I am finishing up my freshman year at a small university in KY and I know how important summers are for Pre-Med students. Currently, I have NO clinical/research experience except for a hospital internship the summer after my junior year of high school. I’ve been searching for opportunities around my area, but I’m not finding anything. Please help!
Clinical experiences do not need to be done at a hospital. Contact your local nursing homes or family health clinics to see if you can volunteer there.
If you have a family physician, you can try asking him or her if you can shadow them. Contact other local physicians to ask about shadowing them. You need to proactive about this–opportunities don’t just present themselves.
And it’s probably too late to apply for this summer, but for next year, consider applying to REUs (Research Experiences for Undergraduates). These are summer programs funded by the National Science Foundation in a variety of scientific disciplines. Programs provide housing and stipends to participants.
http://www.nsf.gov/crssprgm/reu/
For this summer, the best place to seek research opportunities will be at your home institution. Start by talking with your professors to find out who are conducting a research projects and if you can get involved.
Volunteering/shadowing isn’t a full time endeavor so I am going to make a suggestion that will probably surprise you. That you look for a summer job–something that involved lots of people contact. (Sales, food service, life guard/swim instructor, camp counselor, etc) Why? Because many of the people skills involved in these professions carry-over to the customer service aspects of being a physician–teamwork, dealing with difficult people, working within a hierarchical structure (bosses/peers/people you supervise), learning how to interact/talk with a wide variety of different people. Also working a service job may give some insight/empathy into the experiences of future patients.
(And, yes, both of my children–both now in med school–worked service jobs during the summer. One was life guard/swim instructor for the city’s pool then later worked as waitstaff at variety of restaurants. The other worked as gas station/mini-mart cashier.)