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Professional schools strongly favor applicants who have personal experience in the kind of health care work they hope to pursue. Therefore, clinical observation, or better still, actual hands-on clinical work is an important asset for getting into professional school. In fact, the more work experience you have, the better your chances for admission.
To give our students some clinical experience, Stetson offers of pre-health clinical internship experience as a three-credit course during the summer session. It is a program where students observe the work of local physicians as well as other health care professionals in a variety of specialties. Students work one on one or in pairs alongside a health professional during office visits, rounds and surgical procedures. You may even get to witness the birth of a baby!
All sophomore and junior pre-health students should consider participating in this internship. The Chair of HPAC will organize registration for the course and hold an information session with Dr. Lyle Wadsworth, who runs the internship. These will occur early each Spring semester.
Stetson pre-health alums Diedre Michels, Aaron Hero and Heather Moss take a tour of West Volusia Medical enter prior to their pre-clinical internship experience.
Network of Local Physicians
Over the past several years, the Women's Health Services clinic and other medical offices and facilities in DeLand have provided our students with shadowing opportunities. Students volunteer a morning or afternoon a week to help take medical histories, conduct basic medical tests, prepare exam rooms and observe and assist the physicians. The key to this experience is patient contact, which is usually very difficult to obtain.
Stetson pre-health alums Mercedes Pacheco and J.T. Barringer help
Dr. Hussain Rawji perform a sonogram at the DeLand Women's Health Clinic.
Other
In addition to these formal internship programs, students are encouraged to arrange internship opportunities on their own by contacting Career Services or a health professional they know. Locally we have had students work in offices and clinics, at Florida Hospital DeLand, and the Halifax Medical Center in Daytona Beach.
You also can gain valuable experience by volunteering in the community with associations involved in medically-related service including the American Cancer Society, American Lung Association, Special Olympics, Boggy Creek Gang, Rape Crisis Center, Aids Foundations, Planned Parenthood and Alcohol and Drug Education Centers (to name a few). Also, with some training, you can become part of patient care services working as a phlebotomist, emergency medicine technician, blood gas technician, orderly, nursing home aid or home health aid. Look into these and other opportunities to be active in the health professions.
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