So, I am about to finish undergrad and I'm not really worried about my application or most of my extracurriculars however I have no clinical volunteering. This doesn't even remotely bother me either. I've shadowed. I understand volunteering in the clinical setting is important and is obviously very important for hospitals and clinics to function and somehow being around the profession lets you know if you want to be a doctor?
Why is it that everyone suggests you bump up your volunteering hours? do you think that will make you a better doctor? Do they honestly think sitting in a setting telling someone the bathroom is down the hall and to the left creates empathy? I don't buy into sappy sob stories about revelations about helping someone and they now feel better. As if, as a volunteer, that really was you're doing.... That the medicine at work, not me. I just can't buy into the sappy sob story of a volunteers self fulfilled importance. (I'm strictly talking about college kids, because everyones volunteering. I'm wondering why; are you satisfied?) What exactly are you learning while spending time in the clinical setting that you legally, and probably physically, cannot explore/ and or "get your hands dirty?"
I'm choosing medicine because I'm interested the science; I think the bridge between science and the humanity of health care is challenging. I want to be challenged. I thought it was useless for me to volunteer in a clinical setting because of all the legal ramifications and how little I felt I was doing. I got much more from shadowing.
This isn't an issue about not being enthusiastic or not trying hard enough. This is an issue about relevance and I found clinical volunteering to be irrelevant in helping me decide to go to medical school.
I guess, for me, I just can't spin it into gold.
P.s. I chose to do an alternative volunteering opportunity that is a link to health, just not clinical (I'm not trying to say volunteering isn't important. Just that, as a college student, I can find a more value in an experience related to health volunteering elsewhere)
Why is it that everyone suggests you bump up your volunteering hours? do you think that will make you a better doctor? Do they honestly think sitting in a setting telling someone the bathroom is down the hall and to the left creates empathy? I don't buy into sappy sob stories about revelations about helping someone and they now feel better. As if, as a volunteer, that really was you're doing.... That the medicine at work, not me. I just can't buy into the sappy sob story of a volunteers self fulfilled importance. (I'm strictly talking about college kids, because everyones volunteering. I'm wondering why; are you satisfied?) What exactly are you learning while spending time in the clinical setting that you legally, and probably physically, cannot explore/ and or "get your hands dirty?"
I'm choosing medicine because I'm interested the science; I think the bridge between science and the humanity of health care is challenging. I want to be challenged. I thought it was useless for me to volunteer in a clinical setting because of all the legal ramifications and how little I felt I was doing. I got much more from shadowing.
This isn't an issue about not being enthusiastic or not trying hard enough. This is an issue about relevance and I found clinical volunteering to be irrelevant in helping me decide to go to medical school.
I guess, for me, I just can't spin it into gold.
P.s. I chose to do an alternative volunteering opportunity that is a link to health, just not clinical (I'm not trying to say volunteering isn't important. Just that, as a college student, I can find a more value in an experience related to health volunteering elsewhere)