Clinical Experience for Med School

[avaa4]

Hello, I am currently working as a medical assistant in an urgent care, but patient volumes are low and they have cut all employees hours, including mine. As a medical assistant at the specific urgent care that I work at, I can triage patients, obtain their vitals signs, determine their chief complaint and medical history, give medications or injections, take X-rays, and draw blood. They provided me with on-the-job training. I am not certified, but I plan to become certified once I have been working at the clinic for a year. With the National Healthcareer Association (NHA), I could register for the exam and become certified once I have been working for a whole year (as of right now, I have been working with the company for five months). In December, I could become certified! I enjoy working as a medical assistant and currently have 455 hours of clinical experience. However, I am sad that my hours have been cut, and my hours of clinical experience have been paused temporarily. I am still employed with the company. My manager said that the average daily number of patients will increase in the fall, and they would put me on the schedule again. Before I was laid off, I was working 2-3 twelve-hour shifts a week. In the meantime, should I complete an EMT course to gain clinical hours as an EMT or is my experience as a medical assistant enough? Am I just over-reacting? I am sure they are going to put me on the schedule again, and I think going through an EMT course would be a waste of time since I already have clinical experience. I want to hear your opinion!

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[Goro]

Yes, you're overreacting. No need to take an EMT course unless you actually want to do EMT stuff. Just having the training doesn't count as clinical experience

 

[elitetexan]

Stay the course with the urgent care company. It's a seasonal business just like being a ski instructor. Patient volumes drop off in the summer and greatly increase in the winter months. I worked for an urgent care company for the last 3 years and was able to draw blood, room patients. etc. and start my first year of medical school in August. It is great experience in developing bed side manor, having patient interaction, and learning to deal with the challenges of the medical field.

 

[LizzyM]

You can put this on your application even if you aren't "certified". The fact that someone has trained you and is supervising you under their own license suffices.

This is good clinical experience. Stay the course. Demand will tick up in the fall and you'll be ready. In the meantime, if you haven't been engaged in non-clinical community service, this might be the break in your paid employment that you need to get some of that experience onto the calendar.