Early on

[dazedniteman]

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I am just finishing off my first year of college and I am currently pre-med. It has been a tough year because I have tried to get involved in as many things as I could and take as many classes as I could handle. My GPA is pretty decent and I am pleased with it, even though this semester I was pledging a fraternity and it dropped some, it is still above a 3.0 (so far lol). Now I am pretty certain still that pre-med is what I would like to do and I am looking for a way to further ensure myself that this is the path I want to go down. I was hoping to find a job at a hospital where I could just do misc. work just so I could be in a hospital setting however after calling a couple hospitals they are either not hiring or they don't offer just summer help.
Now, the few times I have shadowed doctors they didn't have a very busy day and so I think that I have a misconceived idea of how they're day is as of right now so I am asking everyone, what is the best way that you recommend that I go about trying to find out what it is really like in a hospital setting: 1) Getting a job in a hospital, 2) Continuing shadowing doctors, or 3) volunteer.

thanks

 

[Depakote]

Well, since it is a general rule that all college students need money, I would continue to explore the Hospital route. Check around a few more places and see. If you know anybody (ANYBODY), see if they might be able to hook you up. Human Resource departments are notoriously black-holes that will devour your application and never get you to a place that actually needs you, it is best to bypass them whenever possible.

Explore getting hired through a med school that works with a hospital. I work for a med school and I have plenty of clinical experience.

If all else fails, volunteer at a hospital, patient transport is good (I'm told). You could also try shadowing different specialties. ER, Surgery, etc. Just stick your nose out there and see what you find.

 

[snobored18]

First, be involved in campus beyong your fraternity or take a position on the exec. board as soon as you can. You need more than just clinical experience and things that make you less of a "cookie cutter" pre-med. In other words everyone is doing the exact thing you are doing...going through the motions. You really need activities that you are passionate about, not just things you are doing because you want to be a doctor someday.

If you really want to hand out magazines or push patients do it, but it you are doing it as a means to an end I think there are some other options you should explore that might really give you that exposure you want and also give you some wonderful experiences as well. The more patient oriented you can go the better and I think you should continue to regularly shadow, but in addition look into volunteering for hospice, at a retirement home or at a free clinic. This will give you hands on experience that not only gives you what you need for your application, but possibly alot of experiences that you can draw on as to why you want to pursue medicine.