Free Clinics

[SlickRoseNeer16]

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Is assisting at Free Clinic, seen as Volunteer work or Clinical or Shadowing? Or does it depend on what role you play at the Free Clinics? I have noticed that with certain opportunities, it feels as if these tasks (Volunteer / Clinical / Shadowing) intermingle.

As in;
If you are someone who helps with forms etc, that would not be true Clinical.
If you are with the doctors in the observation room then is it Clinical or Shadowing… ??

 

[DrFizition]

If you're close enough to smell the patient, it's clinical.

Edit: I believe credit goes to LizzyM for that quote

 

[LizzyM]

Most likely, "volunteer, clinical"

 

[sovereign0]

It depends on what you are actually doing in the free clinics. Shadowing is a relatively passive activity. Volunteering is active. If you play an active role with the patients, then it is most likely clinical volunteering. If you play an active role with a stack of paperwork, it's likely non-clinical volunteering (although in a healthcare-related setting). If you passively watch doctors do their job from the observation room, that's shadowing.

 

[getdown]

if not getting paid = volunteer
work directly with patients as part of responsibilities = clinical
following around a doctor all day with no responsibilities = shadowing

 

[Cookiess]

It depends on your role at the Free Clinic. If you're working with patients directly, it sounds like it would fall under the clinical/volunteer category to me.

 

[SlickRoseNeer16]

What if the role involves:

Bringing patients in from the lobby.
If it’s a new patient, providing them paperwork to fill out and make copies of their IDs.
At the end of each visit, log the patients info into the computer system.
Schedule their future appointments if needed.

I do get to listen / watch the med students present cases to the partner doctors and their thought process behind each diagnosis.

@Cookiess, @LizzyM, @getdown, @sovereign0 – Thoughts? Above duties seems like Clinical Volunteering.

 

[LizzyM]

If you are speaking to them face-to-face, it is certainly an encounter that is close enough to call it clinical.