Hospital/clinical experience

[avatar007]

People are always mentioning clinical/hospital experience. I know that it is more important in the US... but is it critical? SOmeone told me that research can be substituted for it... but i don't know if thats what others have heard.

[rmitch8]

I think you may a tough time applying in the US with NO clinical experience. Most Americans do physician shadowing, which is not allowed in Canada. So you'll find that many, many US applicants have some kind of hospital/clinical experience. While it may not be an explicit requirement of any school, if you want to be on an the same page with most other applicants you should get some experience in.

 

I don't know if (basic science) research necessarily substitutes for clinical experience, but I doubt it. Having clinical experience is important because admissions want you to understand what you are getting yourself into by starting a career in medicine.

 

As a Canadian you can get clinical/hospital experience from volunteering at your local hospital (not shadowing, but more basic volunteer work), volunteering/shadowing overseas or by doing clinical research. So that could be one case where research may substitute, since clinical research generally has a lot of patient interaction - it all depends how you spin it in your AMCAS and secondary applications.

[ukie]

Hi my question is on the opposite end of the spectrum. I feel very confident of my clinical experience. WIth over 2300 hrs of experience in primary care (I work in a hospital with constant patient interaction) in the last 2.5 years while being a full time student. In your experience how big is this a factor for getting admissions to any US schools? Given my GPA is bad, roaming around 3.0 during my bachelors degree (got a couple of ugly marks that left a huge dent)... But I am currently doing extra undergrad courses.

 

IS clincal experience a factor of intent or is it more important than that? would my bad GPA look less bad given my clinical experience concurrent with school? Additionally, the fact I i am averaging 3.7+ now? DO you think that 2 years of undergrad post graduation is enough? or I will need more school on top of that (like a master)? SOrry for the many questions...

 

ps: I am a recent immigrant too...

[ukie]

wow.. sorry i just realized that I derailed from my originally intended question of how much weight has clinical experience and made it into a what are my chances question... Sorry for that.

[rmitch8]

I really don't know how much weight clinical experience carries versus GPA. My sense is that it is just something that almost everybody has. I'm sure if you have some really tremendous clinical experiences and stories to write about, it will absolutely help your application. But it's a holistic application process - and they look at and consider everything in your app. I believe that GPA and MCAT are generally considered first, then they'll start to look at experiences, read your application essays, etc.

 

As for GPA, a nice upward trend in GPA definitely helps, but the US schools don't drop any marks whatsoever (like they do in Ontario schools). So if the 2 years of grad work help to raise the GPA higher - that is great and it will help you. But they will never drop your first few years of bad marks when considering your overall GPA.

[Renaud]

Most Americans do physician shadowing, which is not allowed in Canada.

 

As a Canadian you can get clinical/hospital experience from volunteering at your local hospital (not shadowing, but more basic volunteer work), volunteering/shadowing overseas or by doing clinical research.

 

Really? It's impossible to shadow a doctor in Canada!? Why ?

 

Thanks.

[future_doc]

Well, a member of this forum was one of the founders of a premed club @ McGill that was created so that the premeds can shadow doctors, and they do!

[rmitch8]

Wow. I didn't know that. Whenever I tried to arrange shadowing in Ontario during my undergrad years, it was always denied. I thought there was a legal reason, since I've never heard of anyone successfully being able to line this up. I guess I was going about it in the wrong way.. oh well, helpful stuff. Sorry about the misinfo above

[sky_blue2000]

I was wondering what is the average number of hospital volunteering hours? I only have about 75-80 hours from nov 08-Jan 09 and then feb 10- present. However I also shadow a physician 4hrs a week from dec 09-present, and do research in a pediatricians office for about 12-15 hrs a week also from dec 09- present.

 

All together, would this amount of clinical experience be ok?

[sky_blue2000]

Wow. I didn't know that. Whenever I tried to arrange shadowing in Ontario during my undergrad years, it was always denied. I thought there was a legal reason, since I've never heard of anyone successfully being able to line this up. I guess I was going about it in the wrong way.. oh well, helpful stuff. Sorry about the misinfo above

 

I only got the opportunity to shadow the physician I currently do is because a friend of mine shadowed him before and introduced me. Otherwise every other physician I asked (including my own family doctor rejected me).

[hippie]

I don't think they care about the nr of hours you do. You should try to make it a meaningful experience and make sure you have something to talk about during ur interview

Clinical experience won't compensate for a low gpa. Now having said that. 3.72 is NOT a low GPA

[sunshinesky101]

Yeah, I have had similar experience as well. I also tried to arrange for shadowing and asked several doctors in my area, including my family doctor and was rejected. However, I am not sure about the exact reasons as to why shadowing does not seem to be as common in Canada as it probably is in the States.

 

Having said that, I volunteered in a hospital instead for 1.5 years and did approximately 150 hours. I liked the atmosphere and the patient interactions (even though I felt that they didn't let us do much), I did not like the people that work there. Last semester, I took the time off from volunteering due to an extremely heavy course load and now I am having second thoughts of whether to go back for the summer or not. Do anyone have any idea about whether the length of time or the number of hours really make a difference? Do you think that the amount of time I have done is sufficient or should I go back and get some more hours done? (I am a little concerned since many other candidates seem to have HUGE number of hours in comparison).

[Hackintosh]

Yeah, I have had similar experience as well. I also tried to arrange for shadowing and asked several doctors in my area, including my family doctor and was rejected. However, I am not sure about the exact reasons as to why shadowing does not seem to be as common in Canada as it probably is in the States.

 

Having said that, I volunteered in a hospital instead for 1.5 years and did approximately 150 hours. I liked the atmosphere and the patient interactions (even though I felt that they didn't let us do much), I did not like the people that work there. Last semester, I took the time off from volunteering due to an extremely heavy course load and now I am having second thoughts of whether to go back for the summer or not. Do anyone have any idea about whether the length of time or the number of hours really make a difference? Do you think that the amount of time I have done is sufficient or should I go back and get some more hours done? (I am a little concerned since many other candidates seem to have HUGE number of hours in comparison).

 

I would say you have enough but its not that simple. You will have to show the committees why your volunteer work was a meaningful experience and in that sense the number of hours don't make a difference. If you feel like you enjoyed the work but didn't like the people, you can always volunteer at a different hospital.