Emergency Room Volunteer Skills

[kiwiplanter]

I am currently deciding between an internship in an ER or an OB/GYN clinic and I was just hoping to hear from current and old ER volunteers: what skills do you think you have learned from volunteering in an ER?

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[tantacles]

I am currently deciding between an internship in an ER or an OB/GYN clinic and I was just hoping to hear from current and old ER volunteers: what skills do you think you have learned from volunteering in an ER?

I learned to put a pillowcase on a hospital pillow, deliver blankets, use an ice machine, open a soda can, place a straw into a cup without touching the part the patient's mouth will touch, and, most importantly, I learned how to aimlessly walk around an emergency room over the span of three hours without ever seeming like I was doing nothing. Which was a challenge, because when I was doing nothing interesting, I was doing nothing.

Oh, and lest you think I'm being sarcastic, I'm not.

 

[RedICEE]

I learned to put a pillowcase on a hospital pillow, deliver blankets, use an ice machine, open a soda can, place a straw into a cup without touching the part the patient's mouth will touch, and, most importantly, I learned how to aimlessly walk around an emergency room over the span of three hours without ever seeming like I was doing nothing. Which was a challenge, because when I was doing nothing interesting, I was doing nothing.

Oh, and lest you think I'm being sarcastic, I'm not.

I love it. Very accurate.

 

[kiwiplanter]

Hmm Tantacles, that is what I am afraid of. I know medical contact is extremely limited for us aspiring doctors, but did you at least get to observe procedures? Shadow a physician?
At the minimum you increased your communication skills dealing with a population of people that are injured/sick at vulnerable times....

 

[Ismet]

I learned to put a pillowcase on a hospital pillow, deliver blankets, use an ice machine, open a soda can, place a straw into a cup without touching the part the patient's mouth will touch, and, most importantly, I learned how to aimlessly walk around an emergency room over the span of three hours without ever seeming like I was doing nothing. Which was a challenge, because when I was doing nothing interesting, I was doing nothing.

Oh, and lest you think I'm being sarcastic, I'm not.

Yup. This.

 

[Ismet]

did you at least get to observe procedures? Shadow a physician?
At the minimum you increased your communication skills dealing with a population of people that are injured/sick at vulnerable times....

I volunteered in an ED that didn't get very much trauma...the trauma centers are downtown and in the hospital adjacent to the med school. My experience was rather boring, lots of the same thing, headaches, stomach aches, falls, drug-seekers, etc.

Talking to patients was a plus, and it is definitely clinical experience. When I was done with my rounding of blankets and pillows and attending to everyone's needs (which took max 30 min out of my 4 hours), I could usually find a lonely patient who liked to chat. Talked to the doc on duty sometimes, but there was only one physician there at a time, so he was obviously busy.

 

[hidesbehindSN]

I became damn good at stocking ED carts.

 

[tantacles]

Hmm Tantacles, that is what I am afraid of. I know medical contact is extremely limited for us aspiring doctors, but did you at least get to observe procedures? Shadow a physician?
At the minimum you increased your communication skills dealing with a population of people that are injured/sick at vulnerable times....

I talked to patients and entertained them, but I observed zero procedures and got to know zero physicians in the ED. I wasn't even allowed to ask about their medical information. I was only allowed to know what a patient volunteered.

 

[jd989898]

I learned to put a pillowcase on a hospital pillow, deliver blankets, use an ice machine, open a soda can, place a straw into a cup without touching the part the patient's mouth will touch, and, most importantly, I learned how to aimlessly walk around an emergency room over the span of three hours without ever seeming like I was doing nothing. Which was a challenge, because when I was doing nothing interesting, I was doing nothing.

Oh, and lest you think I'm being sarcastic, I'm not.

Mostly this. I did learn how to do EKGs and take vitals, but that's about it.

 

[jw3600]

Hmm Tantacles, that is what I am afraid of. I know medical contact is extremely limited for us aspiring doctors, but did you at least get to observe procedures? Shadow a physician?
At the minimum you increased your communication skills dealing with a population of people that are injured/sick at vulnerable times....

