- Joined
- Dec 15, 2021
- Messages
- 56
- Reaction score
- 14
Hi,
I am currently volunteering at a private clinic, and was unsure as to whether I should continue doing this especially because I am unsure if it even counts as clinical experience.
At the clinic, I volunteer 18+ hrs per week and basically act as a medical receptionist, checking patients in, out, receiving calls from patients about their medical care plan and info regarding instructions for post-appointment or post procedure, occasionally doing prior authorizations, inputting stuff like ROS forms, and also bringing in patients to rooms if they have difficulties walking/moving. The only main reason I've decided to still stick around is because the doctor of the clinic is one of the nicest people I've met, and they are very interested in seeing me get into med school. They offered shadowing (which I didn't do just because I want to shadow doctors outside of fields I've worked with, and I am confident I will get 150+ shadowing hours), they have also said that they will write me a rec letter (without me asking, and this was on the first day I met them), and in the future I may be able to do work in the back and do stuff like biopsies and also potentially go with them to volunteer at a free clinic (the doctor themself also volunteers occasionally, but not in the month I've been here). However I don't want to rely on hoping on this, as a paid medical assistant I work with does almost everything I do, except that because they're on payroll, they occasionally start off telemedicine appointments.
Furthermore, my doctor said that they want to see me be a published author, and have said if I want to help with their research (where I generate AI MRIs by uploading them and compare them to manual MRI contours of my doctor, I am not even sure whether I could get a pub out of a manuscript, but my doctor said that its really new stuff), I can get my name on a published abstract and article. This is seeming like an increasing reality as my research contributions are already being included and recognized in a technology talk when my doctor goes to a conference in a few weeks, and they told me once they do their conference, I can go ahead and write an abstract and send it out.
I have 3/4 main questions,
Does what I'm doing count as clinical experience?
Should I still stick around until I graduate from undergrad? Im going to take 2 gap years and probably literally only do clinical work and volunteer with a crisis hotline at this point, so my gap years feel very barren.
Would the research I'm doing be worthy of a publication? (I genuinely have no clue and would hate to write a manuscript to find out no journal would accept it. my Doctor so far has about 10 pubs for reference, so its not like they have published often in a span of 15 years)
I am currently volunteering at a private clinic, and was unsure as to whether I should continue doing this especially because I am unsure if it even counts as clinical experience.
At the clinic, I volunteer 18+ hrs per week and basically act as a medical receptionist, checking patients in, out, receiving calls from patients about their medical care plan and info regarding instructions for post-appointment or post procedure, occasionally doing prior authorizations, inputting stuff like ROS forms, and also bringing in patients to rooms if they have difficulties walking/moving. The only main reason I've decided to still stick around is because the doctor of the clinic is one of the nicest people I've met, and they are very interested in seeing me get into med school. They offered shadowing (which I didn't do just because I want to shadow doctors outside of fields I've worked with, and I am confident I will get 150+ shadowing hours), they have also said that they will write me a rec letter (without me asking, and this was on the first day I met them), and in the future I may be able to do work in the back and do stuff like biopsies and also potentially go with them to volunteer at a free clinic (the doctor themself also volunteers occasionally, but not in the month I've been here). However I don't want to rely on hoping on this, as a paid medical assistant I work with does almost everything I do, except that because they're on payroll, they occasionally start off telemedicine appointments.
Furthermore, my doctor said that they want to see me be a published author, and have said if I want to help with their research (where I generate AI MRIs by uploading them and compare them to manual MRI contours of my doctor, I am not even sure whether I could get a pub out of a manuscript, but my doctor said that its really new stuff), I can get my name on a published abstract and article. This is seeming like an increasing reality as my research contributions are already being included and recognized in a technology talk when my doctor goes to a conference in a few weeks, and they told me once they do their conference, I can go ahead and write an abstract and send it out.
I have 3/4 main questions,
Does what I'm doing count as clinical experience?
Should I still stick around until I graduate from undergrad? Im going to take 2 gap years and probably literally only do clinical work and volunteer with a crisis hotline at this point, so my gap years feel very barren.
Would the research I'm doing be worthy of a publication? (I genuinely have no clue and would hate to write a manuscript to find out no journal would accept it. my Doctor so far has about 10 pubs for reference, so its not like they have published often in a span of 15 years)
