P2A050: The Symbiotic Relationship Between Gap-year Students and Private Practice

Purpose/Objectives: To improve access to high quality highly motivated staff in the private practice workforce and at the same time improve the acceptance rates of highly motivated candidates into postgraduate medical professional schools such as medical, nursing, physician assistant, and residency program MATCH.

Design/Methods: When positions became available for new staff, instead if hiring using traditional methods such as employment search engines and ads we advertised positions via local college pre-med advisors, word of mouth, and listserves for gap year students and unmatched residents.
We required a commitment of at least 1 year. During their employment term, they were trained in clinical aspects of pediatric care, gained experience as medical assistants, taught to chart complete SOAP notes, and reviewed clinical cases, and practice based research. They functioned as excellent medical assistants. In addition, we reviewed their CVs, personal statements, mentored in the application process, and wrote letters of recommendation for the professional schools they were looking to apply to. Once they matriculated into their post graduate school of choice and their employment was coming to an end, they passed on the open position to other students like themselves in their former programs.

Results: Everyone of the gap year students/unmatched MDs were accepted to the school or program they were applying to. 2 were accepted to their top choice Physician Assistant school, one to nurse Practitioner school, one to Pediatric Residency having previously not matched, one chose to leave clinical medicine and obtain a Masters in Biomedical engineering prior to applying to Medical school. Currently we have 2 students looking to apply for medical school this cycle, and another starting, one starting that will apply to nursing school, and one into residency. Although their time with us is short, they provide a very motivated and committed staff with science background that is very hard to find via traditional job searches while obtaining the experience they need to become stronger candidates.

Conclusion/Discussion: In recent years, especially since the onset of the COVID 19 pandemic it has been increasingly difficult to find capable and committed staff in medicine, especially in private practice that has to compete with large hospital systems who can offer more benefits. It has also been increasingly harder for intelligent and motivated students to be accepted into medical/professional schools. Our methods showed that while offering these jobs to these students not only provides us with a strong and committed workforce it also helps them matriculate into their desired post graduate medical education programs and trains the next generation of healthcare with a baseline understanding of medicine and private practice. Although these students only are employed temporarily (1-2 years) they are often quicker to train and often have connections to new students to replace them.