Best Place to Volunteer in Hospital?

[cwb]

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I've been volunteering at a hospital for a while now, I've been in the skilled nursing department which I find to be extremely boring. I like the patient interactions, but I don't like walking around looking for stuff to do, and I also don't like nurses treating me like I'm just a nuisance. Now I realize this is quite common (that is hospital volunteering being dull) but are there any places where you actually stay busy and don't feel like a waste of humun life while volunteering?

 

[jlee9531]

too bad you arent at a childrens hospital. the one i went to, every floor needed help with the children there.

maybe you can ask the nurses or the docs there to see if you can do something like shadow?

 

[Brickhouse]

I'm in Labor and Delivery at my hospital, and although there is a lot of waiting around, when you do get to see something or help out, it's well worth it.

 

[CalBeE]

I really can't think of any hospital department where things are fun all the time. At the hospital I volunteer at, there's an organized patient-visiting program, so volunteers go to talk with in-patients during daytime. Some other volunteers play with kids that live on the pediatrics floor. But besides those, most other departments are rather boring.

Oh and by the way, JLee...how did you get up to 3000 posts? Which days are you actually NOT on SDN? Talk about obsession with bulletin boards! 😛

 

[blueberry]

It really depends. Generally on hospital floors/normal wards I've noticed that you mostly stand around and don't do much (or only do things that are peripherally medical-related). I know some will argue that it is valuable to do things that may not be directly medically-related, I tend to argue that in that case, there'd be no difference then going to a daycare/elderly center then (i.e. waste of time). I say definitely try the ER if you want more action, or a local clinic (if the ppl at that clinic is willing to teach you stuff).

My advice is to just try out one hospital first, and try switching if you don't get anything out of it. I don't quite agree with the previous poster that you get more stuff to do at a children's hospital. That has not been my experience.

 

[citygirl]

Hospice............its the one place where its important to just sit and listen to people. The nurses don't have time for that. Not to put down nurses, they just have too much to do and too many patients.

 

[docmemi]

Emergency or trauma room!!

 

[ForensicPath]

Emergency is fun as long as its a level 1. My suggestion would be to see if you can volunteer in the hospital morgue or at least get down there to watch an autopsy every once in a while (although a forensic autopsy would be more fun).

 

[CalBeE]

Originally posted by docmemi
Emergency or trauma room!!

Wait, so you had two screen names after all....? How did you get 300+ posts already for this new screen name?

 

[docmemi]

calbe, no. i had trojan2004. one of the moderators changed it for me. my old posts got transferred. i like the new name much better. memi is my nickname (btw, im a boy. its pronounced maymi).

 

[UCLAstudent]

I really enjoyed working in the pediatric department... volunteering is so much more worthwhile if you get to interact with patients (in my opinion).

 

[CalBeE]

Originally posted by docmemi
calbe, no. i had trojan2004. one of the moderators changed it for me. my old posts got transferred. i like the new name much better. memi is my nickname (btw, im a boy. its pronounced maymi).

Sounds Japanese to me!
I don't know that you could do that. I would have done with with my old screen name, but oh well, doesn't matter.

 

[BaseballFan]

If you like children, working in pediatrics as a Child Life volunteer can be a very rewarding experience.

here's what you do- http://www.childlife.org/document/faq.htm

 

[jlee9531]

Originally posted by CalBeE
Oh and by the way, JLee...how did you get up to 3000 posts? Which days are you actually NOT on SDN? Talk about obsession with bulletin boards! 😛

youd be up there too if you didnt start over with your new meaty name 😉.

haha im not sdn that long. i check mornings before i head for work. late nights during the week to help me go to sleep. and just randomly post as im doing stuff over the weekends. no obsession.

just devotion to helping out the preallo thread 😀

 

[docmemi]

im jelous...jlee, you have 10 times the number of posts as me.

 

[greggth]

Shadow a doctor in the emergency room. It gives you a peek at a good variety of procedures and patients.