Just what the doctor ordered

Mentor helps med school applicant land the experience he needed

By California State University, Bakersfield

May 11^th, 2021

Carson Vollmer, a junior studying kinesiology at CSUB, wanted to apply for medical school but had a problem: No clinical experience to prove his interest and commitment.

He’d had leads, but they dried up because of COVID-19. He thought at some point he’d have to ask himself, ‘If I don’t have the clinical hours, would I even be a competitive applicant?”

But Vollmer never had to confront that question because he was matched with CSUB alum and local physician assistant Stephen Muchinyi in the `Runner Alumni Mentor Program.

RAMP connects juniors, seniors and graduate students with a CSUB alum who can help them prepare for life and career after CSUB including working on a resume, practicing interviewing, deciding between graduate school and full-time work, and even applying for jobs.

It turned out that Muchinyi’s employer, Priority Urgent Care, was hiring scribes. A scribe takes dictation from a doctor after he or she has seen a patient and documents things like symptoms shown, exams performed and medication prescribed.

Muchinyi told Vollmer about the opportunity. Vollmer applied, and got the job in mid-February. He’s been working at different Priority Urgent Care locations about 20 hours a week; he expects his hours to grow once the school year ends.

He’ll do anywhere from 20 or 30 to 50 charts a day.

“it has really built my confidence in knowing that I should be able to apply now,” Vollmer said.

“You’ll be really competitive,” Muchinyi chimed in.

Scribe is a great job for people interested in going into medicine because it exposes them to many different types of care, said Muchinyi, who earned his bachelor’s degree in chemistry from CSUB in 2011.

And clinical experience is a must-have, whether you want to be a doctor or a physician assistant or a nurse practitioner, he said.

“You have to have it,” Muchinyi said. “I was an ER technician at Adventist Health before I applied to PA school.

“If you don’t have the clinical experience,” he continued, “the interviewers can ask you, ‘Well, we see that you haven’t had any clinical experience. So, how do you know you want this?’”

Vollmer, who thinks he wants to go into internal medicine, will be working on med school applications this summer. Where he actually applies will depend on the strength of his MCAT scores, but he has about 20 schools on his list.

Asked if he’ll be helping Vollmer through the process, Muchinyi responded enthusiastically.

“Absolutely! Yeah, yeah,” he said. “That’s what a good mentor should do, right?”

We will be recruiting RAMP mentors and mentees for the 2021-22 academic year this summer. If you want to apply now, click "Join" on the RAMP web page of `RunnerBridge, our mentoring and networking website.