Opportunities for shadowing and hospital experience in UMASS Amherst

College Search & Selection
1

Admitted to UMass Amherst Honors College - Biology - 16K scholarship - Out of State
Admitted to Rutgers Premed - Biology - No scholarship - In State
Admitted to Rutgers Pharm D - No scholarship - In State

Anyone having any info about shadowing and hospital work opportunity for a premed student. Having visited the campus and speaking to students there, I still did not get a good answer to this question. It seems that there are no such opportunity within the campus or in the Amherst city. Any info on this will help me narrow down my college lists.

2

Amherst is a small town. You would likely need to go to Springfield or Worcester for more opportunities.

3

I would guess that most UMass students do their shadowing and get hospital experience over the summer near their hometowns.

4

Why not get your EMT license?

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5

EMT licensing is state specific and often non-transferrable. EMT-B training --which takes about a semester (or 4-6 weeks in an intensive 5 days/week summer class)–should be done in the state where the student intends to work.

6

Is it very typical for premeds to get EMT certified in the summer before freshman year?

7

It was popular at one time, but not any longer.

EMT-Bs have fallen out of favor w/ med school admission because of its very limited scope of practice. Often the only job an EMT-B can find is as ambulance driver (aka" bus driver") which offers very few opportunities for patient interactions–which is what clinical exposure is all about.

Jobs that offer better opportunities for patient interaction are PCT, MA,CNA, phlebotomist, psychiatric tech, physical therapy aide, etc. Training for these positions take about the same length of time as an EMT-B.

AEMT (Advanced EMT), ER tech, Surgical tech and similar jobs require a EMT-B + additional training.

The current “in vogue” job for pre meds is medical scribing. Depending on who is doing the hiring, no specific training may be required, though a knowledge of medical terminology and electronic healthcare record (EHR) software is helpful.

8

I do know one young man who got his EMT and is now in med school. *I got my license in 1980!) Anything that includes interaction with patients and the medical system could be helpful and @WayOutWestMom has some great suggestions. Of course, as previous post says, any state license needs to be for the state where you would practice.