Clinical Experience vs Clinical Volunteering

[JamStars]

After reading a lot of threads here on SDN, I'm getting a little confused at what exactly is "clinical experience". Going with the whole "if you can smeel the patient, it's clinical experience" definition, I always thought volunteering at the hospital would be considered clinical experience. However, some people here consider clinical experience and clinical volunteering two separate things. In fact, I found a post online that said during a Georgetown School of Medicine info session, it was explicitly stated that they don't consider hospital volunteering as "clinical experience". Can anyone explain the difference between the two, if there even is a difference?

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[LizzyM]

In my book, clinical volunteering is clinical experience.
If "hospital volunteering" does not meet G'town's definition of Clinical Experience then ask G'town for some examples of what they consider clinical experience.

 

[Cornfed101]

Shouldn't be a difference. I think the most common reason for the distinction on SDN is for people that have paid clinical experience, which obviously wouldn't be called clinical volunteering, but simply clinical experience.

 

[keelhaul]

If I had to guess I would think it varies by school whether they are counted as the same or not. All I know is, for instance I talked to an adcom at VCU last year and was told that my clinical volunteering at a hospital was placed in a different category from my other clinical experience. Things they counted in that separate clinical experience category included shadowing, scribing, etc. They wanted me to have a good number of hours in both.

 

[Blueprint Med School]

Usually, clinical experience is time spent working directly with patients or physicians. This includes shadowing, EMT work, scribing, etc.

 

[deleted994889]

Many positions in the hospital don't allow volunteers direct interaction with patients. Not only in the gift shop, many volunteers end up on the support/secretarial side of things. G-Town is being explicit in their criteria, but I think most schools know this too. I believe G-Town is also mission-based, which would explain why they're being specific.