Clinical Volunteering

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I know there have been a million posts about this, but none seem to answer my question thoroughly. I recently posted about what I can do to improve my medical school application --> http://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/what-can-i-improve.1077025/#post-15324913

Many of the responses harp on getting clinical (and non-clinical) volunteering. I have non-clinical covered, as I will be doing over 100 hours over the next year (and more after that). While that is all fine and dandy, I still have one question. WHAT IS CLINICAL VOLUNTEERING?

I have e-mailed one local hospital about volunteering. From their description, duties would include "...more than 20 services for the hospital, including receptionists, gift shop and snack bar attendants, office help, coffee delivery, flower care, decorating, and helping with the Health Fair and blood mobile."

Would all of that be considered clinical volunteering? I know everyone says, "If you can smell patient, it counts." But I just want to be sure. With insurance liabilities I realize I will have VERY limited patient interaction, but I just need to pin this down so I can get a two year commitment to a clinic/hospital in the area.

Thanks for taking the time to read this. It is much appreciated.

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Yes, if there are patients around, you can call it clinical volunteering, even if what you're doing doesn't involve the patients directly.
 
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"...more than 20 services for the hospital, including receptionists, gift shop and snack bar attendants, office help, coffee delivery, flower care, decorating, and helping with the Health Fair and blood mobile."

This is not clinical volunteering. Clinical volunteering is interacting with patients while they are functioning as patients in a setting where they are receiving medical care. A common way to do this is in the Emergency Department or outpatient clinics. Working in a gift shop or doing clerical work is not clinical volunteering. Not that it's not something important or meaningful, it's just not clinical volunteering.
 
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See if you can get a patient transport position at that hospital. If not check at other hospitals. Like the above poster said, Hospice is a good option, and the hours are very flexible.
 
I honestly think 'clinical' can be interpreted in different ways (even by adcoms and UG advisors, from my experience). If you have hands-on experience with people who are ill, I would call that clinical. (Hands on = more than just seeing them in the area.)
All that matters is that it's something you enjoy doing and the lessons you learn during the experience will help you to become a better physician.
 
"...more than 20 services for the hospital, including receptionists, gift shop and snack bar attendants, office help, coffee delivery, flower care, decorating, and helping with the Health Fair and blood mobile."

This is not clinical volunteering. Clinical volunteering is interacting with patients while they are functioning as patients in a setting where they are receiving medical care. A common way to do this is in the Emergency Department or outpatient clinics. Working in a gift shop or doing clerical work is not clinical volunteering. Not that it's not something important or meaningful, it's just not clinical volunteering.

Exactly this! I would choose another hospital, and fast! It sounds like you might be in a heavily-saturated pre-med area as well... When I did my post-bacc, I heard that A nearby Chicago hospital required volunteers to rack up 100+ hours of experience before they could get anywhere near a patient.

This sounds more like the thing elderly volunteers love to do. They do it because they want to. It's a different story with pre-meds. So if you are at a big college campus, I would ask them if they will let you do ED or other departments after you rack up some hours. If that's not the case, look elsewhere. ED and other volunteering is very common. It's also the best bang for the buck in the admissions process. By all means do it!
 
Thank you all for the responses. Plans2Doc, I'm not in a heavily-saturated pre-med area, but I do attend college in a town of 25,000 people. Opportunities for volunteering in clinics are limited, because there simply isn't much need around here. As for this volunteering program, I asked if I could be allowed to have a duty with the most patient interaction. This was the response I received:

"This Fall I will have Coffee and Cookie Carts positions open. That is the most patient interaction that we are allowed. The patient transport is very limited."

This means I would be taking coffee and cookies around to patients and their families, perhaps visiting with them a bit in the process. Now, clearly this isn't clinical work such as taking blood pressure, but it is patient interaction.

Could I get everybody's thoughts on this? Would this be considered clinical volunteering? To me, the answer is "no," but I just want to be sure.

Thanks again everyone.

P.S. I looked into patient transport, and I was denied. Small town problems...
 
Exactly this! I would choose another hospital, and fast! It sounds like you might be in a heavily-saturated pre-med area as well... When I did my post-bacc, I heard that A nearby Chicago hospital required volunteers to rack up 100+ hours of experience before they could get anywhere near a patient.

This sounds more like the thing elderly volunteers love to do. They do it because they want to. It's a different story with pre-meds. So if you are at a big college campus, I would ask them if they will let you do ED or other departments after you rack up some hours. If that's not the case, look elsewhere. ED and other volunteering is very common. It's also the best bang for the buck in the admissions process. By all means do it!

What do you think? (Referring to my above post)
 
Clinical volunteering is a good way to get clinical experience, and the most common way that pre-meds go about it.

However, if you can get clinical experiences in other ways, then clinical volunteering itself isn't "necessary", because you were exposed to medical care in other ways. It's good that you have non-clinical covered.
 
I would check on a nursing home. Even small towns have them and it is a bit easier to get in.
 
Thank you all for the responses. Plans2Doc, I'm not in a heavily-saturated pre-med area, but I do attend college in a town of 25,000 people. Opportunities for volunteering in clinics are limited, because there simply isn't much need around here. As for this volunteering program, I asked if I could be allowed to have a duty with the most patient interaction. This was the response I received:

"This Fall I will have Coffee and Cookie Carts positions open. That is the most patient interaction that we are allowed. The patient transport is very limited."

This means I would be taking coffee and cookies around to patients and their families, perhaps visiting with them a bit in the process. Now, clearly this isn't clinical work such as taking blood pressure, but it is patient interaction.

Could I get everybody's thoughts on this? Would this be considered clinical volunteering? To me, the answer is "no," but I just want to be sure.

Thanks again everyone.

