TARPON SPRINGS Her physician grandfather had no exposure to patients until his third year of medical school. But Alyssa Benjamin has already scrubbed in for surgeries, worked on her suture skills and even helped remove a suspicious mole off her boss' neck.

And she hasn't even applied to medical school.

Benjamin, a Dunedin resident and sophomore at Bucknell University in Pennsylvania, was one of about a half dozen undergraduates in a premedical internship program this summer at Florida Hospital North Pinellas.

Started by surgical oncologist Douglas Reintgen, the program helps students shore up their credentials before they apply to medical school and possibly give them a leg up once they make it through medical school and start angling for a limited number of residency slots.

"You've got to do something that makes your application stand out," said Reintgen, also a professor at the University of South Florida's Morsani College of Medicine.

The early shadowing program reflects the hyper-competitive nature of becoming a physician. In 2013, the nation's medical schools received a record 48,000 applications; about 20,000 were accepted and enrolled, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges. At USF Health, several thousand people applied last year to the medical school, which had slots for about 120, said Dr. Bryan Bognar, vice dean for educational affairs for the USF medical school.

Students in Reintgen's program said they're thinking ahead even to residencies after they complete medical school. Those training slots are in short supply that's expected to tighten even more as medical and osteopathic schools continue to churn out higher numbers of graduates.

Last year, several hundred medical school graduates didn't get a residency, which is key to becoming a licensed physician, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges.

Bognar said nearly every successful applicant has some sort of shadowing experience. The increasing number of medical school applicants almost "compels students who want to be competitive to flesh out their portfolios," he said.

Those experiences may be limited for those students who are working their way through school and can't afford to do a low- or nonpaying internship. Reintgen's program at Florida Hospital pays students a small stipend.

Continued here:

Florida Hospital program gives students early taste of medical life