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Does Pharmacy Technician Count As Clinical Experience
Physician Assistant Studies, MS candidates are required to complete 250 hours of patient care experience, in positions that involve close contact with patients in a clinical setting. Below is a sample of acceptable experiences. Candidates are advised to clearly outline the ‘patient contact’ aspect of their duties on their CASPA application. Admitted candidates will be required to provide a supervisor’s letter, verifying the duties.
(that will be counted towards the patient contact requirement) include, but are not limited to those listed below.
These experiences must have been performed in a medical facility, or offsite clinical setting, in the US. Particular attention will be paid to the task descriptions posted on CASPA, to determine whether there is sufficient and acceptable patient contact exposure.
- Dental Hygienist
- Doula
- Emergency medical technician
- Emergency room technician
- Medical assistant
- Medical interpreter – if duties are perform at the bedside
- Medical technologist
- Military medical/clinical specialist
- Nursing assistant
- Nurse
- Occupational therapist – in an OT office, clinic, or hospital
- Occupational therapy assistant – in an OT office, clinic, or hospital
- Ophthalmic Assistant, Certified
- Orderly
- Orthopedic cast technician
- Paramedic
- Patient care technician
- Pharmacy Technician, Certified (for non-certified, see Vaccination Tech, below)
- Phlebotomist
- Physical therapist – in a PT office, clinic, or hospital
- Physical therapist assistant (PTA), certified – in a PT office, clinic, or hospital
- Radiological technologist/technician (e.g. ultrasound, MRI, CT)
- Scribe – Based on the description of tasks the candidate post s on CASPA, only positions entailing direct patient exposure in a clinical setting will be acceptable .
- Speech Language Pathologist and Assistant – in a hospital or clinical facility, only
- Surgical technician
- Vaccination Tech – trained and administers vaccinations at point of distribution location (including at retail pharmacies)
- SPECIAL PROGRAMS:
- Northwell Health’s Healthcare Exploration Program (Undergraduate Medical Shadowing) at North Shore University Hospital, Manhasset NY. Acceptable only if performed in person.
The following are only acceptable within strict guidelines. Based on the description of duties performed (as entered on CASPA), the admissions committee will determine whether there is sufficient patient contact in a clinical setting . Candidates are a dvised to clearly outline the ‘patient contact’ aspect of their duties on their CASPA application. Admitted candidates will be required to provide a supervisor’s letter, verifying the duties and following the procedure outlined on this page .
- Canadian patient care experience – Submit for pre-approval. Please see the section “Obtaining Approval” on this page.
- Clinical Research Assistant – Acceptable if there are significant encounters involving very close contact with sick patients.
- Clinical Rotations – Acceptable if a clinical preceptor/supervisor or the program’s clinical coordinator will be able to submit a signed official verification of duties and hours completed, when the verification is requested by the program. The verification can also be from the supervisor’s organizational email address, copied to the candidate.
- Home health aide – Acceptable if taking care of a patient with an illness.
- Laboratory technologist – Acceptable if phlebotomy is performed as a part of daily responsibilities.
- Opthalmic Technician or Assistant (non-certified) – Acceptable only if the position involves direct patient contact while assisting an ophthalmologist with, and during, their examination or treatment of the patient.
- Physical Therapy Aide – Acceptable if responsibilities include substantial and direct one-on-one contact with patients during treatment in a PT clinic.
- Shadowing experience – strictly limited to shadowing a physician assistant or physicians with MD or DO credentials, in a practice or hospital
- Telemedicine shadowing – Minimally acceptable and less competitively scored. Strictly limited to shadowing a physician assistant or physician (MD or DO) when they meet with real patients, and only in addition to other acceptable experiences.
- Tissue/Organ Donation Coordinator (or similar titles) – Acceptable if there is direct in-person contact with the donor’s family and/or the handling/care of donor tissue.
- Volunteer experience – non-paid versions of any of the acceptable experiences listed on this page, and must involve significant contact with patients in a clinical or first responder setting.
Include, but are not limited to the list below.
These experiences are not counted towards the patient contact requirement because they do not reflect the kind of exposures related to the PA profession. Although not counted, some of these experiences will likely still have a positive effect on your application as an indication of your dedication/interest in the healthcare field.
- Aerobics instructor
- CPR or ACLS instructor
- Chiropractor/Chiropractic Therapist/Chiropractic Assistant
- Contact tracer
- Dental Assistant
- Life guard
- Massage therapist
- Medical secretary or other clerical positions
- Non-clinical research assistant
- Non-US/Canada experiences , unless completed at a US military facility
- Optometrist assistant
- Pharmaceutical representative
- Pharmacy Technician, Non-Certified. (See Vaccination Tech, higher on this page)
- Veterinary technician
- “Virtual shadowing” – These pertain to the shadowing courses, with guest instructors and demonstrations, and very limited contact with real patients.
