May 29, 2025
Written By
Maybe you’ve emailed 17 clinics and gotten two auto-replies. Maybe you volunteered for 6 months but never once spoke to a patient. Or maybe you're working two jobs, trying to make ends meet, and can’t imagine adding another unpaid shift to your week. If you’re trying to figure out how to get clinical hours for med school and how to make them meaningful, you’re not alone, and this guide is going to give it to you straight.
In this article, we’ll break down why clinical hours matter in the first place, what really counts as clinical experience (and what doesn’t), and how many hours you actually need to be competitive. We’ll walk you through which experiences are worth your time, how to find them even without connections, and how to write about them on your application.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed or unsure where to start, you don’t have to figure it out alone. At Premed Catalyst, we provide mentorship and application advising to help students become competitive for medical school, including finding meaningful clinical experiences.
For the 2024–2025 cycle, 100% of our on-time applicants were accepted.
Want that to be your story? Book a free strategy session and let’s make sure your clinical hours are more than just hours.
Clinical hours aren’t just a checkbox. They’re the foundation of who you’ll become as a future physician.
These experiences give you more than just exposure. They give you hands-on learning that bridges the gap between textbook theory and real-world practice. It’s the difference between knowing what a disease is and understanding what it feels like to care for someone living through it.
Spending time in clinical environments also shows you’re serious. Anyone can say they want to be a doctor. But showing up week after week? That’s commitment. That’s proof that you’re not chasing prestige. You’re chasing purpose.
And the growth? It’s undeniable. You start to build the skills that no MCAT score can measure mainly empathy, clear communication, and time management under pressure. These are the traits that define not just a great applicant but a great future physician.
Not all “healthcare-adjacent” work counts as clinical experience. This is where a lot of premeds waste time, thinking they’re racking up hours when, really, they’re just clocking in. Clinical experience means direct patient interaction. If you’re in the room and actively involved, listening, assisting, documenting, speaking, or supporting the patient in some way, that counts.
It doesn’t mean standing in the corner like a coat rack. It means participating. Taking vitals. Writing notes. Helping a patient to the bathroom. Comforting them before a procedure. Listening to their story and learning how to respond with empathy. If the patient sees you, hears you, or feels your presence as part of their care, that’s clinical.
To break it down further, here are some examples of what counts:
And here’s what doesn’t count:
If you’re a non-traditional student, meaning you didn’t take the straight line from high school to med school, you might already have clinical experience without realizing it. Especially if you’ve worked as a caregiver, nurse, EMT, or in any role where you’ve directly interacted with patients.
So does your job count toward your needed clinical hours?
Yes, if it involves direct patient care. If you’re a nurse managing meds and checking vitals, that’s clinical. If you’re a home health aide helping patients bathe, eat, and stay comfortable, that’s clinical. But even with a background in healthcare, med schools want to see that you’ve pursued clinical experiences on your path to becoming a physician. So, even if you’ve logged thousands of hours as an RN or tech, make time to volunteer in a clinical setting with MDs or DOs.
But what if you’re a non-traditional student coming from outside healthcare entirely. Business, education, tech, the military? You’re not behind. You’re just at a different starting line.
What matters most is that you start pursuing clinical experiences now that reflect your commitment to medicine. Look for entry points like part-time scribing, medical assisting, hospice volunteering, or working at community clinics. These experiences will not only give you the exposure med schools expect, but they’ll also show that you’ve taken ownership of your career change with purpose and intention.
You’ve probably seen the number 100 to 150 hours thrown around online. That might’ve worked in 2016. But this is 2025. The bar for how many clinical hours you need for med school is higher.
From what we’ve seen with our own 2024–2025 cohort at Premed Catalyst, the real range for competitive applicants is now closer to 300 to 2,000 hours. And the proof? Students in that range who applied on time received a median of seven interviews.
But remember: it’s not just about the number. It’s about what those hours mean. Did you learn? Did an experience change the idea of what doctor you want to become?
Not all clinical hours are created equal. Just because you’re wearing scrubs doesn’t mean you’re building an application that stands out. What med schools want to see is depth, impact, and intentionality. These five types of experiences? They move the needle.
Examples: Medical assistant, scribe, EMT, phlebotomist, CNA.
These jobs give you a front-row seat to patient care. You’re taking vitals, documenting visits, translating between doctor-speak and real talk. These roles show maturity, stamina, and your ability to function in fast-paced environments where mistakes matter.
Paid roles come with built-in consistency. Twenty hours a week turns into 1,000 hours fast and med schools notice. Why? Because consistency shows commitment.
Examples: Free clinics, hospice, mobile health units, underserved community clinics.
Volunteering doesn’t mean randomly signing up for shifts and hoping for the best. Strategic volunteering means choosing environments that expose you to the kinds of patients, challenges, and clinical settings that align with your story.
This kind of volunteering says: I don’t just want to be a doctor. I care about who I serve. It shows heart, direction, and purpose. Bonus points if you stay in one place long enough to form relationships and grow your responsibilities over time.
