Does this count as clinical experience?

[rsrs3739]

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I'm a volunteer at hospital main information. I've put in 170 hours so far.
My job is to give directions to visitors/patients, deliver flowers to patients, provide wheelchairs to patients and sometimes escort them to wherever they need to go.
Is this enough patient interaction or should I look for another volunteer position?

Thank you

 

[piii]

What does your heart say?

(mine says, "no")

 

[rsrs3739]

What does your heart say?

(mine says, "no")

I guess I should have said if this counts as "clinical volunteer"
I do have 50+ hours of shadowing 4 doctors if that counts as "clinical experience"

 

[WedgeDawg]

Yeah, that should be okay to count as clinical experience. It's not fantastic, but it works.

 

[rsrs3739]

Yeah, that should be okay to count as clinical experience. It's not fantastic, but it works.

What kind of clinical experience is desirable?

 

[ac62994]

It's clinical, but barely...? I would stick with it, for commitment's sake.

Maybe ask if you could volunteer at other stations?

 

[Goro]

Yup!

I'm a volunteer at hospital main information. I've put in 170 hours so far.
My job is to give directions to visitors/patients, deliver flowers to patients, provide wheelchairs to patients and sometimes escort them to wherever they need to go.
Is this enough patient interaction or should I look for another volunteer position?

Thank you

 

[WedgeDawg]

What kind of clinical experience is desirable?

The kind that allows you to articulate that you want to work around sick and possibly dying people for the rest of your life and convincingly express why.

 

[deleted407021]

What kind of clinical experience is desirable?

Good clinical experience will expose you to the kind of people you will be treating as a doctor (or at least the kind of people med schools would like you to treat). After committed work in such a setting you should be able to demonstrate an understanding of a patient population and how a healthcare team in the setting goes about addressing patients as well as show that you know how to work with people with whom you might share little in common -- patient and coworker alike. You should ideally be able to back up your claim that medicine is the right field for you by citing your clinical experiences.

 

[sharpstickie]

LOL my premed advisor said that my volunteering in a hospital ICU as someone that assists nurses and keeps the patients in a good mood wasn't clinical experience. She said that I had to be directly treating them. I swear there's a thread for these kinds of experiences.

 

[WedgeDawg]

LOL my premed advisor said that my volunteering in a hospital ICU as someone that assists nurses and keeps the patients in a good mood wasn't clinical experience. She said that I had to be directly treating them. I swear there's a thread for these kinds of experiences.

If you're not taking the lung out yourself, it's not clinical experience (first assist doesn't count).

 

[rsrs3739]

LOL my premed advisor said that my volunteering in a hospital ICU as someone that assists nurses and keeps the patients in a good mood wasn't clinical experience. She said that I had to be directly treating them. I swear there's a thread for these kinds of experiences.

Volunteers shouldn't even be allowed to touch patients...Your comment reminds me of a guy that went on a medical mission trip in South America. He was given instructions on how to diagnose common diseases at the site and which medicine to give. He "treated" locals by handing out medicine according to his diagnosis. IMO that goes way beyond a premeds qualification

 

[LizzyM]

I'm a volunteer at hospital main information. I've put in 170 hours so far.
My job is to give directions to visitors/patients, deliver flowers to patients, provide wheelchairs to patients and sometimes escort (patients) to wherever they need to go.
Is this enough patient interaction or should I look for another volunteer position?

Thank you

My opinion: yes. Keep up the good work.