I believe I explicitly said it may have no bearing on an application.
I also don't see where I said anything about med school or being a med student.
No successful application, no medical school. Quick stats on pre-med v applicant v med student.
The average Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT) subsections are standardized to a score of 8 out of 15. This should make the average composite MCAT score a 24 (there are 3 subsections scored in this manner. Combined, those three sections make up the composite score). The average applicant to US medical schools when I applied was a 27 and the average successful applicant scored a 30. For the composite score, The standard deviation is around 2. So the people who apply to medical school are already significantly higher than the average score on the MCAT and the average successful applicant is about 1.5 standard deviations above the mean. While DO school averages are a little lower, they aren't that much lower. Meanwhile, the average score continues to inch ever higher for both MD and DO schools despite new schools opening up.
So you're saying having a strong grasp on anatomy and physiology well before med school, and using it on a regular basis are in no way valuable in preparation?
Given the quantity of material in the short time period that it is presented in medical school AND as a first year medical student who did take undergrad anatomy and physiology. Yes. Undergrad A/P bears little resemblance in difficulty to medical school and learning anatomy out of Netters bears no resemblance to gross anatomy. Don't believe me? Compare Netter's Atlas of Human Anatomy (idealized drawings) to Rohen's Color Atlas of Anatomy (real pictures), and then realize that Rohen is essentially a perfect dissection, which is not what the average student is going to do on the average cadaver. Consider also that the lab practicals for Gross Anatomy are tagged from the student's dissection, and not an idealized dissection. When the anatomy professors have to dissect out a section, it's next to impossible half the time (that's how we're "punished" if a table isn't doing their dissections properly, such as only dissecting one side of the cadaver. We're warned of this from day one.) to identify what is tagged.
Never mind that the A/P taught in EMT-B is a complete and utter joke.
Being able to handle the mental and emotional ramifications of death aren't going to in any way prepare you to handle actually being a doctor? Because I thought that becoming a doctor was the end result of becoming to med school, at least hopefully.
Most EMT-Bs aren't going to have to deal with death. Period. Furthermore, even the ones that do end up working a code are still not going to be involved with cessation of resuscitation and family notification. There's a big difference between doing CPR and telling the wife that her husband is dead, despite our best efforts.
I did not say there were not other, better opportunities for clinical experience. I am sure that there are. He didn't ask about other clinical experiences though.. he asked about EMS.
He's also asking about in regards to medical school applications. I'm one of the handful of people on here who's been through the application process, and one of 2 that I know of that were successful. If the OP's end goal is medical school, I'd rather help him get into medical school than get into EMS. That definitely involves suggesting additional and/or alternative options. That involves seriously describing the benefits of EMS, especially when the benefits are generally overstated by EMS providers who've never filled out one or a combination of the three US medical school application systems (AMCAS, AACOMAS, or TMDSAS) and played application roulette.
Oh, by the way, Application Roulette (TM) costs about $1000 to play, plus what ever it costs in airfare, lodging, and car rentals for those blessed with invites. An average school will get 5,000 applicants, interview 6-700 applicants, accept 500 applicants, and end up with a class of 100-200 students. It is very easy to spend thousands of dollars to come up with nothing but rejection letters.
Logically, EMS is a high pressure field.. we handle bad situations with sometimes less equipment and resources than we'd like, and for the most part I think we do a pretty good job of it. No, being a paramedic is nothing like being a doctor.. but that does not mean you do not hone any skills that are useful as a doctor while doing it.
Most EMTs do not work high pressure jobs.
Most EMTs (especially those working pure non-emergent work) have ample equipment to handle their jobs. The equipment might not be the very best quality. They may not have everything they want, but they have everything they
need.
Alternatively, most of medicine is not high pressure. Most physicians do not handle emergencies.
Logically, if someone isn't successful at the admissions game then it doesn't matter how good of a physician they might be, because they aren't going to be a physician. The admissions game has to be played, and it's very much played by the admissions committees' rules and on their grounds. You can have all of the interpersonal ability in the world and be able to think on your feet and all of that jazz. You still aren't getting into medical school with a 2.5 GPA and a 22 MCAT score.
