Learning about medicine from volunteering

[Kirin]

Hello forum!

I am currently a graduate student in the biomedical sciences. Although some aspects of my current career are very exciting (challenging problem solving, collaborations, and the chance to play with bleeding edge technology), I feel that I want a more proactive role in the medical field and believe that I will have more satisfaction from working with patients. I realize there may be many lines of work in healthcare industry that can provide that satisfaction for me, but I think it is more practical and intellectually exciting to take the MD path if I can reasonably achieve that goal.

So, I am considering taking a year of absence from my graduate studies to work, explore, study for the MCAT, and do volunteer work. I want to ask the forum: what volunteer work and activities can I try that will 1) teach me the most about what it's like to be a physician, and 2) help best support my application for schools. I know medicine is a challenging lifestyle change, not just a career change... and I want to make an informed and committed decision when I choose to go for it.

I have been recommended to seek volunteer work at ICU for maximum patient and healthcare worker contact.

For your information, I want to stay in my current field of work as plan B, so I want to find a 40 h/week job in biomedical research in an industrial setting during my year away from graduate school. Bachelors 3.9 GPA, Graduate 3.8 GPA, extensive research and teaching experience but little else, accustomed to working 70 h/week. This should be fun, thanks for your advice!

Very excited,

Kirin

[J DUB]

ICU would def get you to see "sick" patients. I recently did a rotation in the ICU/STICU while in pharm school.

I would also recommend the ER. It is easier to get into as far as volunteering and I did it and got to see alot of stuff.

Just pick a hospital and see if they will let you rotate in different departments as a volunteer. I could have but I really like the ER!!

[Law2Doc]

Originally Posted by J DUB

ICU would def get you to see "sick" patients. I recently did a rotation in the ICU/STICU while in pharm school.

I would also recommend the ER. It is easier to get into as far as volunteering and I did it and got to see alot of stuff.

Just pick a hospital and see if they will let you rotate in different departments as a volunteer. I could have but I really like the ER!!

Agree that the ED might be a better place to start. I'm not sure I'd take a year off to do volunteering and MCAT as the first step -- better to squeeze in some volunteering/shadowing first in spare time to see if you like it and only if the answer is yes should you give up your current path to start studying MCAT stuff. It's all about looking before you leap, not leaping and then starting to look.

[AnotherJD]

Out of curiosity, I was offered a volunteer position today either at the ED or Open Heart Unit. Which do you think would allow me to have more patient/physician contact and learn more about medicine or does this factor vary from hospital to hospital? Thanks.

Originally Posted by Law2Doc

Agree that the ED might be a better place to start. I'm not sure I'd take a year off to do volunteering and MCAT as the first step -- better to squeeze in some volunteering/shadowing first in spare time to see if you like it and only if the answer is yes should you give up your current path to start studying MCAT stuff. It's all about looking before you leap, not leaping and then starting to look.

[J DUB]

Originally Posted by AnotherJD

Out of curiosity, I was offered a volunteer position today either at the ED or Open Heart Unit. Which do you think would allow me to have more patient/physician contact and learn more about medicine or does this factor vary from hospital to hospital? Thanks.

I would ask. I would also try to rotate through each to get a better overall feel. ED would give more I would guess but it really depends on what they have you doing. Volunteering is so different in various places.

[ehsu]

Mostly my opinion but being a EMT is a great way to get patient contact, volunteering is for understanding the system. Especially in most hospital EDs you'll be lost in the crowd and most workers will be too busy or tired to explained things to you. On the other hand, as a EMT you'll be part of the team and patients will even ask for your opinion. If you want you can even read the full patient history on long transports and get a better understanding of how diagnosis and treatment works in the hospital. If you were a volunteer it would be a HIPAA violation . If you want meaningful volunteering try going to places where it will be smaller and not so busy with a small staff so you get noticed and if you're lucky someone will take you under your wing and show you stuff. Otherwise you will just be another face stocking linen and running labs

[BennieBlanco]

Originally Posted by Kirin

Hello forum!

I am currently a graduate student in the biomedical sciences. Although some aspects of my current career are very exciting (challenging problem solving, collaborations, and the chance to play with bleeding edge technology), I feel that I want a more proactive role in the medical field and believe that I will have more satisfaction from working with patients. I realize there may be many lines of work in healthcare industry that can provide that satisfaction for me, but I think it is more practical and intellectually exciting to take the MD path if I can reasonably achieve that goal.

So, I am considering taking a year of absence from my graduate studies to work, explore, study for the MCAT, and do volunteer work. I want to ask the forum: what volunteer work and activities can I try that will 1) teach me the most about what it's like to be a physician, and 2) help best support my application for schools. I know medicine is a challenging lifestyle change, not just a career change... and I want to make an informed and committed decision when I choose to go for it.

I have been recommended to seek volunteer work at ICU for maximum patient and healthcare worker contact.

For your information, I want to stay in my current field of work as plan B, so I want to find a 40 h/week job in biomedical research in an industrial setting during my year away from graduate school. Bachelors 3.9 GPA, Graduate 3.8 GPA, extensive research and teaching experience but little else, accustomed to working 70 h/week. This should be fun, thanks for your advice!

