While some professional schools, particularly Physician Assistant and Nursing Programs, will require a certain number of hours of clinical experience, medical schools do not specify any requirement to gain clinical experience but they do expect to see that you have reality tested this idea and that you have exposed yourself to what it would be to work in a clinical setting.
- Has the applicant acquired pertinent healthcare exposure, such as engagement in volunteer activities or clinical experience?
- Has the applicant begun cultivating effective interpersonal skills and the capability to attend to individuals from varied backgrounds with diverse medical requirements?
- Is the applicant prepared to navigate hospital and clinical settings, and effectively collaborate as a team member within these environments?
- Where does this applicant see themselves in the future? Is this based on personal experience?
The Summer Health Professions Education Program (SHPEP) is a free summer program for students to explore their interests in medicine, dentistry, nursing, optometry, pharmacy, physical therapy, public health, and more. The program takes place at our 12 partner institutions and offers students a chance to develop competencies for becoming successful applicants to health profession programs, plan academic journeys, get clinical exposure, and network.
VCU Summer Academic Enrichment Program (SAEP) is a six-week summer program that simulates the first-year of dentistry, medicine, pharmacy or physical therapy professional school instruction. Participants take academically intensive instruction in each of their chosen tracks in addition to non-credit core-coursework in anatomy, biochemistry, and physiology. SAEP participants attend learning skills and test-taking workshops, mock interviews, professionalism seminars, current health care topics, coaching and community service activities in an interprofessional framework. At the conclusion of the program, participants receive an assessment of their readiness to attend professional school. A modest stipend is provided to participants. Commitment to full attendance, including an orientation session and closing event, is required to participate.
The Premedical Urban Leaders Summer Enrichment (PULSE) program is a six week summer academic enrichment program for undergraduate students interested in pursuing a healthcare profession. This program provides academic, clinical, research and service learning opportunities with a focus on urban health needs. Developed by the Cooper Medical School of Rowan University (CMSRU), the PULSE program helps students become lifelong learners and empowers them to use their knowledge to make a difference in their communities.
The primary goal of PULSE is to provide students from underrepresented and/or educationally and financially disadvantaged backgrounds exposure to medical professions. PULSE is a full-day program that runs five days per week for six weeks and culminates with the PULSE Symposium. At the symposium, students formally present posters highlighting their summer work or research projects to faculty, family and friends.
The Summer Undergraduate Mentorship Program (SUMP) of the Hispanic Center of Excellence (HCOE) at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine (Einstein) is a six-week program that offers students from underrepresented groups in medicine and/or economically disadvantaged background a unique opportunity to become exposed to the realities and options within the medical profession through a “shadowing” experience with a physician mentor. Besides shadowing a doctor, the program offers a broad and comprehensive curriculum, including medical lectures, hands-on workshop participation, and literature review under the supervision of a research mentor and medical librarians at Einstein.
The Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine Summer Scholars Program The Summer Scholars program is a tremendous academic experience for underrepresented in medicine, or educationally or economically disadvantaged students to grow personally and be challenged professionally. The program replicates what will be experienced in the first year of medical school at OU-HCOM. Courses, taught by OU-HCOM faculty, and current medical students, include subject matter in gross anatomy, histology, immunology, biochemistry, integrated biomedical sciences, in an integrated, flipped classroom pedagogy that reflects the HCOM Pathways to Health and Wellness curriculum. In addition, there will be workshops dealing with the admission process, learning strategies, time management and many other experiences relevant to the medical school experience. Summer Scholars is a residential experience on the HCOM Athens campus.
The Summer Scholars Program is four weeks in length and includes housing, a modest living allowance, travel reimbursements, and the potential for a guaranteed interview for the entering class at the medical school.
