Clinical Volunteering in Maryland

[fabnontrad]

Hi there,

I was wondering if anyone has any suggestions for clinical volunteering opportunities in Maryland, particularly in the Baltimore area? I'm mostly looking for anything that allows for direct patient contact? I'm not expecting to operate or anything, obviously, but at least help with basic procedures (hold traction, help stop bleeding, etc).

I've been volunteering at UMMC Shock Trauma (100+ hours) in Baltimore, which is great, but volunteers are legally not allowed to touch patients and so the experience feels pretty limiting. You get to see a huge variety of procedures and talk to all sorts of doctors and residents in addition to patients, nurses, and medical students, but I'd like to find a volunteering opportunity where I can get more hands on experience.

I've been wondering if the VA hospital might allow for more experience, from what I've heard from Medical Students the VA hospitals are understaffed and lawless, but I haven't found anyone who has volunteered at one

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[MonkeyArrow]

You're probably not going to find any volunteering gig with what you're looking for. The STC regulations exist for a reason and are pretty universal- pretty much every hospital has the same restriction, saying something along the lines of volunteers can not engage in "direct patient care". Now whether you can find a place that follows that regulation strictly or not is another thing, but I think you would be hard-pressed to find a hospital that advertises or says that volunteers are allowed to participate in medical procedures/care.

 

[LizzyM]

You don't have to touch patients to have a clinical experience that "counts" toward your application. That said, if you really want to have a "hands on" experience, you should get credentialed and hired as an employee. EMT, patient care technician and phlebotomist are the three most common.

 

[fabnontrad]

You don't have to touch patients to have a clinical experience that "counts" toward your application. That said, if you really want to have a "hands on" experience, you should get credentialed and hired as an employee. EMT, patient care technician and phlebotomist are the three most common.

Thank you so much for your reply! In that case, I'll stick with STC for a while as I've found the experience really valuable and illuminating, and then branch out to explore other clinical areas at UMMC, maybe some community clinics.