Clinical vs nonclinical volunteering

[jay2324]

i understand this topic must come up a lot but i haven't been able to find a clear difference between the two different types of volunteering. Can anyone please tell me how clinical and non clinical volunteering are separate from each other because from what i've heard, they are not different at all and you basically get no real experience from either of them.

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[Web MD]

Clinical is where you have some type of contact with patients (giving them water, saying hi, rarely doing something useful for them), non-clinical volunteering is when you wash people's cars and they don't pay you

 

[Political]

Clinical is where you have some type of contact with patients (giving them water, saying hi, rarely doing something useful for them), non-clinical volunteering is when you wash people's cars and they don't pay you

I disagree, you can find alot of clinical volunteering with a large amount of patient "usefulness" if you ask the right people and besides everything you for any patient means a lot in the long run (even if it may seem remedial to you now)

but yes, like Web said clinical volunteering involves patient contact (like bringing food to patients), non clinical volunteering involves no patient contact (like working at the gift shop)

 

[kpcrew]

"If you can smell patients, it is a clinical experience."
-LizzyM

 

[Deathstar]

Should you have some share of nonclinical volunteering or is it okay to ignore it entirely and only focus on clinical, shadowing, and researching?

 

[Soulstice]

"If you can smell patients, it is a clinical experience."
-LizzyM

See now, where would you place phone screening for clinical research? It involves taking medical histories for people and documenting the background of their conditions.. I can't smell them, but I'd still consider it patient interaction comparable to what I've done at any hospital or clinic.

 

[LizzyM]

See now, where would you place phone screening for clinical research? It involves taking medical histories for people and documenting the background of their conditions.. I can't smell them, but I'd still consider it patient interaction comparable to what I've done at any hospital or clinic.

Hmmm... is it research and the people are potential research subjects. Are they really patients or are you just recruiting people with medical histories for research purposes? Do you have a phone script or do you have to think of the questions you should ask them on your own, on the fly?

Are you paid to do this? If so, I'd just call it employment and describe what you did on the job.

If this is volunteer, I'd call it non-clinical because it is telephone surveying just as if you were doing opinion polls or canvasing for political candidates. Not to say you don't learn something from it but it is not the same as smelling patients.

I had surgery for a broken bone. I could not have found my way from my hospital room to the front door on my own and I would have found it difficult to push the wheelchair myself and impossible to find a chair to climb into if one hadn't been brought to me. The volunteer who brought the chair and pushed it to the exit was doing a very necessary job and one that made it possible for the nursing assistants to remain on the ward with the patients who needed their skills. Don't brush off what volunteers do as unimportant.

Looking after people's need for food, clothing, recreation (such as being a scout leader or sports coach), a safe place to live, and academic skills such as reading, writing and math are non-clinical. Working in the emergency department, translating for health care workers, serving on an ambulance or as an emergency responder, assisting with physical or occupational therapy, feeding, turning, bathing and transferring the disabled in a health care facility, transporting patients, directing patients and families from an information desk, providing comfort and messages to waiting family in a surgical waiting room -- all would be clinical, IMHO.

Gray zone: playing music for nursing home residents, recreation with people with disabilities.

 

[ash914]

Should you have some share of nonclinical volunteering or is it okay to ignore it entirely and only focus on clinical, shadowing, and researching?

It's recommended that you have nonclinical volunteering too, but it doesn't have to be medically-related. Just find a cause you can get behind.

 

[torshi]

i understand this topic must come up a lot but i haven't been able to find a clear difference between the two different types of volunteering. Can anyone please tell me how clinical and non clinical volunteering are separate from each other because from what i've heard, they are not different at all and you basically get no real experience from either of them.

clinical= patient contact/ volunteer in a health-related setting. (not clerical work)

non-clinical= shelter work etc.

 

[Medicine4Bruhs]

If you have everything but non-clinical volunteering, you are probably a loser SDN gunner. Fact. If you don't see a reason to volunteer just to volunteer, to benefit a greater good, and be a part of something greater than yourself, then you are probably a virgin.

 

[Stumpyman]

I'm doing Habitats for humanities (non clinical) right now as I wait for my application process to finish by october at the hospital, at the hospital I'll hae patient contact which is clinical.To somewhat round out the whole volunteering, I am mostly lenient (for nonclinical) on my 11, 12 grade and freshman year volunteering experience.

 

[OBK]

if you live in an area with volunteer first aid squads, riding an ambulance as a cpr provider is a good way to get both without investing a lot of time.

 

[kpcrew]

If you have everything but non-clinical volunteering, you are probably a loser SDN gunner. Fact. If you don't see a reason to volunteer just to volunteer, to benefit a greater good, and be a part of something greater than yourself, then you are probably a virgin.

wat

 

[Web MD]

He's saying people who help people get laid