ER volunteering- Is this normal?

[Poliscidoc]

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I have been volunteering in the ER for the last two years and today was the first day of the ER's quality enhancement program. I am wondering what other people do when they volunteer in the ER and does this sound similar or way off?

Normally me and the other volunteers clean rooms, transport patients to x-ray, CT, etc., bring food to patients, and fill the supply rooms.

But starting today we have to do afternoon rounds with the doctors and residents. I wanted to shoot myself during this hour long walk and talk session. I get that it's cool and we get to hear doctors talking but what in the hell am I as a volunteer supposed to learn and take away from this?

Also now I have to carry around a patient list and I'm supposed to check on the patients every 15 minutes. I basically ask if they need anything and anything other than a coloring book or water I have to get a CNA or nurse.

So my question is this normal or is the hospital just making us babysitters that are called volunteers so they can hire less people?

 

[Iliketoytles]

I have been volunteering in the ER for the last two years and today was the first day of the ER's quality enhancement program. I am wondering what other people do when they volunteer in the ER and does this sound similar or way off?

Normally me and the other volunteers clean rooms, transport patients to x-ray, CT, etc., bring food to patients, and fill the supply rooms.

But starting today we have to do afternoon rounds with the doctors and residents. I wanted to shoot myself during this hour long walk and talk session. I get that it's cool and we get to hear doctors talking but what in the hell am I as a volunteer supposed to learn and take away from this?

Also now I have to carry around a patient list and I'm supposed to check on the patients every 15 minutes. I basically ask if they need anything and anything other than a coloring book or water I have to get a CNA or nurse.

So my question is this normal or is the hospital just making us babysitters that are called volunteers so they can hire less people?

Sounds like a pretty darn good volunteer position to me.

 

[And I Was Like]

That sounds normal to me. ER volunteering is just one of those boxes you have to check on your applications. Despite the fact a majority of the time it provides the volunteer with nothing.

 

[Bacchus]

OH NO. ROUNDING. AHHHH. I'm sure half of the people on SDN would kill for this opportunity. You are too early in your medical career to be complaining about rounding.

All volunteers are glorified babysitters. You can't care for patients because you are not employed by the hospital nor are you covered in case you screw something up. Did this stop me? No, it didn't. I hooked up monitors and other equipment. Just don't do anything stupid.

 

[WisdomDoc]

Yea seems pretty typical......but you are very fortunate that you are able to do rounds with the docs! I didn't get that opportunity when I volunteered in an ER...make sure you get as much as you can out of it...

 

[nlax30]

What you were doing is what most people complain about when they volunteer... that they are just runners and don't have much contact with the patients and docs.

I'm assuming you're goal is med school so wouldn't hanging out with the docs and watching how they actually work be a good thing?

 

[TriagePreMed]

I would kill for an opportunity to round like that even if I didn't understand anything. I would then rush home like crazy and google every bit of information I could.

 

[Poliscidoc]

Ok so it sounds like im pretty lucky or at least in the norm 😀.


Thanks for all the replies...

 

[tkim]

residents. I wanted to shoot myself during this hour long walk and talk session. I get that it's cool and we get to hear doctors talking but what in the hell am I as a volunteer supposed to learn and take away from this?

Also now I have to carry around a patient list and I'm supposed to check on the patients every 15 minutes. I basically ask if they need anything and anything other than a coloring book or water I have to get a CNA or nurse.

This is a major buff up on your volunteer experience. When you describe your volunteer experience, you can certainly add 'rounded with physicians - able to experience the thought processes, observe the interaction between patient and physician - confirmed my desire for medicine, blah, blah'

Or you can continue to stock linens. Hard to buff that into anything impressive.

 

[Poliscidoc]

This is a major buff up on your volunteer experience. When you describe your volunteer experience, you can certainly add 'rounded with physicians - able to experience the thought processes, observe the interaction between patient and physician - confirmed my desire for medicine, blah, blah'

Or you can continue to stock linens. Hard to buff that into anything impressive.

Unless I can start leaving these on the beds

 

[Everglide]

Who the hell rounds in the ED? Either way, that's actually a good thing for your application. If you don't like it.... you should probably cross off any medicine based specialty 😛

 

[scummie]

Dude, that's a little weird--rounding in the ED? I think I'm missing something.

Anyways, I volunteered in the ER at a level 1 trauma center in my hometown and it was nowhere near the amount of patient contact you're getting. The most interesting thing I saw was a seizure. The rest of the time, I filed papers.

