<p>I work at a doctor's office, does this count as an ec/clinical experience?</p>
<p>It depends on exactly what you do. Filing medical records doesn’t exactly equate to that. Shadowing a doctor/assistant, however, does.</p>
<p>It’s certainly an EC/work experience to put down on AMCAS - as to whether it will be considered clinical experience or not depends on what you actually do.</p>
<p>Thanks! I was asking because I do actually work in med recs. If I had frequent interaction with patients would that count as clinical?</p>
<p>The definition of clinical experience:</p>
<p>If you can smell patients, its clinical experience.</p>
<p>My guess is that if you talk to them it is clinical experience, but are you talking to them while they are actually being patients, or after they have been discharged from the doctor? If it is the latter, it is not really clinical experience since they are more of customers at this point than patients. My advice to you is to go supplement this with some bed scrubbing and bedpan changing.</p>
<p>As of now I have zero interaction with patients at work. But a coworker of mine previously had my job but decided to take the job up at the front desk in which the majority of her time is patient interaction (while they are patients). It’s a route that I may consider if the opportunity comes. Thanks again for the responses!</p>
<p>quick question:
Is this preferred by med schools to being an EMT?</p>
<p>Yes and no. Remember, an EMT is an entirely different job than being a physician, so you might be asked about your EMT-> physician transition if you have been doing it a while. It is pretty common for undergrad pre-meds to be EMT, so I don’t think you’ll get any flack about it. If you are an EMT, I would supplement it with at least some shadowing of doctors. Some hospital volunteering would be nice though, because it gives you a second angle to discuss medicine from. Interviews are very important, having good stories with good messages can make a huge difference. Also, remember EMT is a job, volunteering is volunteering. So, don’t forget to do some sort of service, be it clinical or not.</p>
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Well than can’t you also say the same thing, like “Bed scrubbing and bedpan changing is an entirely different job than being a physician.”? I hopefully plan on shadowing doctors as well - but, from what some of my friends have told me about their hospital volunteering experiences, I take it to be boring and not really helpful in providing insight into whether or not you might want to pursue a field in medicine.
and
i dont quite understand this 
- sorry</p>
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<p>The main idea is that prehospital care is significantly different than in-hospital care, and as an EMT you aren’t even really around physicians. Its a great way to get clinical experience and become comfortable interviewing patients and doing physical exams, etc. But schools want to see that you’ve observed physicians and understand the job. My main clinical experience was lots of EMT work, and my interviewer specifically asked me “how do you know that you’re going to like clinical care when you get to your rotations and are in the hospital instead of out in the field?”</p>
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<p>Its important for you to have volunteering on your CV. Doesn’t matter if it’s not even remotely related to medicine - schools want to see that you have an altruistic side.</p>
<p>Ah, I see. Good post Icarus, thanks.</p>
<p>Thanks for filling in the cracks Icarus ;)</p>