How much does being a 1:1 sitter “count” for clinical hours?

[u/bruhmeister06]

I am a sophomore in college and I’ve been working as a 1:1 sitter for a bit now, and I do like it! But I was chatting with some more experienced pre-meds the other day and they made it seem like medical schools actually want to see you administering active procedures in your clinical hours, like an EMT or MA and that while being a sitter was technically clinical it wouldn’t actually do much to help my application.

Most of my job consists of keeping people calm and trying to help them de-agitate if they aren’t, making sure they don’t pull things out/off or otherwise harm themselves, and helping with day to day tasks like eating, mobility, repositioning in bed, hygiene, etc, I’m not really allowed to do much beyond that like administer medications, occasionally I might be asked to take some vitals but that doesn’t happen very often. What I’m worried about is that this is too “passive”.

As I said I do like my work and would like to continue with it if possible, however I would like to know if what I was told is true as I haven’t really been able to get a clear answer from searching, and if it is what is my best course of action for getting “real” clinical hours?

[u/TinySandshrew]

I think anyone who has spent any time working inpatient knows that sitters have a tough job and learn really important communication skills when it comes to redirecting and de-escalating agitated/confused patients. I would count this as clinical.

[u/lazyboozin]

Tell them to go sit with a dementia patient for 12 hours who hasn’t slept in 2 days and then report back on what their pre-med opinion is

[u/TinySandshrew → u/lazyboozin]

It’s always random snobbish premeds coming up with the weirdest rules around what “counts” as a certain type of experience when they don’t have the first clue how adcoms think or work lmao

[u/lazyboozin → u/TinySandshrew]

I’ve always found this weird. I went to the tutoring center to ask an Ochem question the other day and the person they sent me to was a guy in my class, that’s a lot like what it feels like. The blind leading the blind

[u/DearFutureDoctor]

Thats absolutely real clinical hours. Id be very impressed by it if I was on the admissions committee

[u/PurpleSeesaw5396]

I’d think this is totally fine for clinical experience (in my opinion, but I’m just one person haha). You are interacting with patients and are participating in their care. If you like it I would keep doing it. If an opportunity comes long for something else that you would rather do that’s fine too, but I don’t think you need to specifically seek out a different experience. To me, the “point” of clinical experience is to make sure that you don’t get to medical school and realize you hate interacting with patients or that you thought being a doctor was like greys anatomy. I think your experience fulfills both of those things!

[u/FloridaMan2324]

It’s all about how you write about your experiences and tell your stories that matters

[u/mtbizzle]

It’s definitely clinical. A lot more than many entry level or volunteer roles.

[u/MedicalBasil8]

This is for sure clinical.

[u/llamanutella]

This is absolutely clinical experience! Idk what active procedures your premed peers are talking about … why would a premed be doing procedural activities. Plus the skill of getting acutely aggressive patients to calm down is no small task - in inpatient psych at least significant discussion gets dedicated to figuring out how to allocate sitters 

[u/IrisofAquaTofana]

I worked as an EMT and did inpatient psych too. I can honestly say I learned more and improved more as a healthcare professional in psych than EMS.

Forget what other students say, this absolutely counts as clinical hours and you are learning far more useful skills than most of them. Basic bedside manner is easy to learn. Writing notes and charting is easy to learn. Even low level active procedures are easy to learn.

Learning how to effectively deescalate grossly psychotic and agitated individuals is something that not everyone will be able to do, even if given the opportunity. It is an immensely useful skill that makes you an invaluable asset to any staff team you are a part of. Particularly if you go into psych or EM. You'll also be able to clock the early stages of agitation better than your peers and be able to defuse it before it reaches a boiling point.

[u/MelodicBookkeeper]

You can get good clinical experience from being a patient sitter. I don’t think you need to switch just to administer medications or do procedures.

I assume that your premed friends may be making incorrect assumptions of what being a patient sitter entails, but anyone who has worked in the ER or on inpatient knows that patient sitting isn’t easy!

[u/PerceptionGold6327]

As someone who once needed a sitter, thank you. Mine was one of the kindest women, she even gave me a lemon cake from her own lunch because it was midnight in the ER and no one could get me food.

[u/Background-Long-944]

I have so much respect for 1:1 sitters.. I am a CNA and pray that I don't get assigned a 1:1... I have been scratched, kicked at, and thrown things at. I would much rather work on the floor a tech. But regardless that sounds like a decent clinical experience imo. That said, I have heard from advisors who recommend that you get clinical experience where you are in a customer service role. Like an MA who can cater to the pts and doctors requests and needs, do vitals, etc.. just so that you can explore medicine more broadly. If you were to ask me, I would say maybe look into other med roles as you go into junior year? Just so that you can get a varied exposure and adcoms can see that you got your hands in the work in different ways :)

Good luck!! And God bless you for being a sitter!!

[u/Random-Nothing-9775]

It totally counts. Being a sitter to awake people takes a different kind of skill 😭 I hate being called to be a sitter when we're short-staffed in the ER bc I'm not the best at de escalation

[u/obscureornith1111]

I feel like you’ll be fine. I’ve been working as a 1:1 that isn’t even allowed to do the stuff you do. I did make sure to get clinical volunteering too tho. I’ve gotten 2 II’s so far. Take this with a grain of salt as I’m only one person and I have yet to find out if the II’s will turn into R’s lol. Good luck and I’m rooting for you!!