Personal Narrative: My Experience As A Clinical Assistant

In 2015, my family went through a financial hardship that led me to the decision of finding a part time job. I was done with all my clerkships by December 2014 and I was fortunate to be hired as a clinical assistant for a psychiatry clinic where I had completed my very last clerkship.

My employer agreed to give me a 20 hours/week schedule while I prepared for the Step 2 CK. My time at the clinic had positive and negative outcomes. On one hand, I gained a vast experience in the field of psychiatry, screening up to 20 patients a day and I even got three of my letters of recommendations from the psychiatrists who I worked with. On the other hand, soon after I started working, and despite our initial agreement of 20 hours/week, management began to ask me for up to 50 hours/week, including weekends. Thankfully, after 6 …show more content…
Quickly after I got my scores back, I took an NBME exam and the scores reflected similar results to my actual exam scores. In order to improve my scores I completed the DIT program, continued using UWorld and First Aid Review book. I took another NBME exam and my scores went up by 30 points which would have been sufficient to pass, but also too close to the cutoff numbers. Due to my limited time, I scheduled my second attempt for April 5, 2016.

The day after I got the results from my second attempt I subscribed to the ‘USMLE Success Academy’, an online preparation program, and I renewed my UWorld subscription. I also took another NBME exam which I will use to compare with another NBME exam that I will be taking at the end of the program. This online program gives me a detailed follow-up plan of action to take and pass the exam. Up to this day I have completed half of the program, and on June 15, 2016, I will be taking my end of the course NBME exam, which will serve as an indicator of my readiness to re-take the