People on this thread are right--you've got a great opportunity. Maybe if you don't like patients, you should think about rads or path, haha.

 

[shaggybill]

I would think that most hospitals recognize that a lot of people who want to work in the medical field like to volunteer simply for something to put on their resume, so they create volunteer positions. Like someone already mentioned, there's not a whole lot you can actually do for the patients, so hospitals have to come up with something. Turns out that fetching water and blankets is something you can do without creating too much liability for the hospital.

Besides, keep in mind that what you are doing really is helpful to the ED. I've working in the ED for 4 years as a tech. We don't have volunteers, and I wish so bad that we did. Getting pts yet ANOTHER cup of water or a blanket or a snack takes up so much of my time that I need for other, more important things. Doing the menial tasks as a volunteer frees up time for the clinical staff and allows patients to be seen and discharged quicker.

 

[dsoz]

Let me see... When I volunteer in the ED I get to do the following things...

Make coffee and stock the refreshment cart in the waiting room.
Get blankets and pillows for people waiting in the waiting room.
Replace the Purell jel dispensers outside patient rooms when they get low.
put together blank charts (physician order, medication sheet, and chart).
direct people coming in to start filling out the admission forms if BOTH secretary/admission clerks are busy.
Help stuff payment reminders into envelopes and address the envelope.
I have run spinal fluid down to the lab three times (Since January).
I have helped clean the rooms a few times (but I have to almost beg the tech/nurse to let me help).
I have stocked blood draw baskets a few times (but the tech seemed to not like it because he felt like I was trying to take his job).
I have had to ask for special permission to do things like help out in the patient care area or to stay late to watch a graveyard shift.

It sounds to me like you are very lucky to have actual doctor contact.

NOTE- I am not complaining about what I do in the ED. But it seems like I must keep pushing to increase my responsibilities.

dsoz

 

[simondimond]

Are you sure you're just a volunteer or is this some type of specialty program. Volunteers usually have minimal patient contact other than transportation, getting blankets, etc.

I've never heard of a volunteer "Rounding." Are you sure it is "Rounding" and not something else?

 

[Poliscidoc]

Are you sure you're just a volunteer or is this some type of specialty program. Volunteers usually have minimal patient contact other than transportation, getting blankets, etc.

I've never heard of a volunteer "Rounding." Are you sure it is "Rounding" and not something else?

Yea I'm a volunteer nothing special just a typical volunteer, I mean rounding is what they call it (doctors). They do it 2-3 times a day I believe. It's a really big ER for the city that we are in.

 

[Kuba]

Are you sure you want to do medicine? Like everyone else already said, this early in your medical (or pre-medical I guess) education, you should be on these forums giddy about the opportunity and privilege to listen in on the decision-making by the very people you hope to work with one day. This will be a problem for you on every level of medical education.. as a third year med student, you will be expected to "babysit" patients by checking on them constantly and doing walking rounds with the team. Rounds are sometimes HOURS, notably pediatrics. Anyway, make sure this field is right for you..

 

[Bellette]

Whoa, you are lucky.

I'm in the ER: I do all of that, shuffling patients around, moving beds and wheel chairs to staging areas, bringing people snacks, holding hands, moving dirty linens elsewhere. I would be in heaven if I ever go to actually follow doctors around. At best, I am the intermediate between trailer trashy G3P0-type 19y'olds (always there for stomach pains, accompanied by semi-toothless friends with matching wiry bleached hair) and the handsome residents they want to sexually harass (accordingly hiding in the locked fishbowl).

I didn't want to respond to anyone in particular, but I don't think it's fair to say that the OP must not be cut out for medicine because he/she isn't into the rounds thing. In my opinion, it is perfectly normal, as an intelligent and normally useful person, to find the whole act of volunteering a little embarrassing: there is a basic human obligation on the part of volunteers to recognize that they are not doing anything especially laden with responsibility, and for a lot of extremely gifted people with many aptitudes, it's weird being in that moderately useless situation.

 

[golgiapparatus88]

I worked in the ER as a scribe. Absolutely amazing job. Not only did I become friends with almost every doc in the department, I learned a whollllllle lot.

I'm not sure what you mean but what should you learn? YOU SHOULD BE LEARNING EVERYTHING THAT COMES OUT OF A DOCTOR'S MOUTH! Take note of how they obtain patient history and give physical exams. Ask about diagnoses and interesting case presentations. Learn medical jargon and terminology. Consider yourself lucky that you have this position and milk it to the best of your ability.