Extracurricular while working full-time

[nehuHI]

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Hi,
I'm working full-time and am volunteering 4hrs/week at a hospital. It's been about 6 yrs since I last had any volunteering/clinical experience. I finished undergrad in 2003 and went on to get a Master's in Zoology and then was in a Ph.D. program in pharmacogenetics for 1 yr. I have some hospital contact as part of my current job but was wondering how much more extra-curricular and clinical experience you think I would need?

 

[ChairmanMao]

Hi,
I'm working full-time and am volunteering 4hrs/week at a hospital. It's been about 6 yrs since I last had any volunteering/clinical experience. I finished undergrad in 2003 and went on to get a Master's in Zoology and then was in a Ph.D. program in pharmacogenetics for 1 yr. I have some hospital contact as part of my current job but was wondering how much more extra-curricular and clinical experience you think I would need?

I have similar types of volunteering/extracurricular activity since I graduated from college a few years ago. To be honest, it's very hard to be involved in a broad set of extracurricular activity when you're working full-time 50-60 hrs/week and volunteering on the weekends. I think your best option might be to involve yourself with some corporate or industry related activity.

Where I used to work, I volunteered my time putting together some talk, lectures, presentations on my specific area of interest (IP and tech exchange) and going to college job recruitment events. I also organized a couple of holiday parties and get togethers at my company. I think those types of social activities can be considered EC since they're not part of the job and you don't get paid to do those types of things.

If you want to do something unrelated to your work, you can do a google search on Habitat for Humanities, Big Brothers and Big Sisters, and Ronald McDonald and find out if you can volunteer your time as a mentor to middle school or high school students. There are also various social clubs such as Toastmasters or your library's book club that you can be involved in that probably take place in your community's event center or library.

 

[nehuHI]

Hi Chairman Mao,
Thanks for the advice. What I'm concerned about is whether I need more clinical experience. Is it better to focus any extra time I do have on volunteering at a hospital as I have been doing or should I try to do short stints at different locations and try to shadow different doctors? Is it better to have a long-term clinical EC activity or to have a bunch of short term, one-time events that involve experience in the medical setting. Or should I be spending my off-work hours on non-clinical EC activities?
Thanks so much

 

[ChairmanMao]

Hi Chairman Mao,
Thanks for the advice. What I'm concerned about is whether I need more clinical experience. Is it better to focus any extra time I do have on volunteering at a hospital as I have been doing or should I try to do short stints at different locations and try to shadow different doctors? Is it better to have a long-term clinical EC activity or to have a bunch of short term, one-time events that involve experience in the medical setting. Or should I be spending my off-work hours on non-clinical EC activities?
Thanks so much

If you haven't had any clinical experience since 2003 and just got started with volunteering/shadowing - I would advise you to stick with it. There's no need for you to go and spread yourself too thin doing other things. Better have a long term clinical activity than a short-term experience. I suggest that you spend more time on clinical EC activities if you aren't already working at a hospital.

 

[nehuHI]

Thanks Chairman Mao. I appreciate the advice.

 

[CultureDoc]

I'd say it depends on the quality of the hospital volunteering experience you're getting right now. If you're basically a "candy striper" (taking food and water to patients, not much contact with the docs), move on to something that gets you in contact with physicians and what they really do for a living (which is kinda the whole point of the "unwritten" requirement for clinical experieince). There was a great post on one of the sticky threads around here giving this same sort of advice, and once I followed it, I not only learned more from my volunteer experience, but I enjoyed it more (which meant I actually wanted to go there, which meant I actually volunteered more than I initially planned . . . it was a nice little cycle!) FWIW, I was at a hospital first, and my better experience was at a clinic for the underserved.

Oh, and I worked full-time as well and took night classes. If your work hours are at all flexible, you might think of taking an afternoon once a week (or once every other week, or even once a month) to shadow. My employer let me adjust my schedule a bit to do so, and I had a really great, regular shadowing experience as a result.

 

[nehuHI]

Hi Culturedoc,
Thanks for the response. I like the advice about getting more contact with physicians. What were you allowed to do at the clinic you served in? Seems like because of confidentiality and liability we would be limited in terms of what kinds of experiences we could acquire? Unfortunately my work hours are not flexible and conflict with the time periods that most clinics are opened...