Very excited,

Kirin

In my opinion, volunteering is pretty worthless. I only do it because they want you to and I'm willing to do whatever is necessary to be a doc.

I've volunteered for 10 months (pretty much every week, maybe missed 3 this year) and I can tell you this much, shadowing an attending physician in the ER is 12 times as effective as volunteering. I sometimes see a dozen patients in a hour, hear diagnosis ideas, hear office politics, know what frustrates the docs, see when they aren't sure about stuff, talk to medical students, SEE medicine practiced, think about medicine, live and breath medicine, learn the language of medicine, etc.

1 shift shadowing = 6 months volunteering

when volunteering I am somewhere between a janitor and unemployed homeless guy. Lots of downtime/time wasting in volunteering too.

[AGLAIA]

I have found with volunteering one gets out of it what one puts into it. I have been a volunteer with Planned Parenthood >2yrs as an advocate and have learned a ton, but my interest trends toward women's health. When I was working inpatient care at the local acedemic center, I noticed it was the volunteers who took the initative and extended themselves to the CNAs who got the most out of it (patient contact-wise)...others merely seemed to be there as wall holders who had to be compelled to do stuff. Nobody will emboss an invite to get you involved, there isn't time.

[akinetopsia]

I think a lot of people have this perception that volunteering must be in a medical-related capacity. Sure, you can kill two birds with one stone, so to speak, but you'll get more out of it if you volunteer for something you really care about. (Not saying you don't care about medicine, but how much do you really care about carting around soiled linens?)

Medical-related volunteering may give you a much better insight as to what it is that attracts you to the field, or even if it's something you can see yourself doing for your life once the shine is off and it's more real, instead of just things you hear about, read about, or see on TV.

I agree with the previous poster though, in that you get out of it what you put into it. That's how a lot of things are in life. You get the most out of your activities and commitments when you put in the time and effort into them. Go the extra mile, it's more rewarding than just being a "check-box" person, as in "Oh, I must get some volunteering in, so I can check that box on my app."

[EdLongshanks]

Originally Posted by BennieBlanco

when volunteering I am somewhere between a janitor and unemployed homeless guy. Lots of downtime/time wasting in volunteering too.

I understand. I've been there. It is strange that when you want to volunteer it is hard to get a quality position. A couple of decades ago I worked at a Nursing home and also did a lot of volunteer work there. Visiting the patients, singing and playing for them, etc. After I moved out of state I tried to do the same at a nursing facility that was near my new home, but the door was closed. Since they didn't know me, any volunteer work there would be along the lines of slopping plates or sweeping floors. Very few people have THAT great of a desire to volunteer.

The same thing happened to me at a homeless shelter once. I have worked among the downtown street people most of my life. But I once moved into a new town and wanted to begin volunteering at the local mission. I slopped plates there for months and was still never allowed to do anything more than put food on plates. The men who were homeless themselves actually had more access.

The fact is that most quality volunteering opportunities come at inopportune times. They present themselves to willing people through church or clubs or neighbors etc. It's very hard to volunteer yourself. Right after Hurricane Katrina I volunteered at the local Salvation Army to help the people who were displaced to our town. There were hundreds of people that showed up to volunteer. Only a few of us were selected to actually do anything.

Almost all of my volunteering is through church contacts. I don't know how other people connect.

[BennieBlanco]

Originally Posted by AGLAIA

I have found with volunteering one gets out of it what one puts into it. I have been a volunteer with Planned Parenthood >2yrs as an advocate and have learned a ton, but my interest trends toward women's health. When I was working inpatient care at the local acedemic center, I noticed it was the volunteers who took the initative and extended themselves to the CNAs who got the most out of it (patient contact-wise)...others merely seemed to be there as wall holders who had to be compelled to do stuff. Nobody will emboss an invite to get you involved, there isn't time.

Oh I agree 100%. I don't plan to get anything out of it. Neither do I want to.

In life we have limited energy and emotion. If I decided that getting more out of volunteering was a huge priority on my list I'm very sure that it would be 2 or 3 times as good.

BUT it will never match shadowing an attending and 3 or 4 residents at the same time. That means I see as much medicine as 3-4 doctors, I am getting to see more cases than residents per hour at the hospital.

I am interested in medicine and working with people. I am not interested in becoming a great volunteer. So I put my energy and emotion into things that actually matter.

Law of life: spend major time on major things, and minor time on minor things.

Minor: how good of a volunteer I am
Major: passion for medicine and learning about medicine
Major: scholastics / MCAT / personal character
Minor: hobnobbing with people at my volunteer hospital to get more menial tasks.

[BennieBlanco]

Originally Posted by EdLongshanks

I understand. I've been there. It is strange that when you want to volunteer it is hard to get a quality position. A couple of decades ago I worked at a Nursing home and also did a lot of volunteer work there. Visiting the patients, singing and playing for them, etc. After I moved out of state I tried to do the same at a nursing facility that was near my new home, but the door was closed. Since they didn't know me, any volunteer work there would be along the lines of slopping plates or sweeping floors. Very few people have THAT great of a desire to volunteer.

