Clinical volunteering question

[BWM95]

So I understand that volunteering done in high school does not really count when applying to medical schools, but what about volunteering done during the summer between the transition from high school to college. For example, my first semester in college was Fall 2014, but I volunteered at a nursing home during the summer of 2013, after I graduated. Would this volunteering time be looked at as valuable, since I did do it after I graduated?

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[BWM95]

I did the volunteering the summer of 2014**** sorry!

 

[Turkishking]

So I understand that volunteering done in high school does not really count when applying to medical schools, but what about volunteering done during the summer between the transition from high school to college. For example, my first semester in college was Fall 2014, but I volunteered at a nursing home during the summer of 2013, after I graduated. Would this volunteering time be looked at as valuable, since I did do it after I graduated?

Nursing home volunteering isn't clinical.

 

[BWM95]

Nursing home volunteering isn't clinical.

What would it be considered? I thought clinical just meant there was patient contact involved?

 

[Turkishking]

Non-clinical.

But yet again, each adcom may have a different view. To be safe, I would actually volunteer at a hospital.

 

[akuko2]

What would it be considered? I thought clinical just meant there was patient contact involved?

I disagree with @Turkishking. Whether or not volunteer is clinical is really ONLY important to determine where to plug it in on your application. IMO I don't think ADCOMs would care where you put it or not. You are a college student, its not like you are going to be able to treat a patient or do a surgery, the value of volunteer is that you took time to serve others, which is important because by going to medical school you are committing yourself to a profession that is indebted in service and usually held to a higher standard by others. You are giving a lot of your life away to learn and practice a craft that is solely to benefit others, and often doesn't pay returns financially or emotionally. Those that are unwilling to volunteer seem like they are less up to that kind of life.

 

[BWM95]

Non-clinical.

But yet again, each adcom may have a different view. To be safe, I would actually volunteer at a hospital.

I disagree with @Turkishking. Whether or not volunteer is clinical is really ONLY important to determine where to plug it in on your application. IMO I don't think ADCOMs would care where you put it or not. You are a college student, its not like you are going to be able to treat a patient or do a surgery, the value of volunteer is that you took time to serve others, which is important because by going to medical school you are committing yourself to a profession that is indebted in service and usually held to a higher standard by others. You are giving a lot of your life away to learn and practice a craft that is solely to benefit others, and often doesn't pay returns financially or emotionally. Those that are unwilling to volunteer seem like they are less up to that kind of life.

I have 120 hours in a hospital setting as well, I was just curious if I would be allowed to put the nursing home experience on my application since I did it before I officially started college.

 

[LizzyM]

There is no rule or law against listing things that happened in HS. The idea is that you should have so many things that occurred more recently and that should drive out the activities that happened when you were a kid. You can list your nursing home volunteering. It is your call whether you call it clinical or non-clinical; some would argue that the residents of nursing homes are "residents" not "patients" an unless you were providing a very hands on clinical service (e.g. employed as a nurse's aid or patient care technician and assessing skin integrity as you repositioned patient and so forth) then it might e best to call in "non-clinical". That said, non-clinical volunteering is highly valued and considered a plus because it is not a "two birds, one stone" situation where you get points for clinical experience and volunteerism.

When the time comes, if you feel that is was an activity that was important to you and that showed how you served the community and/or tested your interest in health careers, then list it.