Would this be considered good clinical experience?

[OCDOCDOCD]

I was looking at the free clinic to volunteer at since I am actually pretty passionate about accessible healthcare in this country (or rather the lack thereof) but from the sound of it on their site it's just clerical stuff:

Students help at the front desk during clinic and screening hours, as well as in the dispensary and ‘charting’.

That's pretty much the only description they give. Would that be considered clinical, or just non-clinical volunteering?

I'm aware of the "close enough to smell patients" adage that gets posted in every one of these threads, but from reading past threads I've never seen a clear consensus on what exactly that means. Some people say that just delivering patients cookies or newspapers doesn't count and that you're better off working as a front desk receptionist, whereas others say the exact opposite. So I'm confused as to what exactly I should be looking for.

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[mmmcdowe]

I was looking at the free clinic to volunteer at since I am actually pretty passionate about accessible healthcare in this country (or rather the lack thereof) but from the sound of it on their site it's just clerical stuff:

Students help at the front desk during clinic and screening hours, as well as in the dispensary and ‘charting’.

That's pretty much the only description they give. Would that be considered clinical, or just non-clinical volunteering?

I'm aware of the "close enough to smell patients" adage that gets posted in every one of these threads, but from reading past threads I've never seen a clear consensus on what exactly that means. Some people say that just delivering patients cookies or newspapers doesn't count and that you're better off working as a front desk receptionist, whereas others say the exact opposite. So I'm confused as to what exactly I should be looking for.

It's fine, you will likely have opportunities to interact with both docs and patients.