Double Checking Clinical Volunteering

[musicalfeet]

So I've accumulated about 200 hrs of traditional hospital volunteering where I did get to "smell" the patients via helping the CNA with various things. After I started feeling like I got the most that I could get out of it (I did enjoy it and I learned a lot!!), I wanted to go to a different, non-hospital setting.

I now volunteer at a free-clinic. However, my "job description" is vastly different from what traditional hospital volunteering entails, and I'm not sure if it still counts as clinical volunteering. Essentially, I work at the family resources section of the free clinic, which doesn't really deal with actual medical-related issues (however, they ARE patients). I'm responsible for essentially helping the patients get access to various resources (such as housing, food, education, job searching, drug and alcohol rehab, childcare, etc) that they don't have money to afford. I do get to talk to the patients and get close enough to get to know them (and technically smell them )--but what I do essentially is non-medically related (no cleaning butts or feces....or feeding?). I enjoy this opportunity immensely, as it helps me understand a different aspect of the healthcare field and how medicine ties into it. It also helps me understand a population that I am very much interested in serving in the future as a physician.

Just wanted to know so I know how to classify things on an application in the future.

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[Holmwood]

So I've accumulated about 200 hrs of traditional hospital volunteering where I did get to "smell" the patients via helping the CNA with various things. After I started feeling like I got the most that I could get out of it (I did enjoy it and I learned a lot!!), I wanted to go to a different, non-hospital setting.

I now volunteer at a free-clinic. However, my "job description" is vastly different from what traditional hospital volunteering entails, and I'm not sure if it still counts as clinical volunteering. Essentially, I work at the family resources section of the free clinic, which doesn't really deal with actual medical-related issues (however, they ARE patients). I'm responsible for essentially helping the patients get access to various resources (such as housing, food, education, job searching, drug and alcohol rehab, childcare, etc) that they don't have money to afford. I do get to talk to the patients and get close enough to get to know them (and technically smell them )--but what I do essentially is non-medically related (no cleaning butts or feces....or feeding?). I enjoy this opportunity immensely, as it helps me understand a different aspect of the healthcare field and how medicine ties into it. It also helps me understand a population that I am very much interested in serving in the future as a physician.

Just wanted to know so I know how to classify things on an application in the future.

I think your work at the family resources center is a wonderful opportunity. Alot of the resources you are helping under-served communities access can tie into addressing healthcare disparities, promoting prophylactic care, etc.

Sure, it's hard to categorize since you do work with patients yet it may seem non-clinical. I would put it down under clinical experience anyway since you are working with patients.