VCU Summer Academic Enrichment Program (SAEP) is a six-week summer program that simulates the first-year of dentistry, medicine, pharmacy or physical therapy professional school instruction. Participants take academically intensive instruction in each of their chosen tracks in addition to non-credit core-coursework in anatomy, biochemistry, and physiology. SAEP participants attend learning skills and test-taking workshops, mock interviews, professionalism seminars, current health care topics, coaching and community service activities in an interprofessional framework. At the conclusion of the program, participants receive an assessment of their readiness to attend professional school. A modest stipend is provided to participants. Commitment to full attendance, including an orientation session and closing event, is required to participate.
The Premedical Urban Leaders Summer Enrichment (PULSE) program is a six week summer academic enrichment program for undergraduate students interested in pursuing a healthcare profession. This program provides academic, clinical, research and service learning opportunities with a focus on urban health needs. Developed by the Cooper Medical School of Rowan University (CMSRU), the PULSE program helps students become lifelong learners and empowers them to use their knowledge to make a difference in their communities.
The primary goal of PULSE is to provide students from underrepresented and/or educationally and financially disadvantaged backgrounds exposure to medical professions. PULSE is a full-day program that runs five days per week for six weeks and culminates with the PULSE Symposium. At the symposium, students formally present posters highlighting their summer work or research projects to faculty, family and friends.
The Summer Undergraduate Mentorship Program (SUMP) of the Hispanic Center of Excellence (HCOE) at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine (Einstein) is a six-week program that offers students from underrepresented groups in medicine and/or economically disadvantaged background a unique opportunity to become exposed to the realities and options within the medical profession through a “shadowing” experience with a physician mentor. Besides shadowing a doctor, the program offers a broad and comprehensive curriculum, including medical lectures, hands-on workshop participation, and literature review under the supervision of a research mentor and medical librarians at Einstein.
The Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine Summer Scholars Program The Summer Scholars program is a tremendous academic experience for underrepresented in medicine, or educationally or economically disadvantaged students to grow personally and be challenged professionally. The program replicates what will be experienced in the first year of medical school at OU-HCOM. Courses, taught by OU-HCOM faculty, and current medical students, include subject matter in gross anatomy, histology, immunology, biochemistry, integrated biomedical sciences, in an integrated, flipped classroom pedagogy that reflects the HCOM Pathways to Health and Wellness curriculum. In addition, there will be workshops dealing with the admission process, learning strategies, time management and many other experiences relevant to the medical school experience. Summer Scholars is a residential experience on the HCOM Athens campus.
The Summer Scholars Program is four weeks in length and includes housing, a modest living allowance, travel reimbursements, and the potential for a guaranteed interview for the entering class at the medical school.
-
A more extended, hands-on opportunity where you contribute services to the hospital/clinic. This experience allows you to grasp the culture within a specific hospital unit over an extended period, engage with the team comprising nurses, technicians, physicians, and more. In certain units, there's the potential for direct interaction with patients and their families.
Other Volunteering/Helping Activities: An extended, hands-on opportunity with patient populations beyond the hospital/clinic environment, such as working at nursing home, assisted living residence, hospice, disaster relief efforts, etc. hotline/counseling opportunities: many students value the opportunity to develop active listening and counseling skills in these helping roles.Hospital / Clinic volunteering
Sometimes students will say that volunteering at a hospital is boring or uninteresting… You probably want to focus on the things you do enjoy about being in the clinical setting and not the things that are tedious or uninteresting. Medical schools do not require hospital volunteering per se, but they do value applicants with experience interacting with patients, and before one goes to medical school and obtains proper qualifications and skills, one is left with volunteering as the main means for gaining patient contact.
A few things to remember:
If your frustration comes from a lack of contact with physicians, and the patients you see are asleep, then you're volunteering at a less than optimal time of day. When scheduling your volunteer work, think beyond what is best for your schedule. Volunteer in the mornings or afternoons, possibly on weekends if you have to, not late in the evening when the docs have gone home and the patients are sleeping.
