms of what is and is not considered clinical: assessment, diagnosis, counseling, and/or therapy. In the event that you've been licensed you already have several thousand hours of direct clinical experience using that definition.