Sufficient Clinical experience?

[ckl81]

Hi All,
I've searched around in the threads and couldn't answer my own question, so I'm posing it here. I've been volunteering at the local hospital for around 1.5 years, and have approximately 200 hours of volunteer time at the emergency department as a general hospitality volunteer/wheeling patients around to from their rooms to the radiology department. I've also had about 20 hours or so of shadowing with 3 different doctors, half of it in the ED of a different hospital, and the other half at a rehabilitation clinic for kids who have had severe injuries (typically involving car accidents).

My question is, hypothetically speaking, would this be enough clinical experience? I want to try and find a different volunteer opportunity at a free clinic that might allow me to do a little more, but if I am unable to find that, would my current level of experience be sufficient? Anyone have good recommendations as to useful/fun/different-than-the-ED clinical settings? While I enjoyed my time at the ED, I kind of want to see things from a different angle.

Thanks! I'm looking forward to what people recommend.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[J ROD]

I have around the same amount of hrs in the ER. I think it is about right as the "norm". Being on here for awhile...

I also volunteered at a Free Med Clinic. For another 150hrs.

Did some work at an animal shelter too!

I have over 100+ hrs of shadowing too!!

Basically, I what I am trying to say is get some volunteering in at another place but continue where you are at because med schools like to see commitment. I would also suggest getting around 75hrs or so of shadowing.

 

[ckl81]

Hey J-Dub,
Thanks for replying. I think the free clinic is a good idea too. My only problem is time constraints. Right now I work about 50-55 hours M-F, take 3 hours of classes/lab on M-Thu, volunteer at a halfway house on Saturday mornings, and volunteer at the ED on Sunday mornings. That doesn't leave a whole lot of time for me to have some time off, so I was thinking of swapping out the ED volunteering with some different clinical experience, (like a free clinic) rather than adding something else (I'm running out of time slots!).

I hear what you're saying about continuity though, I think it's something I will continue to do. What I'm thinking is that I might take a couple months off of ED volunteering to do free clinic stuff, then try and get some more exposure through shadowing. Thanks again for the advice! Anyone else have any other thoughts?

 

[J ROD]

You could also just cut back on the ER per month but still get credit for doing it. Say once a month and then pick up another clinical volunteering.

Try to keep the ER rolling in terms of consecutive months and add in another site to make your app look more robust.

I only volunteer once a month in the ER now since I am doing my rotations for my PharmD. I work a normal 40hrs on rotations and another 10-20 hrs on the weekend at my hospital job. I work volunteering in there once a month to just keep it rolling so I can say I have this many consecutive months since I have over 200+hrs there.

Dont break from the ER totally. Then, you lose the consecutive streak....got to look good on paper, lol!!