Posted by underground629 on February 14, 2013, 1:01 am
I'm currently taking post-bac premed courses full time and would like to work part time in a healthcare field. I was certified as an EMT (basic) relatively recently, but without any experience, connection, or a very open day-time schedule, those applications haven't exactly been successful. Maybe I'm searching for an opportunity that doesn't exist, but I'm not ready to give up yet. Does anyone have suggestions for a part-time healthcare job (I'd have a realistic shot at) considering the circumstances? I've applied to be an EMT, ER Tech, and Patient Care something or other. I also interviewed with Specialty Care but eventually realized they only offer full time commitments. What other healthcare jobs without lengthy certification "look good" to AA programs? I can't find on-the-job-training opportunities or other positions I'd qualify for as an EMT basic.
I'm also interested in hearing feedback on how important healthcare experience is for admission. I talked to one of the head people at South and he said he doesn't think it's correlated with being a successful AA, but other admissions people certainly value it. I assume that basically sums it up, but I'm curious if most accepted students have much quality healthcare experience. I've read on here that a number of people didn't have any, but I still don't have a good sense of the "avg accepted student." It would be nice if more programs posted the statistics of accepted students. Sorry, this got a little long...any feedback would be appreciated though. Thanks.
I would agree with the general answers others have given you. I was accepted at several schools with zero healthcare experience. I think it depends on your application as a whole though. If you have a good GPA, refernce letters, test scores, and can intelligently write your "why I want to be an AA" document, then You probably will be fine without healthcare experience. If your grades or something else are not great then you probably would benefit from having healthcare experience on your app. Either way I think being a certified EMT looks good, regardless of how much you have actually worked as an EMT.
Thanks, that definitely makes sense and is basically what I expected to hear. I guess you're right that even being certified is still something to add, although I'd like to justify the expenses a little more haha. I suppose I can always shadow more in the extra time I have. I've gotten the idea that they would probably value lots of shadowing experience at least as much as the type of part time healthcare experience I'd be able to realistically find.
I don't have any health care experience other than my shadowing. I was accepted at Emory and South, and the people I spoke with at Nova didn't seem to have a problem with a lack of experience either. I didnt' apply to Case or UMKC so I can't speak for either of them.
Thanks--that's good to hear. I'm guessing you have other very strong background to "offset" that though as well. Either way it sounds like healthcare experience isn't vital for getting in, so that's good for me. Certainly not like PA schools... which I think are a little ridiculous.
I was thinking the same thing recently about the average applicant HCE (3-4 years) for PA schools. At least, it's not an absolute requirement. For someone who already has his/her bachelor's and lacks any HCE (like me), that makes the road to graduation seem twice as long.
Yup, haha. I think it's ridiculous how much PA programs stress experience over education. That's partially why I gave up on PA schools, but I also hadn't heard of AAs when I became interested in becoming a PA.
Also, I remember asking students and professors at my interviews whether those with healthcare experience have any advantage. Everyone pretty much said that maybe at first they do, but by the end of the first semester everything seems pretty evened out. So it's probably nothing to worry about, at least as far as academic performance goes.
That's pretty much exactly what the admissions person at South told me. It's good to hear others have said that as well. If that's the case, it seems almost unfair to give healthcare experience much weight (unless maybe it's something like being an anesthesia tech). Thanks for sharing.
I think it just depends on the program...I know Emory would like for applicants to have alittle experience but that doesn't mean you won't be offered an interview without any. I personally have some but the other people I interviewed with didn't. And from what I could gather from my South interview, only a few out of 14 had experience....So with all that being said, if you have it I think its a plus. If not, rely on your academics, references and personal statement.
on February 14, 2013, 1:01 am