99% of the time, no. Tantacles hit the nail on the head

Mostly this. I did learn how to do EKGs and take vitals, but that's about it.

This is best case scenario and even this is exceedingly rare.

 

[Domino2178]

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[trs88]

Wow, I think I may have been ridiculously lucky in my experiences volunteering in at my rural local ER. I have done the same as everyone else: give pillows and blankets to the patients, bring them water. But I've also relayed information from the patients to the medical staff. "Can patient in bed 5 go to the bathroom? Yes? Okay, I will pass along that they can. Should a urine sample be collected? Yes? I will bring one to the patient and explain that the doctor would like a sample." And the reverse. When a doctor is filling the forms out and is unable to leave their desk (at that immediate second) and needs information from the patient (what is the name of their primary care doctor, have they been admitted to this specific ER before, etc - things that might have been missed during the triage, I will gladly ask the patient for the medical staff and relay the information back to them. I will use disinfectant wipes to clean the cords of the machines since it is not part of the cleaning staffs routine. After that, I will check the rooms and drawers to see if minor medical supplies can be refilled. Anything important needs a fingerprint to refill.

Then, I have been taught how to assist with triaging a patient when they first arrive. I can take the patients blood pressure and temperature, record it and pass it along to the trained medical person who is actually triaging the patient and standing right next to me. I've also seen* countless critical care patients: car crashes, strokes, attempted suicides, mental health patients, trouble breathing, and while not critical (but my favorite) patients that need stitches. I should make the note, that everything I do is within eyesight of a medical professional and I never do anything without clarification or permission first. In addition to what was said above, the most important thing that I was able to learn - was how to interact and communicate with patients.

*seen as in, I watched the patients be brought into the ER, stood in the same room as the patient, remained out of the way as the trained medical staff did their jobs to help the patient.

I think it helps that I am in a rural ER (that at most, has enough beds for 30 patients) and at times the medical staff are short handed and any amount of help can ease their burden.

 

[Gauss44]

ed duties: transport to and from xray, transport discharged patients to entrance, transport patients to different rooms, walk patients and family members back to be seen by doctor, walk visitors to cafeteria and bathroom, get pillows, blankets, drinks, meals, hot/cold packs, crayons for kids, wheelchairs, magazines, help find chairs, help adjust beds, check on patients in rooms and wheelchairs, help nurses find stretchers, translate as needed, help lost visitors/patients.

who does particularly well in ed imo: extroverted independent confident people with good judgement. especially if you like excitement and don't mind a little working around serious injuries, crazy people, and the occasional death.

 

[Domino2178]

.

 

[AlteredScale]

I think it depends on where your ED is located, if it's intercity, no doubt you will "experience" more.

Actually, yesterday I was able to do some RARE clinical work. I held a patients head to the side while a nurse cleaned and changed tubing to his chest, he just had a endotracheal intubation after his terminal liver cirrhosis was causing him to puke blood. It was pretty intense but I was in conversation with the nurse to learn about why he was here. I've done the typical of delivering food, blood, urine samples, changing beds.

I've gotten a lot out of it because I go out of my way to ask the residents, interns, hell even senior attendings there about the job, whether or not the like it. How there approach is to certain situations since about 89% of our incoming is homeless. We have a program called a "research associates" program where we actual ask patients at the ED clinical questions for emergency research. Trying to get into that program right now actually as you work in the physicians office and it has the most patient contact which I am so excited about!

 

[Shinee1]

I agree. It's all about where you're located and if you are an intern or volunteer. I've been both and I can say that if you will be an intern, it's a bit different (maybe). I did what everyone else did: fetch pillows, change sheets, sanitize rooms, etc... but, I was an intern doing 7PM-7AM shifts at a hospital and I can say I got to do much more patient/clinical work. I was there whenever a patient entered the ER helping with either dressing, taking vitals or EKGs. Anytime CPR needed to be administered, I would get a chance to assist. I also got a chance to put casts on patients, did a lot of the general first aid stuff that nurses couldn't be bothered with (changing bandages on minor wounds, cleaning wounds, etc...), change IVs and learned to insert IVs. I also got to follow patients from ER to OR and watch whatever was happened in the OR. I think being on the late shift allowed for all this to happen so, whether or not you have a good experience, it comes down to luck really...