Students often experience more than they realize when serving as a volunteer. Write down your experiences. Spend a little time recording conversations you've had with patients or conversations you've overheard between doctors and staff. The more detailed you are with your note-taking, the better equipped/informed you'll be when asked to discuss your volunteer work. (It may even help you better understand why you're volunteering in the first place.)
Lastly, remember this isn't about you doing something you find interesting as much as it is about backing up your desire to work in a profession where serving others is at the heart of all you do. To be blunt, it's not about you, it's about what needs to be done in order to help a hospital help its patients. Tasks like comforting patients, talking with them and their families, transporting them, etc. are essential experiences in your development as a caregiver.
Volunteering- Bard students interested in volunteering at Northern Dutchess Hospital should complete this Interest Form
-
A brief, observational opportunity to explore a specific specialty by shadowing a physician in their daily routine. This experience provides a chance to observe physician-patient interactions, discuss the profession's rewards and challenges, and gain insights into your own career preferences.
Shadowing
Shadowing is a valuable way to gain exposure to how a doctor thinks and what their work looks like day to day. Working closely with a healthcare provider and their staff in an office helps you to learn about expectations in the field and the challenges and rewards of practicing medicine. A shadowing experience also allows you to build a relationship with a mentor in the field and ask questions, ultimately helping you to decide if this path is the right one for you.
You spend time learning from watching a physician interact with patients. Generally, shadowing is a shorter-term experience; after a few days, you’ve gained a fair amount of insight on how that doctor does their work. To complement the insights gained from shadowing, we recommend seeking experience where you have an active role and personal responsibility for being a part of the healthcare team, even if your role is as simple as making sure that beds are made and patients have water. Additionally, shadowing is largely a passive experience and is mainly for your benefit. We encourage you to supplement your shadowing experience with something more hands-on that helps others. It may be that the physician you plan to shadow already has this in mind and will allow you to sit with patients or their families as they wait for the physician or assist administrative staff with tasks – pure shadowing is a good first step, but something where you are able to contribute to and not just benefit from the clinical experience is recommended. After all, part of the reason you want to be a doctor is to help others – demonstrate that interest by finding ways that you can help!
A group of medical school personnel, prehealth advisers, ethicists, and others have collaborated to develop:
Guidelines for Clinical Shadowing Experiences for Pre-medical Students
Tips from the American Dental Education Association (ADEA)
Check out the profiles of more than 17,000 alumni/ae on the Bard College and Bard CDO LinkedIn pages where you can search for alumni/ae by employer, location, industry, and more. When you contact a physician, tell the person where you found them, give a brief introduction of yourself, and what in particular interests you about their background, position, or organization. Let the doctor know that you'd be interested in any shadowing opportunities that they can provide. If your first contact is by email, attach a copy of your resume and let them know that you're happy to connect by phone if it's helpful. If your first contact is by phone, have your calendar available in case the physician wants to schedule something right away. Try to have an idea of what you're looking for when you shadow in case you are asked.
If the doctor can't accommodate you for shadowing, you might see if they would just be willing to talk with you for an hour or so, and then put together a list of questions you might like to know more about in pursuing your interests in medicine, this is often called an “informational interview.”
Shadowing/Observing- Bard students interested in shadowing at Northern Dutchess Hospital should complete this Interest Form
- Atlantis University Study Abroad – observe physicians and learn about healthcare outside the US. Atlantis is a hospital shadowing program that runs in Europe for Pre-Health students during school breaks. Atlantis offers significant partial need-based scholarships to attend their programs and will provide information about those scholarships during their application and enrollment process. If you are interested, you can learn more by completing an application here.
- Clinical Education Network – Free Virtual Clinical Shadowing
- Hearts for Health – Virtual Shadowing
- WPMG Virtual Rounds College for URM students through Kaiser Permanente
-
Beyond clinical experience, participating in civic engagement in various settings, such as tutoring, coaching kids, or assisting the elderly, is also highly appreciated. Don't reject these opportunities simply because you may think medical schools won't find them relevant. It's crucial to step outside the traditional medical setting and equip yourself to provide care to a diverse patient population.