The same thing happened to me at a homeless shelter once. I have worked among the downtown street people most of my life. But I once moved into a new town and wanted to begin volunteering at the local mission. I slopped plates there for months and was still never allowed to do anything more than put food on plates. The men who were homeless themselves actually had more access.

The fact is that most quality volunteering opportunities come at inopportune times. They present themselves to willing people through church or clubs or neighbors etc. It's very hard to volunteer yourself. Right after Hurricane Katrina I volunteered at the local Salvation Army to help the people who were displaced to our town. There were hundreds of people that showed up to volunteer. Only a few of us were selected to actually do anything.

Almost all of my volunteering is through church contacts. I don't know how other people connect.

Preach it eddie!

[EdLongshanks]

Originally Posted by BennieBlanco

Preach it eddie!

Broooooothers and Sisters. If you want. I said, If you want to volunteer. uhh. That's volunteer my brothers, yes volunteer my sisters, uh, then you want. Yes you want to connect. That's connect at Church.

Do I hear an amen. That's tight, but that's right.

[teacherman84]

It all depends on where you do your volunteering...I was fortunate enough to spark my interest in medicine while volunteering at a faith-based free clinic with docs from my church. While volunteering I also get countless hours with MDs, DOs, residents, NPs, PAs, and RNs. Which gave me great insight into medicine and some awesome LORs.

I get to sit with docs as they diagnose, assist with excisions and other minor procedures, most are docs involved in academic medicine so I get treated like a resident which initiates self-directed learning on my part to know whats going on.

Its an all around great experience...I drag most other pre-meds I meet to it as well as long as they are willing.

[ceng2doc]

Originally Posted by BennieBlanco

Law of life: spend major time on major things, and minor time on minor things.

Minor: how good of a volunteer I am
Major: passion for medicine and learning about medicine
Major: scholastics / MCAT / personal character
Minor: hobnobbing with people at my volunteer hospital to get more menial tasks.

I second that... I'm not a dedicated volunteer, either. But, I'll do whatever I've to do.

[AGLAIA]

I think the misconception here is that volunteering is supposed to be some portal to physicians. It is to give exposure to the medical environment, yes, but in the capacity to give the student the opportunity to learn how to interact with the PATIENT not the doctor. This is equally as valuable as getting to observe the diagnostic process or a procedure. Perhaps the later is more interesting to most, but the ability to talk to the people you will be serving is important unless you are expecting a fulfilling career in pathology or forensics.

[EdLongshanks]

Originally Posted by AGLAIA

... in the capacity to give the student the opportunity to learn how to interact with the PATIENT not the doctor.

I don't know who setup the admissions system for med schools or how it developed. That would be an interesting historical study. But I do see a purpose in expecting future doctors to be community volunteers.

Medicine is not just a career - its a calling. In this sense, a doctor's position in a community (especially small communities) is very similar to the neighborhood pastor. This may be changing, but if so, its a change for the worse and not for the better.

I understand the thinking of those pre-med students who are only volunteering in order to check the admission box, but I don't agree. A doctor's attitude should be "I am involved in mankind". If he thinks that his involvement in humanity begins and ends with medicine, then he might be a very fine physician, but I think that, in some sense, he is not as good a doctor as he could be.

This is all very amorphous and changes through the decades. The American idea of a "doctor" is closely connected to our frontier experience. In this sense "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman" is the public icon of the old-fashioned physician. I, for one, like that ideal and don't want it to completely fade away. Community volunteering is one part of it.

[AGLAIA]

Originally Posted by EdLongshanks

A doctor's attitude should be "I am involved in mankind". If he thinks that his involvement in humanity begins and ends with medicine, then he might be a very fine physician, but I think that, in some sense, he is not as good a doctor as he could be.

Agreed! It is the drive towards the business of medicine over community care that has delivered us to a state where tertiary medicine is so disproportionately favored over primary care. This has only compelled our society into a mentality where we depend too greatly on pills and surgery to repair the ills which could be preveted on the front end. Not to say that tertiary care doesn't have it's place, but there needs to be a return to the physician as caregiver.

I know in my volunteerism I have been able to witness, in both local and international environments, patients with some of the greatest need and it has made me more commited to my passion. My husband is a surgeon and he and his partners donate weeks of their time regularly to international missions because it makes the burocracy of the clinic setting and the demanding nature of the American medical consumer a little more worth it when they get home.

[SAK413]

I had a really great experience as a volunteer Spanish interpreter at a free clinic. I found that it was really the ideal volunteer position - I had ample time to interact one on one with patients, to observe doctors, nurses, medical students, etc. and their interactions with patients, then I watched as they discussed their encounters and witnessed their medical decision making processes. I learned a lot about communication, empathy, the plight of the medically under served, and the importance of cultural competence in medicine. I also learned about chronic disease management, the stresses of providing primary care in urban environments with limited resources to patients with limited health literacy.

If you happen to be fluent in a second language and can find a volunteer position as an interpreter I highly recommend seeking out an opportunity. I was involved in every aspect of the patient encounter and my two years volunteering in the clinic were really invaluable.