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Why would it be excessive the more patient contact you have the better right? I volunteer at a hospital ER 4 hours a week and have around 300 hours right now probably will have 500 by the time I apply. Obviously I don't think that many hours is necessary to show commitment to a medical career but I doubt you could ever have "excessive" volunteering hours...
It wouldn't be a bad idea to try a new department. I wouldn't say it is excessive if you enjoy it and feel like you are helping out. However, if you feel compelled to try something else out there is no shame. Either way, be prepared to answer questions about it during an interview.
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I feel like none of the other departments would be enjoyable. Are there any other departments where patients are constantly being moved? I feel like all I do in the ER is clean rooms, fetch things for patients, do whatever the nurses ask me to do, watch stuff happen, and occasionally talk to patients. I feel like other departments do not have as much cleaning/housekeeping to do. Oh and they sometimes make me do office type work, which I hate.
You have to think for yourself a little here. At my hospital I volunteer at the front desk. There, I am answering phones, constantly discharging patients from various units, running tele boxes, escorting visitors, and rushing walk ins to the ER. In our ER I worked solo; at the front desk I work with 4 cute girls (team effort). I felt like I got in the way in the ER. At the front desk I can be a real leader, I can be more than a stock boy. The thing that attracts me the most is variety; you never know what you're going to see at the front desk.
But that's my hospital..
Check out the front desk position if you have one! I love it!
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Try the ICU. You will pretty much do the same stuff but being there will start getting you acclimated to death. At least one patient died during every single one of my shifts. At least in the hospital I was at.
And if you can try volunteering past midnight on a weekend. Things get bizarre in the ED when the moon is out and the bars start closing.
And if you can try volunteering past midnight on a weekend. Things get bizarre in the ED when the moon is out and the bars start closing.
In my experience, I maxed out the ED volunteer learning opportunities after about 450 hours. Clinical volunteering can be a good way to get your foot in the door at other clinical opportunities, such as clinical research assistant student programs.
OP, what type of hospital is your ED in?
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A community hospital, I guess it's medium sized
It's not level 1; I think that's what Lobster is getting at.
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If so, then no. Our ED just sees the normal geriatric gas patient.
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Should I ask nurses and docs more often if I can follow them around and watch the kinds of things they do? I've done this before, but I just feel kind of obnoxious asking someone to let me do this.
You should do this as a shadowing when you are not there as a volunteer.
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Shadowing requires a whole separate process where I have to get cleared with the human resources people, and I can only shadow a limited number of hours, I feel like doing it as a volunteer would be the same but less formal
What do you usually do as an ER volunteer?
Sometimes I observe some interesting cases that come into trauma (level 1 hospital), so I guess it's kind of an informal shadowing while volunteering. Should I not be doing this?
You can do that as long as everyone is ok with this. At my hospital you wouldn't be allowed to shadow while you are on a volunteer shift. I would not count that informal shadowing as shadowing, however. But it is still a good experience that you are getting.
And OP, keep doing what you are doing. No amount of healthcare experience is excessive. The point here is to show a long term commitment to it.
Totally agree. The more the merrier! 🙂
If you ever get the chance, try to volunteer in a large academic Level 1 Trauma Center/ED. You will start running into medical students and residents that are generally receptive to pre-meds. Don't be afraid to talk to them, the scars of their pre-med days are still relatively fresh in their minds haha. Just keep a few things in mind:
1) Never do anything that might even remotely harm the patients
2) Make sure you're not bothering anyone
3) Find a way to make the nurses and techs love you, because with their help the sky is the limit. I'll leave it up to you to figure out the details. All part of the learning process.
Keep your grades up and you'll be in med school before you know it.
You should have experience in a variety of different medical settings. Whether you choose to have 100+ ER hours, 250+, or 1000+ depends on how much you like the ER and personal factors. I have 1000+ hours volunteering in emergency, but also spent time in other healthcare settings.
