What counts as clinical experience?

[sanantone]

The typical routes for gaining clinical experience for nursing, physician assistant, medical, and similar programs are working as an EMT; CNA; MA; patient care tech; or volunteering at a hospital, clinic, or nursing home. I don't have plans to enter a healthcare program, but I was starting to think about what counts as clinical experience. After perusing the Student Doctor Forum, I think someone like me would already have clinical experience. 

I was a substance abuse counselor. We called our patients clients, but they're still equivalent to behavioral health patients. I diagnosed clients and provided behavioral therapy. I worked with people who had mental health issues and made referrals to psychologists and physicians. Not to minimize what MAs and CNAs do, but if someone were interested in becoming a psychiatrist or psychiatric nurse practitioner, I would think that mental health and behavioral counseling would be a more relevant experience.

On SDN, they were telling crisis and HIV counselors that what they did should count as clinical experience, so I'm sure that a licensed counseling field would count if those examples do.

[burbuja0512]

I got a pharmacy tech certification and spent a year volunteering Friday nights in an inpatient pharmacy. This was solely to gain credibility and insight in my medical sales career, but I wonder if it could be used for someone. It takes a month or two at most to study for a pharmacy tech and in most places, it's easy to get a part time job as a pharm tech.

But, I would never dare to call what I did "clinical experience." I mostly just refer to working in a hospital inpatient pharmacy and that feels more accurate to me. However, I'm sure it would be really beneficial for someone. It was extremely beneficial for me.

[sanantone]

I read an article that said that pharmacy tech usually does not count. There has to be direct patient care even though some people have gotten away with being medical scribes. I think that's because they were working with physicians.

[Sparklette]

It depends on the program. In Washington state, the public college RN programs require volunteer hours in either a hospital or skilled nursing facility. These specifically state that any paid hours do not count towards the requirement. There are actually organizations that people (mostly parents) are paying to coordinate better volunteer assignments for hopeful students.

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For the programs that accept paid experience, scribe seems to be the popular choice here. Scribes in the ER are definitely seen as clinical experience. They receive the same clinical documentation training for the EHR system as other clinical staff and are physically in patient rooms. Some of what they do is similar to the unit coordinators, but that role doesn’t count as clinical because unit coordinators don’t enter patient care areas.

[sanantone]

It depends on the program. In Washington state, the public college RN programs require volunteer hours in either a hospital or skilled nursing facility. These specifically state that any paid hours do not count towards the requirement. There are actually organizations that people (mostly parents) are paying to coordinate better volunteer assignments for hopeful students.

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For the programs that accept paid experience, scribe seems to be the popular choice here.

Interesting. I guess PA and nursing programs are different. I saw several PA programs that wanted paid experience. Many PA programs require more than 1,000 hours, so it would be a bit unreasonable to expect people to do those unpaid anyway. 

University of Florida has a specific list of what counts as direct patient care. I thought it was odd how optician experience counts up to 3/4 credit, but counseling only counts up to 1/2 credit. Most opticians spend most of their time doing sales, looking at insurance, and fitting glasses. Some opticians do lab work with eyewear, but I don't see how this is worthy of clinical experience. Clinical psychology counts for full credit. 

https://pap.med.ufl.edu/admissions/prere...xperience/

[cookderosa]

I think it's open to interpretation - I once read on SDF that's it's clinical experience if you can smell the patients, of course, it's kinda crass like that over there.
If I were using it to apply to a health occupations program, I'd probably emphasize patient contact - whether it's verbal or physical. I volunteered for 2 years for a busy medical clinic but I didn't do clinical skills, so I don't know if something like that counts or not. On an aside, I don't know that I'd mention performing diagnostics or providing behavioral therapy- which could certainly be misconstrued to mean practicing without a license by those who don't know every state's laws- which is pretty much everyone lol.

[icampy]

In the EMT program Im starting, clinicals consist of a set number of patient contacts, and they actually mean patient contacts. Hands-on, whether it is nothing more than taking vitals, or working on a trauma patient. But they require hands-on care. NREMT only calls out hours, but the trainer we use added patient contacts. You can do 2 12s and meet ambulance hours for NREMT, but we live in a rural area and might have to do 5 times that for 25 patient contacts. But yeah, if we dont take vitals at least, or provide trauma care, they don't count it as clinicals.

No idea about nursing.

But I'm curious about the answer.

[sanantone]

I think it's open to interpretation - I once read on SDF that's it's clinical experience if you can smell the patients, of course, it's kinda crass like that over there.  
If I were using it to apply to a health occupations program, I'd probably emphasize patient contact - whether it's verbal or physical. I volunteered for 2 years for a busy medical clinic but I didn't do clinical skills, so I don't know if something like that counts or not.   On an aside, I don't know that I'd mention performing diagnostics or providing behavioral therapy- which could certainly be misconstrued to mean practicing without a license by those who don't know every state's laws- which is pretty much everyone lol.

Chemical dependency counseling is a licensed field. I'm sure physicians are aware that every state has licensed counselors and social workers who diagnose mental health problems. They have to work with them and regularly make referrals to them.