<p>Aside from shadowing doctors, how can I get clinical experience without having any type of certification?</p>
<p>EDIT: Sorry, I should have clarified. I added the "without having certification" part because I already volunteer at a hospital but am limited to the type of work I can do. I want real clinical experience where I can actually do something clinical in nature. I actually want to work one-on-one with patients. How can I get this kind of experience without being medically certified?</p>
<p>Sorry, I would edit my original post, but it wouldn’t let me edit before 20 minutes have passed. And I don’t have time for that, I need to get to bed!!</p>
<p>Anyway! Would volunteering at flu clinics be considered clinical? I ask this because mmmcdowe mentioned volunteering at blood drives as being clinical. However, unless the volunteer is certified to draw blood, all he/she will end up doing is passing out forms, answering questions, and filing paperwork. Same kind of deal with someone who isn’t certified to give shots at flu clinics. I have a hard time believing this is considered “clinical.” Or maybe my definition of “clinical” is warped?</p>
<p>The point of volunteering and getting “clinical” experience is to get comfortable with the hospital environment, to get used to talking with patients (not to elicit their symptoms and make diagnoses, but to talk about perception and experience of illness), and to interact with physicians and other healthcare workers. Stop trying to do something clinical on a patient. You are not qualified to do anything and shouldn’t do anything.</p>
<p>My friend is a nursing assistant at a hospital. He gets to see all kinds of procedures firsthand, he works with patients one on one, and he gets paid well. The job doesn’t require any type of certification past BCLS. It’s definitely worth it and is better than just volunteering. It also gets you in the POV of a doctor, networking, and just getting a feel for the kind of cooperation required in an operating room.
Check some of your local hospitals for job openings of this type!</p>
<p>^Generally, NA jobs require a CNA. If the OP wants to get clinical experience as opposed to simple exposure, a cert is typically necessary (most commonly, an EMT-B or CNA will do nicely). Exactly what entails “clinical experience” varies by school. Some simply want a few volunteer hours in a hospital, while others (generally the more clinical and/or higher ranked institutions) have much more stringent requirements such as “in addition to having shadowed physicians sufficiently to develop their interest in medicine, applicants are expected to have at least 500 hours of clinical experience, which entails having been directly responsible for the care and outcomes of patients in a medical setting.” To fulfill that school’s req’t without a cert would be quite difficult (although it is possible; I did it, although I will be pursuing a cert anyway for more work), hence IIRC something like 80-90% of their matriculants hold an EMT-B.</p>
<p>This is what I thought. So basically, I need to get certification to be qualified for a larger pool of med schools. Thanks, this was very helpful!</p>
<p>The only schools that I have heard of that stringently require a specific (and large) number of clinical hours are PA schools and maybe a few BS/MD programs. Which school are you talking about apumic?</p>
<p>helloangel- NA certification has never been or ever will be a req to get into medical scool. No medical school will be closed to you if you don’t have one, and getting large amounts of clinical experience via volunteering is relatively easy anyways. At my school, maybe 5-10 people in my class were EMTs.</p>
<p>Those are UC-Denver’s stated requirements (paraphrased from a lecture given by their dean of admissions).</p>
<p>I would agree w/ mmmcdowe that the EMT-B is not necessary; however, it’s an interesting job and if you have time before applying to med school (and can afford to take the course), I’d highly recommend it. I think it’s helpful to have worked at the bottom of a field before you train for the top position in that field. EMT-B (and to a lesser degree, CNA) can offer you certain advantages when it comes to getting paid clinical experience. Considering the course is relatively short (i.e., ~150 hrs didactic + 20-30 hrs clinical internship), I think it’s a good investment (assuming you have the time and desire to get some clinical work in). In some states, you can even get some additional privileges/perform more skills w/ it by fulfilling further requirements and/or simply by state law or county protocol (e.g., insertion of combitubes, EKG interpretation, IV approval, administer aspirin, assess for and administer unprescribed but indicated epinephrine, etc.).</p>
<p>thanks, both of you! i have actually strongly been considering the EMT-B for a few months now, so it is very much a possibility. also, i have been doing some research on opportunities near me aside from volunteering at L&D, and i have actually found a free clinic on tuesday evenings and a job shadowing opportunity on the weekends, both 30 minutes away however (i live in a semi-rural area, so there actually aren’t that many hospitals and clinics nearby to choose from.) so i think these would be perfect. but i am still strongly considering the EMT-B, because it sounds like a great experience!</p>
<p>I don’t think you need any official certification to get real experience. My DD shadowed surgery and that was very close to the patient, she even got to dislocate a patients joint pre-procedure (with his permission.)</p>
<p>Another example of non-certified involvement was doing a sports med internship with a ranked football team, lots of procedures from taping to stretching to removing stitches.</p>
<p>Working blood drives and bone marrow drives is a bit more volunteer than clinical, but still in the right spirit.</p>
<p>Your school may offer other interships or medically related volunteer opportunities, peer education, etc. Check there. Medical interaction is the key.</p>
<p>When she volunteered in 2 depts of a hospital: one involved front desk and escorting people to the right dept, no knowledge of their chart or procedure at all, but she was an easy to talk to person when they were stressed and she was interested in their situation, she learned a lot about their questions and concerns; second was in the rehab/PT area and aided people in proper PT technique (her sports med exposure was very helpful here) by the end of the summer was allowed to make suggestions for modifications etc and it was very hands on.</p>
<p>Another option is if you can get research in a lab that deals with live people in their research, then you are touching patients and helping and getting research credit, too.</p>
<p>I don’t know about 500 hours, that seems like a lot, but certainly a well chosen internship several terms plus summer should result in 100-200</p>
<p>While I don’t doubt that the dean of admissions said that 500+ hours is desirable (maybe for OOS applicants?), I personally have never seen any official comment from the school that they have a specific number of hours required.</p>
<p>so what kind of work do most people do in “hospital volunteering”? is a position where you get to interact or talk to patients (like spending time with children at a pediatrics dept) considered worthwhile? (at least in comparison to transporting patients or filing papers)?</p>
<p>Otherwise, get a paid position and you’ll do FAR more. I just had this conversation with my supervisor at work to see about getting some volunteer positions opened on my unit for prehealth students. Pretty much, she said volunteers on our unit can’t have any pt contact.</p>
<p>I volunteered at one hospital with a pre-med volunteer program that assigned students to a nursing unit with a specific shift every week. My job was pretty much to answer the call bells and help out the nurses/CNAs/secretaries with what they needed. I got patients water, linens, etc. I also discharged patients (transported them to the main lobby). When there was not much going on I simply walked into rooms and talked with some of the patients that didn’t have visitors. I didn’t get to view many procedures or do anything substantial, but I had a decent amount of patient contact. The position did not require much training beyond the mandatory orientation program.</p>
<p>If you’re looking for more than that type of experience, though, then you’ll probably have to get a paid position and some sort of certification. Volunteers are limited by liability issues.</p>