Clinical experience is one of the most important personal activities that admissions committees consider on a medical school application. But there can be some confusion as to what exactly counts as clinical experience for pre-meds, and what doesn’t. Learn more here about how many clinical hours students will need for medical school. And read below for our simple guide to clinical experience as a pre-med:
What Is (And Isn’t) Considered Clinical Experience for Medical School
The primary factor that determines whether an experience is “clinical” or not: direct patient care.
For an activity to count as clinical experience requires direct contact with patients and, ideally, providing some kind of care or service to these patients. This can range from clinical work positions, to certain clinical volunteer positions, to clinical or community public health research.
We’ve broken down some of the most common activities pre-meds ask about below. But you should note that just because an experience isn’t “clinical” doesn’t mean it’s not valuable. Non-clinical activities are still important on a medical school application and make a pre-med applicant more unique and well rounded.
Clinical Work: Yes
Paid clinical jobs usually offer the best clinical experience for pre-meds. Read our list of 5 clinical jobs for pre-meds here. It’s possible to enter many of these positions without formal training, especially if you have connections with any local physicians who may be looking for a medical assistant or surgical tech. But often they do require a training or certification program at a local community college or tech school. EMT and phlebotomist positions specifically will require formal training and certification by law.
But these training or certification programs can often be completed during the summer (ideally just before or just after a pre-med’s freshman year), and having clinical certification is well worth it for the experience.
| Experience | Does it Count as clinical |
| Emergency Medical Tech (EMT) | Yes |
| Phlebotomist | Yes |
| Medical Assistant | Yes |
| Surgical Tech | Yes |
| Pathology Tech | Yes |
| Medical Scribe | Yes |
Shadowing: Yes and No
Again, the primary factor that determines whether an experience counts as “clinical” or not for medical school is whether the student is working directly with patients. Shadowing is a great opportunity and does technically count as clinical experience. Especially if the physician a student is shadowing is open to hands-on learning (for example, allowing the shadowing student to listen to patient heart sounds, walking them through certain physical examination techniques, etc.).
However, shadowing should not be a pre-meds only clinical experience. This is because shadowing opportunities are usually relatively short-term and direct patient care is limited. Read more about clinical shadowing hours for medical school here.
| Experience | Does it count as clinical |
| Shadowing Surgeon in the Operating Room | Yes |
| Shadowing Family Practice Physician in Clinic | Yes |
Volunteering: Yes and No
Volunteer work, even in a hospital, does not necessarily count as clinical experience. Again, clinical experience requires direct patient care. Some volunteer positions do allow the opportunity for direct patient contact, but these kinds of volunteer opportunities are rare. Read more about pre-med volunteer opportunities here.
If a student is a licensed EMT or phlebotomist (like mentioned above) and volunteers their time as an EMT or phlebotomist, say for a blood drive or other community event, this counts as clinical. But simply spending time in a hospital or clinic does not count as clinical experience if there is no direct patient care.
| Experience | Does it count as clinical |
| Hospital Gift Shop Volunteer | No |
| Hospital Information Desk Volunteer | No |
| Hospital Fundraising Volunteer | No |
| Community Covid-19 Testing | Yes |
| Hospice Volunteer | Yes |
| Emergency Department Volunteer | Yes |
Lab Research: No
The most common type of research that pre-meds experience in their undergraduate careers is lab research. Lab research does not count as clinical experience. Even if the research may be potentially clinically applied and even if the lab is affiliated with a hospital or school of medicine. If there is no direct patient care, it does not count as clinical experience. Read here to learn more about research opportunities for pre-meds.
The only kind of research that counts as clinical experience is clinical research (in which a student is working directly with patients) or certain public health research projects where the student is involved in patient sample or data collection (such as community HIV testing, Covid-19 testing, etc.).
| Experience | Does it count as clinical |
| Lab Assistant in Stem Cell Lab | No |
| CDC Research Assistant | No |
| NIH Summer Research Program Participant | No |
Final Thoughts
Every pre-med student will need some kind of clinical experience for their medical school application. But it’s good to have a range of other experiences in addition to clinical ones. Just because an experience is not “clinical” does not mean it’s not valuable, and students should not avoid research or volunteer experiences just because they won’t necessarily count as clinical experience. A summer research program at a prestigious university or 3 years of volunteering at your local animal shelter are incredible experiences that can seriously boost a medical school application.
