By Keely Greiner, Health Professions Peer Ambassador
I know that we have to do a lot of things to get into medical school. There are long lists of classes, activities, and characteristics we feel we need to complete. While pre-med advisors caution against a box-checking approach, certain suggestions for pre-meds hold more significance than others. I’d like to tell you about the importance of clinical experience, speaking from my own perspective.
You really have no idea what the hospital is like until you work there. I’ve volunteered in various capacities in hospitals and clinics many times over the years. Yet, I felt that I experienced and learned more in a single day of work as an inpatient Patient Care Technician (PCT) than I had in all of my years of volunteering. That’s not to say that my volunteering felt meaningless, but rather, that my clinical experience was so much more meaningful for me.
I’ve learned that the hospital is not a well-oiled machine, and this has become especially the case these last two years. I started working in August 2020, so I’ve experienced much of what the pandemic has created in hospitals. Sure, hospitals contain some of the most medically skilled people in the world—you can get incredible treatments that can greatly improve your quality of life. However, at the same time, hospitals are a mess. We keep clean, sure. But staffing issues, which seem to have existed since the dawn of the modern hospital, are ongoing. I have often felt that I am doing the work of two or three people. It’s sometimes best if you go in prepared for the worst (but hoping for the best).
Hospitals work on a sort of flex-staffing system. They staff the bare minimum and call people in to work last-minute as needed. (But when there’s no one willing or able to come in, we have problems, like when 100+ of our staff got sick over the winter holidays.) Travel nursing exists for this reason—hospitals don’t want to commit to keeping a certain number of nurses on staff, so they pick up travel nurse contracts as needed. Travel nurses are paid two to three times more per hour than the hospital’s staff nurses. One might wonder why hospitals don’t just put this money towards hiring more staff or paying their existing staff more… but I digress.
You see, though, that you discover certain truths about the medical system by being a part of it. You can see and feel firsthand what it’s like to work under low staffing conditions, making you better able to understand why consistent staffing and listening to your staff is so important. Many doctors begin their careers (and/or continue to be) ignorant of the issues faced by those paid less than them. Garnering meaningful clinical hours can help with this problem.
On a related note, it is incredibly useful to understand how the hospital works as a whole. As a PCT, I’ve done a little bit of everything—odd jobs are my specialty. In addition to my regular duties, I run samples down to the lab, retrieve belongings from the emergency department, escort family members to the lobby, wheel patients to the carport, search for equipment (which is generally not where it’s supposed to be), steal popsicles (for the patients) from floors with better stocked fridges, answer phone calls, help out the transport techs and environmental staff, and generally assist however I can. Working throughout the whole hospital in many different ways will help you understand how it all works. And as a rule of thumb, being helpful will get you everywhere. Making friends with your coworkers can only help you.
In addition, clinical hours can contribute tremendously to the development of one’s empathy. It can be difficult to understand how patients are feeling from the point of view of a medical student or doctor, especially a new one, but you see patients from an entirely different perspective as a member of the nursing staff. You get to see every inch of the patient’s skin, how they eat, how they move, what hurts them, and you get to talk to their families. Patients will tell you things that they might never tell their doctors. These experiences will help you understand how patients are also people, ones with families and homes to go back to, and thus help you to develop your empathy as a healthcare professional and as a person. You may also realize that the techs may have some valuable info for you–if you only ask.
And one more thing: clinical hours may give you some insight into what kinds of medicine you’re interested in. I worked in telemetry (heart monitoring) for a little over a year. This kind of medicine mostly concerns older patients, so I’ve gotten to experience geriatric medicine, and I kind of love it. Little grandmas and grandpas are so cute. And for the past few months, I’ve been working on the hospice floor, and I may like that even more. It’s incredibly meaningful (although physically and emotionally strenuous) work. These are things I never would have known about myself if I hadn’t had this clinical experience. Also, I have a coworker who is a first-year in medical school now who discovered through her work as a PCT that she wasn’t super into working with adults and was more interested in pediatrics. Learning what you don’t like is important, too!
Finally, pro tip: I heard from an undisclosed member of a medical school admissions committee that medical schools really see the value of PCTs/CNAs, EMTs, and other folks who work directly with patients. I know it’s grueling work, believe me, but your efforts will not go unappreciated. I see you.
But remember to take care of yourself, folks. PCT/PCA/CNA work can be extremely physically, mentally, and emotionally taxing. You’re up close and personal with the patients more so than anyone else. Other types of clinical experiences are great, too! Be mindful of your physical and mental health and figure out what works for you.
Keely is a senior in the honors program with an individualized major, health systems and disparities, and a minor in asian studies. Click here to learn more about and connect with Keely.