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Clinical experience during the pandemic

Hello! I'm a pre-med student looking to get clinical experience. However, the pandemic has caused a lot of clinics near me to stop accepting volunteers. What other ways can I get clinical experience? #volunteer #premed #medicine

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Ashley’s Answer

Hi Karan,

With the pandemic, many restrictions have been placed. I would suggest finding doctors at your local hospital's website and do not be afraid to email them. Explain your background to them, provide a resume, and do not be afraid to ask if you could shadow them. Best of luck!
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Vernie’s Answer

If you prefer working under a physician, I would look into working as a scribe. This can help you learn medical terminologies, and to generally see the in's and out's of working in a hospital. Keep in mind that you would need to be able to type up a certain amount of words in a minute to be considered as a candidate. (In other words, you need to type fast)

Another great way to get clinical experience is to work as a Pharmacy Technician - I am working with CVS and personally, this has given me a lot of exposure and broad knowledge about medications, prior authorizations and insurances, which can become really handy in the future.

If you interested in taking extra classes for certifications (if you have not yet), you can try looking into being an EMT or Medical Assistant. Working as an MA, you will be working directly with an MD.

Goodluck!
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Mary Jane’s Answer

Hi, Karan! The pandemic has certainly made it tricky for prehealth students to gain the needed experience to pursue their career paths. That said, most grad/professional programs understand the difficulties of COVID and just want you to be creative in learning about the profession and serving your community. Look for ways, in-person or virtually, to make your local community better. Work at a food bank or community garden or an organization that works with the homeless. Is there a street medicine or mobile clinic in your community that is taking volunteers? Does the county health dept. need volunteers for staffing vaccine clinics? Does your high school or junior high have children who fell behind with remote schooling in need of tutors for summer school? What about virtual volunteering with an organization like Be My Eyes (https://www.bemyeyes.com/)? Does your local Red Cross need help with blood drives? Are you part of a faith community that does routine health screenings where the nurse might allow you to assist? Is there a hospice or children's hospital in your community doing virtual social activities with volunteers? It doesn't all need to be clinical. Think about your network and how you can serve locally!

Don't forget about things like informational interviewing and virtual shadowing. If you search for e-shadowing, web shadowing, and virtual shadowing, you should find a lot of options. I don't recommend you pay for these; look for free programs. A good one is HEAL at https://www.clinicalshadowing.com/. Reach out to the prehealth advisor on your campus to see if they have additional recommendations. They may even be able to recommend alumni who are willing to do virtual interviews.

Finally, there is also the option of working in a clinical setting. Scribing probably has the lowest barrier because they train you when you are hired. Things like CNA, EMT, phlebotomy, and medical assisting will require you complete training at a community college and pass a certification exam before getting hired. They are usually fairly short programs so you may be able to complete an accelerated program in a month and begin working this summer. They do cost money, but you'd be able to work on breaks or possibly during the school year (don't do this if your grades will suffer!) to recover the costs of training. Some states have programs where your employer assists you with the costs of your training once you are hired so you might ask the community college program coordinator if there are any programs in your state to help with costs for which you're eligible.

Reach out to your prehealth advisor and your prehealth/premed club on campus to see if they have additional suggestions. Good luck!
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