<p>I am a junior wondering if I should apply to one of the programs. I have done research all four summers of high school at at great university but I have never worked with patients. Is it really necessary and I will I most likely be cut for that reason? Any thoughts would be great.</p>
<p>If you haven't done any hospital volunteering or shadowing, then yeh, u prlly will be cut. Research will not replace your lack of clinical experience.</p>
<p>hmm, i volunteered in a hospital, which didn't involve a great deal of patient contact. i also did research for one summer. i really don't think that working with patients is a HUGE deal in determining whether you will get into one of the programs. after all, they don't expect high school students to have very much clinical experience.</p>
<p>While I think hospital volunteering is important, it is by no means the most important thing in the application process. I was never able to do any research, and I only volunteered at a hospital for one summer - the summer before I applied and was accepted into Northwestern's HPME. Thus, exposure to the hospital environment is only needed as a means to gauge whether the applicant knows what he/she is getting into. Therefore, it's not the length of the hospital volunteering that counts, but the quality of it, in other words, how you benefited from it.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>Talking about your clinical experience is a very common topic during interviews and a means of determining your interest in the field of medicine. At the very least, u shud still have some experience volunteering at a hospital.</p>
<p>Does anyone know someone who was accepted to a program without patient contact? Is it really possible? I do see the point that it would be part of the discussion during the interview and I don't know how I would get around this.</p>
<p>U dont need "direct patient contact," but some volunteering in a clinical setting would help. Almost everybody I know that was accepted to a med program did hospital volunteering. Some alternatives to hospital volunteering would be working as an EMT volunteer, shadowing a physician, or working in a nursing home.</p>