<p>What are the differences between doing the Care Extender Program and volunteering at the UCLA Medical Center? Which one should I apply to?</p>
<p>Both are pretty bad… If i had to choose, i’d probably avoid care extenders since the care extender scheduling is pretty bad.</p>
<p>Regardless, you will need some sort of clinical activity/shadowing (if your goal is medical school, that is). </p>
<p>I’ve heard good things about Venice Family Clinic. One of the positions entails taking patient histories and performing glucose/cholesterol lancet screenings. There’s a 3 month waitlist for positions though.</p>
<p>If you can get out to Cedars-Sinai, I’ve heard that you’ll be able to see more interesting stuff shadowing/volunteering etc.</p>
<p>care extenders requires you to do extensive clerical work, so volunteering would be great, but if you feel a bit uncertain, use care extenders as a stepping stone for another program</p>
<p>Thanks for the tips. I’ll definitely check out Venice Family Clinic and CS.</p>
<p>If I already have experience volunteering at another hospital, should I skip these two and find something else? Where else can I go for clinical experience?</p>
<p>Also is it hard to get an EMT position at UCLA for someone who’s newly licensed?</p>
<p>if your gpa is strong 3.7 or above apply to stroke team in the fall or whenever they are recruiting, you get to work at the ER and get to be on cases and hear about them. it’s really competitive so there are like 20 or less on stroke team and they really get to know dr. starkman-so opp for great letter of rec</p>
<p>are you in the program? i’ve heard dr. starkman can be pretty abrasive. </p>
<p>UCLA EMRA is also a good program to get ER experience.</p>
<p>emra is great ive heard. no i am not, but i know two people who have been since freshman year and they are 3rd years.</p>
<p>starkman is really ill and has not been around recently. stroke and emra are both good programs. i’m in emra</p>
<p>can someone tell me what exactly stroke team and emra do?</p>
<p>I don’t really know much about care extenders, but with volunteering you can work different departments, different floors, and you basically get right in on everything.</p>
<p>Avoid care extenders like the plague. It will just anger you, the amount of bureaucracy there is. If you want to “help people”, to use the catch phrase everyone uses to justify their medical inclinations, then actually find a program that helps people. Care Extenders is not about helping people; it’s about building connections with the nurses and doctors, with a facade that you’re actually doing something for the hospital (not that there is anything WRONG with that, but at least they shouldn’t call it a volunteer program when it isn’t)</p>
<p>sry about that rant, i had a really terrible experience there as you can tell, lol</p>
<p>For anyone who is interested in the Stroke Team:</p>
<p>First of all – There are major differences between the Stroke Team and ANY other program at UCLA.
The most important difference is that the stroke team integrates a selective group of students in the emergency room to enroll patients in research studies. As a part of this organization, undergraduates get to directly interview stroke patients in the ER; they notify Dr. Starkman of imminent strokes much like an ER physician would do. Thus, they play an important role as the “eyes and ears” of the Stroke Team. </p>
<p>Student Stroke Team members are trained to recognize stroke symptom signs – in fact, some nurses opt to call in the Stroke Student to check on patients for them. These responsibilities require excellent communication skills, patience, maturity, and academic excellence. In addition, the SST members do rounds with neurologists, learn how to read MRIs, provide volunteer services, and watch interventional procedures by neurosurgeons. These rounds are not merely for “shadowing”; they provide an intense educational experience.</p>
<p>Further, the SST students are well acquainted with ER nurses, neurologists, and surgeons. This is because the SST students are integrated into the actual stroke team, which consists of fellows, residents, and interns. They have access to the entire ER building for various purposes – sometimes, they even need to gather blood from patients so as to complete a research study.</p>
<p>I don’t know much about care extenders, but I do have some friends in it. It seems to me that care extenders is an over-regulated bureaucracy. Your “DCs” check up on you all the time, and if you are doing homework, you are considered a bad volunteer. I am hesistant in agreeing with that philosophy since your first two rotations consist of receptionist and door-greeting duties. Why not use your free time to do homework?</p>
<p>In addition, Care-Extenders limits what your allowed to do. You don’t have any business with patients unless you are cleaning their beds or giving them food. Although this is a noble act of kindness, it doesn’t really tell you much about the field of medicine. You could, however, ask the physicians for advice. Many care extenders find this part of the program the most valuable.</p>
<p>I am not bashing on Care-Extenders. It is an excellent clinical opportunity. I am just giving you the ups and downs. In addition, care-extenders might be considered more beneficial than the stroke program since they allow you to do rotations in many clinical departments. In the stroke team, you are specializing in the field of neurology whereas in Care-Extenders you can see many departments-- ranging from Labor and delivery, ICU, ER, etc. But there is a long-winded process just to see “the action.”</p>
<p>Back to EMRA: I know enough about EMRA to make a cogent statement, but I am not in the program so take this with a grain of salt. EMRA mainly differs from SST in that EMRA conducts multiple research studies in the ER. Their main duties consists of running “prescription studies”, MRI studies, and the like. They get to see a lot of trauma patients. Their program is awesome if you are interested in (1)trauma, and (2) small research studies in the ER. EMRA is limited as well because they are not integrated into a “special group” of physicians like the Stroke Students. </p>
<p>Hands down – EMRA and Stroke are best programs for ER exposure. Nothing will beat them.</p>
<p>^ NO ONE CARES…lol</p>
<p>Quick question: where do UCLA psychology BA students do their research at? In UCLA Med centers, in medical centers/hospitals? thanks!</p>
<p>the reason why I am asking the question above is because we have a family friend who works at Berkeley as an accountant and he told me that pre-meds do similar volunteer works, internships, and research as students going for a BA in Psych in Berkeley/UCLA.</p>
<p>@happyboy: Thank you for the thorough introduction. One question, besides GPA, do you need special training before qualifying to volunteer in SST, EMRA or C-E? How much time is required to be there?</p>
<p>^Yes, you must undergo 500 hours of heart surgery intenstive training. as well as neurosurgery…ppl in stroke and emra are only the smartest people…100% of them go to harvard med then go to derm and make $75 million a year…</p>
<p>HSP,
You will get trained if you are accepted. If you are interested, google us: student stroke team.</p>
<p>I will be more than happy to answer any questions you might have through this forum. We are holding recruitments in Spring. Keep your eyes pealed.</p>
<p>Are the gpa requirements for stroke team and emra really strict? My gpa is around 3.55, so would that be too low to even consider applying?</p>