 

[lovemango]

I think you get a lot more out of being an ER scribe than just an ER volunteer. I got to work with a different doc every shift, see patients alongside them, and watch tons of procedures. Many of the docs I worked with also like to teach, and I learned the basics of reading X-rays and interpreting lab results as a scribe. You get to see each doctor's thought process from the time they initially see the patient until they decide to either discharge or admit them.

 

[ventulus18]

I probably did more as an ED volunteer in college than on some days as a MS3 on surgery rotation (perfecting the art of being a human statue). In either case, it's not really about gaining skill as it is gaining exposure.

In the ED you can expect to stock some carts, transport patients, fetch crutches, maybe get a chance to watch a procedure. Focus on the three As: be Available, be Affable, be Able - in that order.

 

[type12]

Stupid to ask, but why is it that this clinical experience is so highly demanded if it doesn't reflect anything remotely to what you'll be doing as a doctor? It sounds like if you made that confusion, it'd give you the false notion that you'd hate being a physician. Is it to promote free menial labor to increase profit margins overall in health care? Or can at least one person share what wasting your time at the ED provides?

I had the same experience after two 3 hour shifts, and never went back, because I did literally nothing. Now that's a mark against me so I'm hunting for clinical experience again 🙄

 

[Geebeejay]

Are you seeking an internship or volunteer position? The two are different....The guy who posted earlier pretty much summed up ED volunteering,

Mostly this. I did learn how to do EKGs and take vitals, but that's about it.

This seems like a pretty big liability letting an unpaid non-employee do these things. Your hospital must have been in the middle of bum-**** to let this slide.

 

[Geebeejay]

Stupid to ask, but why is it that this clinical experience is so highly demanded if it doesn't reflect anything remotely to what you'll be doing as a doctor? It sounds like if you made that confusion, it'd give you the false notion that you'd hate being a physician. Is it to promote free menial labor to increase profit margins overall in health care? Or can at least one person share what wasting your time at the ED provides?

I had the same experience after two 3 hour shifts, and never went back, because I did literally nothing. Now that's a mark against me so I'm hunting for clinical experience again 🙄

well how can you know you want to work in a hospital for at least 6 years if you've never been in a hospital before? And how can you know you want to take care of patients for the rest of your life if you've never helped a patient before?

 

[Laureatebarrel]

The time when I was doing volunteer at a hospital I got so scared of all the policies that I had a hard time talking to anybody.

 

[Laureatebarrel]

I think you get a lot more out of being an ER scribe than just an ER volunteer. I got to work with a different doc every shift, see patients alongside them, and watch tons of procedures. Many of the docs I worked with also like to teach, and I learned the basics of reading X-rays and interpreting lab results as a scribe. You get to see each doctor's thought process from the time they initially see the patient until they decide to either discharge or admit them.

Now THAT is what I would like to do

 

[Medstart108]

I am currently deciding between an internship in an ER or an OB/GYN clinic and I was just hoping to hear from current and old ER volunteers: what skills do you think you have learned from volunteering in an ER?

Well i did a co-op at a critical care unit which is slightly different from the ER but still relevant. I answered the phone, filed charts, learned about doctor schedules, watched a lot of bedside procedures: tracheotomy, intubation, central line insertion etc.

If you volunteer in an ER you will be filing charts, fluffing pillows, refilling stocks. Its really going to be quite boring. Also, it depends on when you work, if you volunteer during the day you probably won't be seeing much.

 

[DrEnderW]

I got really well versed into what iPhone news apps are best in a hospital setting, what my friends are doing on FaceBook while I sit in the nurses' bay, and even became a proficient user of Instagram.

Moral of the story... chances are you won't learn or do much in 99% of hospital volunteering situations. Hospitals can't legally let you do anything of value or do anything that would lead to the acquisition of any medically relevant skills.

