Formal or Credentialed Patient Exposure

Some students will opt to get a formal credential in order to get the patient exposure/clinical experiences necessary to be a good medical school applicant. These types of credentials may include surgical tech, pharmacy tech, medical assistant (MA), EMT, phlebotomist, LPN, physical therapy assistant (PTA) or certified nurse assistant (CNA). There are other credentials as well, but these are the most common ones acquired by BYU students. For some students, part of the motivation in acquiring a credential, is the potential of acquiring a part-time job, rather than just volunteering to get patient exposure experiences. It should be noted however, that EMT job opportunities in Utah County are quite limited as most municipalities in the county hire fire fighter/paramedics, and not EMTs. Many students do volunteer as EMTs with the BYU EMS. Similarly, there are few job opportunities locally for phlebotomists. Most of the local hospitals hire and then train their phlebotomists with the expectation they will be full-time employees. The local plasma centers do hire part-time phlebotomists.

Of course acquiring a health-care credential costs both time and money. A CNA credential takes only a few weeks and approx. $500-600. A surgical tech credential may take up to 12 months and costs approx. $4000. A PTA may take 21 months and cost several thousand dollars.

The most common venue for acquiring these types of healthcare credentials are vocational or technical schools. Local schools in the area include Mountainland Technical College, Provo College, Ameritech College of Healthcare, and Stevens Henager College. Many programs are also offered through Salt Lake Community College. BYU offers both an EMT and advanced EMT courses through the Division of Continuing Education (non-credit). UVU offers both an EMT and Advanced EMT training through course credit offerings.

Functioning in the role of a medical scribe or as a medical translator/interpreter are other ways of gaining patient exposure experiences. Medical scribing involves taking notes during a patient interview, and writing up the encounter on a medical chart. This is almost always done electronically. Medical scribing is a common part-time paid position in many hospitals/clinics. To serve as a medical translator, you will need to have proficiency in the language required, most commonly Spanish. Other language translation opportunities may exist in different locations across the country. Medical translation may be a paid position, but is more commonly a volunteer position. While there are entities that offer training programs for scribing or medical translation, our opinion is that is really not necessary. These types of positions are typically based in a hospital or clinic, and that entity will typically provide the level of training they want the person to have. Getting internship credit for the scribing or translating position may be a possibility. If the student is working/volunteering for enough hours to qualify for BYU internship credit. (42 clock hours is required for each internship credit hour. This needs to be pre-approved, and internship credit is not awarded retroactively. For more information regarding this possibility, you may seek the guidance of a PPAC advisor/internship coordinator.)