You’re reading this because you want to find some ways you can get clinical experience as either an undergraduate or earlier as a high schooler.

So, I’m gonna share what I did and how you can follow in similar steps to get great experience as a pre med!

I found my interest for healthcare during my junior year of high school, which offered an amazing opportunity for students to enroll in career courses. This was a separate career preparedness campus that rooted in real-world skills and trade certifications ranging from all types of careers. I was able to use this to enroll in the CNA (certified nursing aide) course and get state certified. This course is what brought me to where I’am today and I’m forever thankful for enrolling into this course.

How to get CNA certified

Since the program I was enrolled was through my high school, this was a semester long course which ranged for about 4 months. I researched CNA courses for a while and found year long programs or accelerated programs. I was even surprised to see that some places offer as little as a 4 week program.

My program was fully in person and twice a week. The beginning of the class would be a short lecture although most of the material was meant to be done independently outside of the class. The rest of the class would be working with a partner on the skills of the week, which was done on fake mannequins as our patients. This was a great way to get many hours of clinical exposure and practice skills directly with the instructor. We learned things as basic nursing skills, communication skills, restorative services, personal care skills, and safety and emergency care issues. 

I found that in person is best to get hands-on experience. Although, I’ve found many people prefer a programs that is fully online which is also a great alternative. You can get certified through a shorter time period and all by using a computer!

This program gave me a lot of time to work with the instructor and practice every skill necessary. By the end of the course, I passed a clinical rotation test, written exam, and obtained my CPR/BLS certification. Once this is passed, I got my certification of completion.

Getting State Certified

Many people think that passing the class is an automatic CNA license. BUT, now you must pass a state exam. This process is somewhat tedious due to needing proper immunization papers and a tuberculosis test as well with a lot of paperwork but it’s worth it in the end.

Once the course is finished, my instructor sent us instructions to get state certified. I applied through my states CNA Exam which is the National Nurse Aide Assessment Program – NNAAP. You apply to an exam date and wait for testing day! I recommend doing this EARLY, because this can take weeks or months to schedule a written exam day.

On test day, I went to a prometric testing site and took the written part of my state exam.

The second part was the skills portion, which was scheduled a separate day at a different site than where I took my exam. This was performed with a random selected partner and an instructor that marks you as you perform the skills, this is way better than a written test in my opinion!

Remember, the patient simulation is the most important part of your training as a CNA. Without knowing the correct interactions with your patient, you can’t do this job correctly! I recommend watching a lot of videos online over the 20+ skills needed to pass this portion of the state exam. Practice on siblings, friends, etc and this will be most beneficial for you and less nerve racking as well.

I left the testing site without knowing if I passed or not for about a week or so. I got the notification I passed and was thrilled! I was officially licensed as a CNA and ready to work on real patients!

Applying to jobs!

I was really nervous to start working as it’s something very different than a typical high school job. I was able to start at typical nursing homes, skilled nursing facilities, and retirement homes.

So, there’s many routes you can take as a CNA and can work in many different places but I started with the most popular which is nursing homes. I worked through an agency that reported shifts in many different facilities that needed extra help. This wasn’t an official job at one place but rather I was able to see a wide range of places with different levels of care. I was able to see what I liked and didn’t like when it came to patient care.

After working less than a year as a CNA for an agency, I was starting to get burnt out. Which is not normal as I had just started. I soon learned that working in these homes was much more harder than a normal hospital job.

I later found myself applying to hospitals as a PCT – Patient Care Technician. This was the best decision I made. I had experience working at different levels of care before my interview which made me have more exposure to what I would possibly see at a hospital.

I showed my hunger for learning and displayed professionalism. The combination of my resume, professionalism, and the desire of wanting to help others is what helped me secure a spot at the orthopedics/spine department.

During orientation, you go through blood work, vaccination, and drug tested to ensure you are healthy to be working in this job environment. There were many online training videos that were required to learn about new hospital equipment and laws.

I then trained on the floor directly with a PCT for three shifts, which was not long enough haha. I came in the following week and was left to adapt which was scary at first. The hospital had sooo many things different from what I was used to at nursing homes and a whole different flow. There was so much to learn and time management became very important.

Obviously, I got better at my job as time went on.

The best Job!

Becoming a patient care technician was the best choice for me. I hands down recommend anyone who isn’t enjoying working as a CNA as much as they would hope to apply to hospitals. Not only do I gain patient care experience but I helped contribute to bettering patients lives.

A hospital environment allows you to work directly with a nursing team, physicians, physical therapists, phlebotomists, radiologists, and many more who keep the hospital running. You acquire many valuable insights about the healthcare system and the medical aspect of patient care.

Not only does this show you more into the future as an inspiring medical student, but this also helps you realize if working and caring for patients is truly what you want to do. There are so many great jobs you can do as a premed to prepare for med school and I’ll definitely be talking about more in my blog, stay posted!