P.S. I looked into patient transport, and I was denied. Small town problems...

@LizzyM says if you can smell the patient, it's clinical experience. Not if you can prick, prod, or probe the patient. There's absolutely no need to learn arbitrary procedures that you will likely never do as a doctor. I think this might be nice, since you can spend more time talking to the patients and their families. It sure beats the hell out of being the techs' ***** where they boss you around and make you do their work for them. I'm guessing you'll still have to do free labor, but this sounds overall like a good gig.

Remember, what's most important is that this doesn't cut into your study and free time. It will count as clinical volunteering, so you can simultaneously check the clinical experience and volunteering check-boxes. That's most important. So start it, see how it goes, and if you don't like it, move on to some other place.
 
I gotta say, it's pretty weird getting "clinical" experience where you can't do anything besides grab a blanket and chat. People at urgent care and the ED tend to have little interest in chit chat. My best clinical experience was taking patient histories and vitals at an urgent care center, not spending hours and hours sitting around talking to the occasional chatty patient.
 
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Here's the scoop:
You need to show that you care about people in need. This can be accomplished by volunteering in any capacity to assist people in need. So, non-clinical volunteering covers this but clinical volunteering would cover it too.

You also need to show that you have had some experience being around sick and/or injured patients and you aren't wigged out by the environment. This can be accomplished by volunteering in a clinical setting and/ or being employed in such a setting and/or shadowing physicians.

You do need to have an idea of what the workload and work environment of a physician is like and the only way to know that is to shadow (or have a physician spouse or parent) or be employed alongside a physician.

Going door to door in a hospital offering cookies and coffee could be a reasonable way of making yourself familiar with the hospital environment. You'd be surprised what you might be asked to do in a pinch. One applicant I interviewed told me about being asked to sit with a patient who was slightly injured in an accident while staff attempted to save the life of the that patient's spouse. Some pre-meds might prefer to watch the cool stuff that doctors do to save a life but if you really care about patients, you'll know that offering comfort to a family member is also more helpful to everyone.
 
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Well, I think it is safe to say I have found an answer. Thank you for your help everybody!
 
Thank you all for the responses. Plans2Doc, I'm not in a heavily-saturated pre-med area, but I do attend college in a town of 25,000 people. Opportunities for volunteering in clinics are limited, because there simply isn't much need around here. As for this volunteering program, I asked if I could be allowed to have a duty with the most patient interaction. This was the response I received:

"This Fall I will have Coffee and Cookie Carts positions open. That is the most patient interaction that we are allowed. The patient transport is very limited."

This means I would be taking coffee and cookies around to patients and their families, perhaps visiting with them a bit in the process. Now, clearly this isn't clinical work such as taking blood pressure, but it is patient interaction.

Could I get everybody's thoughts on this? Would this be considered clinical volunteering? To me, the answer is "no," but I just want to be sure.

Thanks again everyone.

P.S. I looked into patient transport, and I was denied. Small town problems...

Lol, don't expect to do anything that "clinical" for volunteer work at a hospital.
In that position you are still interacting patients so yes, I believe it does count and like others have said, it shows that you care about people outside the cool sciency stuff.
 
Not all volunteering needs to be in a hospital. Think hospice, nursing homes, rehab facilities, camps for sick children, or clinics.


I know there have been a million posts about this, but none seem to answer my question thoroughly. I recently posted about what I can do to improve my medical school application --> http://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/what-can-i-improve.1077025/#post-15324913

Many of the responses harp on getting clinical (and non-clinical) volunteering. I have non-clinical covered, as I will be doing over 100 hours over the next year (and more after that). While that is all fine and dandy, I still have one question. WHAT IS CLINICAL VOLUNTEERING?

I have e-mailed one local hospital about volunteering. From their description, duties would include "...more than 20 services for the hospital, including receptionists, gift shop and snack bar attendants, office help, coffee delivery, flower care, decorating, and helping with the Health Fair and blood mobile."

Would all of that be considered clinical volunteering? I know everyone says, "If you can smell patient, it counts." But I just want to be sure. With insurance liabilities I realize I will have VERY limited patient interaction, but I just need to pin this down so I can get a two year commitment to a clinic/hospital in the area.

Thanks for taking the time to read this. It is much appreciated.
 
Not all "clinical volunteering" is weighed equally. Sure you can all label them as such, but that's just a checkbox. If you want to stand out, you have to do something unique with it. The more patient interaction and responsibility that you have, the better it will look. And you can only bs it so much.
 
Hospice, nursing homes, clinics. The Red Cross might be a good place to get a hook up too.

Nursing home volunteering counts as clinical?


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I have come to this line of thinking: Sure, I could come up with a way to relate pushing a coffee cart around to patients as a way of "helping me understand the hospital environment and patient interaction." The reality, however, is that this would most likely be a push. Instead, I will keep looking, and in the meantime I will focus on non-clinical volunteering.
 
Nursing home attendants, while not considered "patients," are certainly people who have at least some form of care given to them. If you are assisting in this care in some way, then I believe it can be seen as clinical experience. That's just me, and I most certainly am not an expert!
 
Not all "clinical volunteering" is weighed equally. Sure you can all label them as such, but that's just a checkbox. If you want to stand out, you have to do something unique with it. The more patient interaction and responsibility that you have, the better it will look. And you can only bs it so much.

It's actually easier to use any random clinical volunteering to get your foot in the door via checking the box and quantity of hours, and then piggyback a non-clinical volunteering gig on top of it. If you have your bases covered with a clinical gig, you can do something non-clinical that's sporadic which will give you uniqueness and talking points with the ADCOMs.

In a large sea of pre-meds, it's quite difficult to find a "good" clinical volunteer experience.
 
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