Anyone know any year-long (approximately) programs to get clinical or research experience?

[YossarianLives]

to give you a little background, I am a nontraditional student that has worked in education and is about 9 years out of my undergrad. I took my pre-med reqs a la carte at a local university. I just got my MCAT score, and am very happy, as I can apply with a 3.9ish GPA and a 522 MCAT, hurray!

The major hole on my application is clinical and research experience. I've decided to take an additional year off to bolster my experience, and now I need to find a way to do that. I am based in the DC area, but I am not tied down geographically. I have started to reach out to local docs about shadowing + volunteer positions.

But someone mentioned to me that there might exists some extended opportunities that exist that I could apply for to go work for somewhere between 6 months and a year that would be a great experience before applying to medical school. I know my question is somewat vague - even I don't know exactly what I mean, but I was curious if anyone has any insight on this.

I was browsing the NIH website for instance, but seeing as I am not a recent grad, it didn't seem like I qualify for anything there!

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[melaninmonroe]

I would browse the local universities' (HU,GW, Georgetown, Catholic) prehealth websites. They sometimes post temporary research/clinical opportunities in the area. Also check out Children's, MedStar and any other local hospitals. I work in the area and I was upfront about my time commitment and they understood this was temporary situation

 

[Eccesignum]

It's a more involved path, but AmeriCorps is a yearlong service commitment that you might look into. Their 'Healthy Futures' focus track puts you as a preventative health volunteer, often in a healthcare center. You can do rural or urban, stay in your own state or volunteer elsewhere. I did AmeriCorps a decade ago (I was in literacy though, not health at that time) and have zero regrets. It was a wonderful experience.

It is full-time though, and generally does not allow you to work outside the program. They provide a living stipend which some can make do with and some can't...depends on your financial situation.

 

[Sheiko]

It is full-time though, and generally does not allow you to work outside the program. They provide a living stipend which some can make do with and some can't...depends on your financial situation.

I'm actually interviewing for AmeriCorps positions right now and my impression is that (these days) most of them allow an individual to work while serving, as long as you can put in 40 hours/week.

 

[Eccesignum]

I'm actually interviewing for AmeriCorps positions right now and my impression is that (these days) most of them allow an individual to work while serving, as long as you can put in 40 hours/week.

Oh, that's good to know! That's definitely a good change.

 

[wholeheartedly]

I did a research associate program thing in the emergency department that was pretty awesome. I'd highly recommend something like that if you can find it. The ED basically recruits premeds etc to staff the ED 24/7 to help conduct clinical research studies. We did like 10 hrs/ wk during the school year, more in the summer.

We'd screen the ED track board to see if patients might qualify for any of the studies, if so do informed consent, then do some form of data collection (behavioral observation, give a survey, track/record vitals, etc), do chart reviews to pull and compile data. In exchange for the free labor, the students got volunteering experience, direct patient contact, access to a lot of docs, shadowing, opps to get pulled by docs in other areas (i.e. ortho might ask if you want to go with them to see something cool), clinical research experience, and a chance to go to the morning conferences with the residents, and rounds type stuff. Also got exposure to some of the really crappy sides of medicine, which some of the students needed to see.

I know there are programs like this elsewhere. This one was open to pretty much anyone premed, pre-pa, publuc health grad student, whether you were currently a student or not. Not sure what other versions require for acceptance. Ours was pretty competitive to get into, but well worth it.

Think GW might have one.

Also, being a nontrad, don't be afraid to question if there's a work around for your unique status. If they say just recent grads are accepted, explain that while you did complete a degree awhile back, you were just a recent student and are planning to apply to medical school and see if they might still let you in. Do that whether it's the NIH or some ED research program or whatever. Worst case they say no, but you just might wind up getting a sweet opp. if they say yes.