Community Service/Civic Engagement
Fundamentally, medicine is a service-oriented profession. By choosing to become a physician, you're making a commitment to positively impact the lives of others. However, there's no need to delay making a difference until you achieve that goal. Engaging in service demonstrates your dedication to the community and society, offers a chance to understand diverse populations and social issues, and aids in the development of crucial communication and interpersonal skills.
What is our definition of Civic Engagement?
Civic engagement is a call to action. For people and institutions to work on behalf of the public good (concern) and respond in partnership to address social issues. Bard takes the call to action seriously and acts as a private institution in the public interest.
The Center for Civic Engagement realizes Bard’s vision to act as a private institution in the public interest. CCE initiates programs, fosters sustained partnerships, and supports and connects student, faculty, and staff of Bard’s local, national, and international networks as they work to make a difference in the civic life of their communities.
SCIENCE OUTREACH
The Bard Math Circle
-
Medical schools recognize the value of research not only for its scientific contributions but also for the insights it provides into the researcher's qualities. Engaging in research can serve as evidence of your intellectual curiosity, dedication to learning and discovery, ability to collaborate in a team, and proficiency in reading and critiquing scientific literature. However, if research isn't your preferred path, these traits can be demonstrated through alternative means. For instance, the Bard senior project stands out as a noteworthy accomplishment that enables you to showcase your academic passion, critical thinking abilities, and effective communication skills.
Research
Science Research Opportunities including the Bard Summer Research Institute which offers students the opportunity to spend eight weeks in residence at the College, working on projects in the empirical or quantitative fields and the Bard-Rockefeller Semester in Science is a one-semester program; BRSS students live in New York City, work 20–25 hours per week in the lab with Rockefeller University faculty, and take specially designed classes at Rockefeller and at Bard’s Globalization and International Affairs Program. -
After a course and certification test, Certified Nursing Assistants work alongside nurses to provide direct care to patients. Training is available through community colleges and through care facilities like nursing homes. Check your state's Department of Health for a list of training facilities.
-
After a course and certification test, Emergency Medical Technicians respond to emergency situations. Great opportunity to gain hands-on skills, but does not provide familiarity with the hospital setting or work of physicians. Visit Bard EMS for more information.
-
Paid position in which you follow doctors as they visit with patients and take notes for them, so that they can focus on the patient.
Overseas Opportunities
Volunteering and shadowing abroad can add valuable perspective, of course. Do be careful that you’re not overstepping what you should be doing as an individual without medical training. When students talk about doing more abroad than they can in the United States it can cause pause; You do not want to perform any procedures or otherwise interact with patients in ways that are beyond your training. Before heading off to gain clinical experience abroad, take a look at the resources below to familiarize yourself with guidelines recommended by the AAMC as well as articles addressing these concerns.
It’s hard to quantify the benefits of expensive programs that offer opportunities abroad. There are many ways to shadow without paying a high price for it, such as reaching out to alumni physicians or participating in a program like the Summer Health Professions Enrichment Program (which provides a stipend). There is no expectation that premed students participate in international health experiences, there are many ways to develop cultural competence in the US and abroad that don’t involve an expensive price tag.
AAMC Group on Students Affairs (GSA) has developed guidelines for Pre-Medical and Medical Students planning to provide patient care abroad.
The Do’s and Don’ts of Global Health Experience
Global Ambassadors for Patient Safety is an online education tool that students can use to prepare to know their limits abroad, among other reflection opportunities to prepare them for their global experience. This online tool was created by the Health Careers Center at the University of Minnesota, in partnership with their Learning Abroad Center (among others). GAPS is now available free to anyone – student, staff, faculty, program staff – around the world. There is a short registration process at the front end.
A Dis-Service? : Undergraduate Service-Learning in Global Healthcare Settings