Ask Dr. Gray: Premed QandA: Clarifying Clinical Experience—What Counts?
What counts as clinical experience? How many hours should you have when applying to med school? And is it okay to keep working a non-clinical job as a premed?
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[00:25] What Counts as Clinical Experience
“I am 24 years old, and I am applying to medical school in 2021 to start in 2022, which is a year from now, I’m currently working on taking postbac classes. It’s a do-it-yourself postbac program and I’m really trying to get my science GPA up above 3.0 as far as I can, as well as doing well on the MCAT.
Through undergrad, I accumulated around 3,000 hours of clinical experience as a physical therapy aide and a pharmacy technician. I have over 2,000 hours of volunteer experience, shadowing, things like that. Right now, it’s just my grades and my MCAT score. But through college, I worked as a server. The hours are flexible and the money’s good. It was just conducive to that crazy premed schedule. And right now while I am working on my postbac classes, I am also doing that.
In addition, I am a director at a summer camp for kids with cancer. So that’s kind of continuing my volunteer leadership experience. But my question is even though my focus right now is my coursework and getting my GPA up, are medical schools going to frown upon the fact that I am working in a restaurant and not in a clinical setting, even though I have all these clinical experiences and did the full-time clinical research and things like that already?
[02:04] Are PTA and Pharmacy Tech Assistant Clinical Experiences?
This is a great question that comes up a lot, especially for nontraditional students who were on the premed path, to begin with.
So you’re applying to medical school, and most of your hours clinical wise are being a physical therapy assistant (a PTA) and a pharmacy tech. For me, a pharmacy tech is not a clinical experience. It’s a retail experience. You’re at a counter at a Walgreens or CVS or wherever you are at and interacting with patients. But it’s retail and a lot of schools are not going look at that as clinical experience.
For students who have this physical therapy aide or assistant experience, I encourage you to put it on your application and list it as clinical experience. But have other and more clinical experience in a more traditional clinical setting.
At the end of the day, the question you’re trying to answer with your application is why do you want to be a doctor?
And if you only have PTA experience and pharmacy tech experience, the question is, do you have enough experience to really show that you want to be a doctor? A lot of students do it because it’s easy. The hours are flexible and they fit with school schedules. It pays pretty decently. But that’s not clinical experience.
[03:59] What Counts as Clinical Experience?
Our student has accumulated around 2,000 hours of research experience, a quarter of which is clinical research, chart reviews. But chart review is not clinical experience. Just because you’re in a hospital doesn’t mean it’s clinical experience. Yes, it’s clinically related. But remember that the purpose of clinical experience is to determine why you want to be a doctor and being around patients.
The student also serves as the director at a pediatric oncology summer camp. They are patients in a sense, but not in the clinical setting. Being at a camp for pediatric oncology patients could be a clinical experience. It depends on what you’re doing though. If you’re only the director and you’re sitting in the office all day long, just managing then it’s not clinical experience. But there’s a potential for that to be a clinical experience.
Whether it’s clinical or not, you’ve got to ask yourself, did you interact with patients? A lot of students would say they interacted with the patients some of the time. And some of the time they stocked shelves and cleaned the beds. Then that’s great. Just focus on the time that you spent with patients and only count those hours out of your total time. Estimate how much was clinical and put that in your application.
[06:52] Consistency Matters
It is a potential red flag to get all of your hours and say it’s enough. Let’s assume all of your clinical experiences are so amazing. But it was all in undergrad. And now you’ve been out of undergrad for a little while you’re doing your postbac and working as a server and not doing anything else. Just because time doesn’t permit doesn’t look great either.
Actions speak louder than words. And your actions many years ago show that you were very interested in medicine by getting all of that experience. But now your actions don’t speak that anymore. Your actions speak more towards you being a server.
Understandably, you have to pay bills and put a roof over your head and put food on the table. But you could still most likely get four to eight hours a month to still keep your foot in the door. That way, you could prove to yourself and show medical schools why you want to be a doctor. Plus, it will help you write a better personal statement and write better essays, do a better interview, and, potentially, be a better doctor. So your actions are backing up everything you’re saying.
Lastly, being a server isn’t a bad thing. It is a great experience in terms of communicating, leadership, and organization, and all that stuff. So you don’t have to quit serving. Just try to figure out a way to do some other stuff again to prove to yourself that this is still what you want.