 

[MDwannabe09]

Volunteering in the ER is what you make of it. If you find stuff to do and are helpful, the time will pass much faster.

 

[AlteredScale]

Volunteering in the ER is what you make of it. If you find stuff to do and are helpful, the time will pass much faster.

Bump

 

[DocGodfather]

I learned to put a pillowcase on a hospital pillow, deliver blankets, use an ice machine, open a soda can, place a straw into a cup without touching the part the patient's mouth will touch, and, most importantly, I learned how to aimlessly walk around an emergency room over the span of three hours without ever seeming like I was doing nothing. Which was a challenge, because when I was doing nothing interesting, I was doing nothing.

Oh, and lest you think I'm being sarcastic, I'm not.

Spot on lol 👍 Try doing it for four hour shifts 🙄

 

[Drogo]

I did most of the typical stuff, but I went out of my way to help many patients and in the process met some wonderful people. My most memorable moments were when I would go into the resus area where high-risk patients came through and I got to watch how the whole team worked together with the physicians directing the care. Another major thing I took away is how physicians handled communicating professionally to a patient/family member/s in a very stressful situation.

If you show you are genuinely interested, some nurses/PAs will take notice and let you check out some procedures. I still laugh about the first procedure I ever got to witness which was seeing a young nurse put in a catheter.

I always sought out to help with the transferring of patients which helped me get to travel all around the hospital. I spoke with many PA's, nurses and some physicians here or there in many different areas. I felt this broke the monotonous routine of changing beds, stuffing pillows into pillow cases, et cetera. I mean that work is really for the transporters/nurse assistants/EC techs. As a volunteer you are there to observe/gain exposure and help the patients with comfort care type stuff.

I generally like to transport and help the PEDS area in the EC. At my hospital we were allowed access to some basic info about the patients, so I was able to help them stay updated with how the lab results were coming along and if they were to be discharged, et cetera.

Pretty much I gained a lot of great exposure because I sought it out! I laugh when I hear people complaining about this or that and how boring it is, well whose fault is that? I was always proactive and eager to learn something and well I took a lot away from my time volunteering.

Bottom-line, keep an open mind and remember you are there for the patients and to gain insight into an important area of primary care.

 

[PennDippody]

+1

Clinical "experience" is overrated and, thusly, so too is the requirement for it. I believe there are in fact many rewarding oportunities out there that are clinically oriented but this seems rather rare on the whole. When your talking about actuall paying jobs and certificate-needing things like EMT etc, thats a differnt story. But things like shadowing and someone letting you lurk up and down the floors on thier service is really useless IMO.

 

[Drogo]

Honestly I think it largely depends on the hospital system in which you are volunteering and how the volunteer program is ran.

I know for a fact that at the other hospital that is bigger than the one I volunteer at that the volunteers really do not get a lot of patient contact and are stuck doing that monotonous work.

 

[charmedj7]

Not an ER volunteer but I was an ER nurse so I had exposure to a lot of them. To us, they are a god send: "trivial" things like retrieving stretchers and stocking carts can be the difference between a good, busy day and the final straw that cracks the back when the patients won't stop coming straight back and there isn't even a f***ing BP cuff in the cart, etc.

That said, they do often look bored, and they have very little interaction with the docs from what I saw. However, they have a ton of opportunity to talk to other care providers (nurses, SW, RT, etc) as well as get exposure to the patient population you get in the ER, which, if you're interested in ER medicine, is well worth your while.

Also, I highly doubt an OB/Gyn clinic would be any better exposure-wise. Women are generally much more iffy about anyone being in the room beyond those medically necessary, far less so than the typical ER patient who is happy to see anyone (you know, except for the frequent flyer types who will scream at anyone who isn't a doc in there to write for dilaudid and will describe the pain as "PAIN!" and refuse to answer other questions*)

*I do love the ER

 

[yehhhboiii]

I learned to put a pillowcase on a hospital pillow, deliver blankets, use an ice machine, open a soda can, place a straw into a cup without touching the part the patient's mouth will touch, and, most importantly, I learned how to aimlessly walk around an emergency room over the span of three hours without ever seeming like I was doing nothing. Which was a challenge, because when I was doing nothing interesting, I was doing nothing.