You get: Research hours and clinical hours.
Med schools see: That you can contribute to both the science and the human side of medicine.
Not all research is staring at cells under a microscope. If your research involves interacting with patients, like gathering clinical data, conducting surveys, assisting in clinical trials, that counts.
Plus, research sharpens your critical thinking. It gives you something meaningful to talk about in interviews. And if you stick with it long enough, it might even get you a publication or conference presentation.
Let’s be real: med schools can smell a “voluntourism” trip from a mile away. One week in Costa Rica taking photos with kids? Doesn’t move the needle. But sustained, ethical, patient-centered global experiences? Those matter.
What works: Long-term, structured programs where you’re supporting local healthcare providers, not replacing them. Think rural clinics, global health partnerships, and refugee health outreach.
These experiences can be powerful, especially if they reflect your broader interests in public health, health equity, or serving underserved populations. But they need to be backed by reflection and cultural humility, not just a passport stamp.
There are certain premed activities that feel productive but barely register with admissions committees. Too many students are stuck doing what they think med schools want, only to realize too late that none of it mattered.
Here are the five most common types of experiences that waste time and space on your application:
No doctor in the family? No premed committee holding your hand? Welcome to the club. The good news: you don’t need connections. You need a plan. Here’s how to start finding real clinical opportunities. No networking privilege required.
Think you don’t know anyone in medicine? You might be surprised.
Think about your extended network: classmates who volunteer, roommates in healthcare jobs, family friends who work in clinics, nursing homes, or urgent care centers. Even people working the front desk at a clinic can connect you with someone hiring or taking volunteers.
Yes, cold emailing works. No, it usually doesn’t work if you send one message and give up.
Craft a short, professional email that gets to the point fast: who you are, what you're looking for, and why you reached out to them specifically. Mention your availability, your eagerness to learn, and your willingness to be helpful.
Send 20 emails. Expect three replies. That’s a win. Always follow up after 7–10 days. Be respectful but persistent.
Pre-health advisors, faculty mentors, alumni directories, student orgs—all of them have potential leads. Visit your career center and ask about paid roles specifically. Many schools partner with hospitals and private practices for medical assistant and scribe positions. There might be postings on Handshake or job boards you’ve overlooked.
Check for affiliated hospitals or clinics tied to your university. Those relationships often have pre-existing programs just waiting for someone to apply.
Start local. These places are often more flexible than large hospitals, especially if you're willing to volunteer a few hours a week and handle basic tasks with professionalism and enthusiasm.
Call or email nearby hospitals, private practices, community clinics, urgent cares, and specialty centers.
Use Google Maps to search within 10–20 miles. Start with smaller practices and outpatient centers. These places often need help but don’t have the time to post on big job boards. Clinics, physical therapy centers, women’s health practices, and internal medicine offices often hire college students as part-time assistants or front-line support staff.
The internet isn’t just for Reddit rants. It’s a goldmine for both paid and volunteer clinical opportunities if you know where to look.
Start with targeted platforms:
You found the opportunity. Now comes the part that separates passive applicants from serious ones: follow-up.
After applying or reaching out, always circle back within 5–10 days. Whether it’s a paid position or a volunteer opportunity, following up shows initiative, persistence, and professionalism.
Let’s get one thing straight: a gap year isn’t a detour. It’s a power move if you need it.
Why? Because it gives you time to build the strongest version of your application without trying to cram 30-hour weeks of clinical work between Orgo lab and MCAT flashcards.
Here’s how a gap year flips the script:
Here’s what not to do with your clinical experience. These are the mistakes that raise eyebrows and sink applications:
Clinical experience isn’t just hours. It’s evidence. Proof of your narrative—who you say you are, what you care about, and the type of doctor you want to become.
But here’s the mistake most applicants make: they stop at what they did. That’s not enough. When you write about your clinical hours on AMCAS, don’t just tell us where you were or what tasks you performed. Write about what those moments meant. What did they teach you about patient care, about resilience, about your own values? How did they sharpen your sense of what kind of doctor you want to become?
But it’s not just about what you realized. It’s about what you did next. If you say you had clinical experience that opened your eyes to a specific patient population, healthcare gap, or area of interest, then your next move should prove that.
You say you realized your heart for immigrant health? Your subsequent hours should be in community clinics, refugee intake centers, or volunteer interpreter roles. You say you're drawn to women's health? Show us you followed that pull with experience at an OB/GYN practice or with doula training.
Use this checklist to ensure your clinical experience isn’t just a line on your app, but instead proves you’re ready for medicine.
You don’t have time to guess. Too many students spend months in the wrong roles, stacking hours that don’t say anything meaningful about who they are or why they belong in medicine.
At Premed Catalyst, we’ve worked with hundreds of students to cut through the noise and get clinical experience that actually moves the needle. Our students don’t just check boxes. They build stories. Stories that lead to acceptances.
If you’re serious about making this application cycle the one, then book a free strategy session today.