Listing Hospital Experience for PhD?

[dopamine_machine]

Hi all,

I was wondering if I could get your opinion on whether or not to include hospital experience on PhD applications (Neuroscience) I plan on submitting in the fall.  I just graduated from my undergraduate studies at UCSD with a BS in Neuroscience and Physiology.  I volunteered in 2 hospitals (around 150 hours) to see if I was interested in medical school, but quickly learned I wasn't a fan of the crazy hours I had to work.  I worked in the Emergency Department ward, Surgical Acute Care ward, and the Neurological Progressive Care ward.  I worked full-time at my lab while volunteering in the hospitals, so I don't think it would show a lack of interest in research.  I work in a Neuroscience lab studying developmental neurobiology in psychiatric disorders (schizophrenia, bipolar, autism).  I was mostly wondering the following:

1. Would my hospital work (specifically in the Neuro ward) be specifically helpful since it is in relatively the same field as my PhD applications/undergraduate major/research experience? I worry that they'll take my hospital hours as something that shows me lacking in interest for research, while I hope to include the hospital hours so as to show that I am even more interested in neuroscience. 

2. Would my work in the hospital make me appear more suitable to translational research PhD programs? I also am very interested in translational neuroscience research, so I wonder if having hospital hours would be beneficial to my applications to translational neuroscience PhD programs.

Thanks for your help!

[TheDefeater]

I listed hospital experience and they were brought up at 2 independent interviews but everything about it was super positive. 

[cropop]

It's really about how you frame it. If you say, "I worked in a hospital to see if I was interested in medical school but didn't like the long hours", then I wouldn't put that. But if you say, "Through volunteering in a hospital, I found that I had a passion for neuroscience", then that would be great to put.

[DRMF]

I would include it in both your resume and personal statement. My current (immunology) program has a required short clinical course where we shadow clinicians specialized in immunology-related diseases. If you're into translational research, I think the adcom should see such experiences as a positive.

I echo others in that you should think strategically about how you frame it. I personally wouldn't devote a whole paragraph to it in the personal statement, but instead use it as a jumping point - explain how it's motivated you to do research, kept you grounded, helped you understand where the field is at and which areas are in dire need of new ideas, etc. For the resume I would put it somewhere further down, in "experiences" or "activities" or "community services", so it doesn't steal the spotlight of your research stuff up top.