Oh, and lest you think I'm being sarcastic, I'm not.

i did all this and i also had the chance to learn how to buy some soda for a party. somehow managed to pick up a diet fanta instead of the regular which no one drank.

 

[zmansman17]

I learned to put a pillowcase on a hospital pillow, deliver blankets, use an ice machine, open a soda can, place a straw into a cup without touching the part the patient's mouth will touch, and, most importantly, I learned how to aimlessly walk around an emergency room over the span of three hours without ever seeming like I was doing nothing. Which was a challenge, because when I was doing nothing interesting, I was doing nothing.

Oh, and lest you think I'm being sarcastic, I'm not.

Working towards my 200 hours and this is exactly how I feel.

 

[TexasSurgeon]

I learned to put a pillowcase on a hospital pillow, deliver blankets, use an ice machine, open a soda can, place a straw into a cup without touching the part the patient's mouth will touch, and, most importantly, I learned how to aimlessly walk around an emergency room over the span of three hours without ever seeming like I was doing nothing. Which was a challenge, because when I was doing nothing interesting, I was doing nothing.

Oh, and lest you think I'm being sarcastic, I'm not.

That's really all I ever do in the ED. However, whenever there's some cool residents around, they let me do bigger things like change bandages on patients, which is way more interesting. Usually I restock the first hour or so, and then once I realize there's literally nothing else to do, I try to make myself look busy by walking around acting like I have work.

 

[Aerus]

I do clinical research in the ER, so I get to access medical records and interview patients. It's a pretty cool experience. 🙂

 

[nysegop]

Paperwork. A lot of it.

Well... paperwork on the computer.

 

[katiemaude]

Any volunteer experience is going to be partly what you make of it. I loved volunteering in the ED, but I was fortunate to be in a busy suburban/urban trauma center so i got to see a lot. I also picked Friday night shifts when it was busiest. It took a couple months of proving that I was reliable (in addition to what someone else said about being available, affable and able) before the nurses and techs started giving me things to do and teaching me things so my nights were more than fetching stretchers and wheelchairs and cups of ice water.

The most interesting things I saw were, naturally, during trauma codes. I learned where to stand to stay out of the way while getting the best view. I also learned how to properly move patients off an ambulance stretcher to an ER stretcher (yes, there is a wrong way) so when those patients would come in, often I'd get to stay to help with turning and whatever else they needed an extra set of hands for on a busy night.

For me, having exposure to the hospital setting and patient contact was the most valuable aspect - shadowing gave me more physician interaction. I loved being there and doing it. If you end up hating it, do the minimum requirement and find something else. Otherwise you are just wasting your time.

 

[nysegop]

In all seriousness though, I get to talk to patients which is great.

 

[Cath1025]

Well it appears I came to the right place. I am an ER attending and am trying to start up a scribe program in my department. If you aren't familiar with scribes they follow the physicians around the department, are present for the history and physical & then generate the chart which the ER physician then reviews and modifies (or not) to create the medical record. The scribes help us with just about everything that does not requite an MD after one's name.

In the last month the scribes I have worked with have seen me do LP's, intubations, emergency ultrasounds & a chest tube. They get to see plenty and most of us do a good bit of teaching in the process. Oh and did I mention we $PAY$ the scribes. Additionally all of the attendings, of course have contacts at different universities where we did residency and medical school and would be happy to write letters of rec to scribes who had done a good job.

Our department is about 1-1.5h away from 2-3 major universities. But we have had a surprising degree of difficulty finding the pre-meds. So can you please direct me to the best place to find the pre-meds at any particular college?

I would try to find which ER's in your area use scribes & try to get that gig. You might even volunteer to do it for free for the first couple of months just to get the hang of things but afterwards it is not unrealistic to expect to be paid.

 

[type12]

snip

Premed organizations at schools, and advisors of premeds are the best hitters at schools from my experience. Bear in mind, I have only recruited/marketed in NYC, so it may not be true elsewhere.