Hi, finishing up my primary to submit in the upcoming week, and I'd really appreciate your help.
I'll be taking an EMT-B course this summer + fall—I'm doing so because I've volunteered on humanitarian aid trips to Bangladesh in the past, and we're always in need of more BLS providers. Since we're not sure when our next trip will be, I felt now would be a good time to get the training to bring along on the next aid effort. A few of the donors and trip organizers are subsidizing the training for past volunteers, so it was really a question of whether I wanted to put in the time commitment to get certified and precept. Even if we're able to organize our next trip by the time I'm (hopefully) in medical school, it would be a while before I could contribute to a humanitarian trip as a medical provider; I see value in being a volunteer EMT on the trips until then.
I was wondering if I should report the EMT training on my primary under coursework. It won't contribute many clinical hours (I won't be precepting or otherwise using my certification in a clinical setting officially until well into the application cycle) and I know the courses won't factor into my GPA/cover significant BCPM ground. I know a lot of applicants have EMT certification, but I can't exactly talk about how I've used the training because I haven't started it yet. My concern is that just putting the training on my application will come off as misunderstanding the difference between EMS and medicine, or it might be interpreted as not being sure about my interest in medicine over interrelated fields. I think I'm also worried that I don't have room elsewhere in the primary app to really explain why I'm getting EMT training.
I get the feeling it's something that I should leave to talk about in interviews or in "what will you be doing this year?" secondary prompts, but if anyone thinks it wouldn't hurt all that much to leave on my primary, please let me know. I should mention I'm a reapplicant (though not to any of the schools I'm applying to) one year out of undergrad, and although every applicant is hyperconscious of what they put on their app, going through this after an unsuccessful attempt is making me reconsider every little thing all that much.
I'm grateful for any insight you can offer!
