Full time work and volunteering/shadowing
Started by wiseman
Get help with your application
Use all the free resources available to you from SDN: articles, guides, expert advising, forums discussions, and school research.
How many classes are you taking? Volunteer work only requires about 2-4 hrs/wk depending where you go..
Example, walk dogs at the humane society for 2 hrs/wk.. perhaps on your day off.
My question to non trads is how do you manage study time if you're working that many hours? I'm concerned b/c I'm about to get a second part time job which will bring me up to about 50hrs/week.
I am in the same spot and am considering quitting. I am a practicing attorney and if there's a court filing due (or trial or deposition) on a particular interview day, I can't just "not show up," as these court deadlines are often impossible to predict in advance. So I'm leaning towards quitting but that's a major loss of income and health insurance. Alternatively, I can simply pull this, and risk getting fired, as the other alternative is the same result. However, if they ever found out that I didn't show up because of a med school interview, I can even be sued for legal malpractice if I knowingly pull something like this. This is a tough Catch-22. What should I do?
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
QofQuimica
Seriously, dude, I think you're overreacting....
Moderator Emeritus
Lifetime Donor
15+ Year Member
Simple: if it's important to you to volunteer, then you make the time. Volunteering doesn't have to be for 20+ hours per week, and it doesn't have to require a lot of effort to do. Pick something you're interested in, or that matters to you, and figure out a way to use it to help people. So, if you're writing software anyway, then help clueless people like me set up their webpages. (No, I swear I have no vested interest in this suggestion!) Or, help run a computer class at your local library or senior center. Or, pick X hobby that you like doing anyway, and help other people learn to do it.
I was a chemist before going to medical school. My premed volunteering included being on staff for SDN (which dovetailed nicely with the fact that I spent too much time surfing this site pretty much every day anyway); doing science demos for elementary school kids (really, who doesn't like ice cream made using liquid nitrogen no matter what their age???); and mentoring undergrad student workers in the lab (I was there working anyway, and they could actually help me with my projects if they learned what to do and stuck around long enough!).
I also volunteered at a hospital for a year, which did require more effort, and I did that by spending two hours from 6-8AM one day per week before I went to the lab. Losing two hours of sleep was painful sometimes, but so is losing sleep during your medical training sometimes. Think of it as early conditioning, if you like. 😉
I'm taking Chem II and Bio II and the labs and working probably 40 hour weeks starting the end of this month. I've got this crazy idea where I quit working in December, my last semester of school and go to class/volunteer with my time. Basically I'd go from having no clinicial expirence to a lot right before the next cycle starts. Thoughts?
As for studying I find it easier now than when I was an undergrad, but I do take half days when I have exams coming up.
Thanks for the suggestions, I'll be the first to admit there are other things out there I could be doing in my free time.
This.
Or, as I ask myself every time I'd rather (sleep|see my family and friends|read a book|sit there staring at the wall, blankly): How badly do you want it? If you want it badly enough, you'll make it happen. If you don't, well, I think we all know what happens. There's nothing wrong with not wanting it badly enough, but better to figure it out now than to do the thing half-donkeyed.
OP, I do have sympathy for you; I work in the IT field as well, and yes, I've put in sixty hours a week while I was in school. That's why I decided to combine the clinical experience with the volunteering and join a volunteer EMS service. Most systems will allow you to do nights; my locality has 6pm-6am shifts one night a week. I understand it's difficult to get out of work in time for a 6pm shift sometimes, but the flip side is that most (non-psychotic) bosses will understand "I have to go save lives now" to let you out of the office "early" one day a week.
If you have a psychotic boss, then it's all about setting limits. And deciding how badly you want it.
From what I have read here, it would be better to volunteer at a hospital, even for a couple hours a week, for a longer period of time than to "cram" the experience into only a few months. Volunteering for many hours a week from December onward and applying next cycle may be sufficient, but it would look even better if you can put in a couple hours a week from now until December as well. Long-term commitment to medicine is valued more than short-term volunteering even if the latter results in more total hours, at least from what I have read on these forums.
