Getting Clinical Contact

[youngxgold]

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I see lots of posters w/ clinical volunteer jobs and some of them are even getting paid. I'm about to start volunteering in a hospital next month, but I am not sure what they will have me doing.

If they start me as some kind of supply mover or desk filer (which is highly likely), what can I do to change my duties to where I'll have actual patient contact? I've just finished undergrad so I don't know how qualified I am to be "playing a role in the patient's ultimate clinical outcome" (as someone else mentioned in another thread.

 

[apumic]

Actually because you've finished your undergrad, you may have a better chance than many here at getting a decent clinical gig. What was your UG in? If it was a lab science, apply for some medical technologist types of positions. If it was psych or a bx science, try for a psych unit, etc. As for volunteering... go for free clinics, not hospitals. Hospitals will have far fewer decent opportunities for you than will free clinics.

 

[youngxgold]

I received a BA in Psychology so I guess I could try looking up psychiatry offices/clinics. Do private practices tend to take volunteers?

Would it be possible to count my volunteering also as shadowing if I ended up w/ a private practice? Technically, I'd be shadowing the psychiatrist by following him/her around a lot..

 

[NickNaylor]

I received a BA in Psychology so I guess I could try looking up psychiatry offices/clinics. Do private practices tend to take volunteers?

Would it be possible to count my volunteering also as shadowing if I ended up w/ a private practice? Technically, I'd be shadowing the psychiatrist by following him/her around a lot..

If you're "volunteering" for a private practice you should be getting paid, unless you're shadowing. I wouldn't be volunteering to help with clerical work.

 

[LizzyM]

I see lots of posters w/ clinical volunteer jobs and some of them are even getting paid. I'm about to start volunteering in a hospital next month, but I am not sure what they will have me doing.

If they start me as some kind of supply mover or desk filer (which is highly likely), what can I do to change my duties to where I'll have actual patient contact? I've just finished undergrad so I don't know how qualified I am to be "playing a role in the patient's ultimate clinical outcome" (as someone else mentioned in another thread.

Watch out for Clinical Research Volunteers Needed.... Volunteers will be paid up to $xxx. Those are not research opportunities in the sense that you will be conducting research but that you will have research conducted upon you. The payment is for your time and "inconvenience" (generally means a lot of radiation or something is going to hurt like hell).

 

[wanderer]

Exactly. Be cautious when you see "paid volunteer." You really aren't a volunteer (how can you be paid AND be a volunteer?), but are more of a guinea pig. The only problem is "paid guinea pig" doesn't look too enticing so they call it "paid volunteer."

 

[LizzyM]

Exactly. Be cautious when you see "paid volunteer." You really aren't a volunteer (how can you be paid AND be a volunteer?), but are more of a guinea pig. The only problem is "paid guinea pig" doesn't look too enticing so they call it "paid volunteer."

Well, you can be a volunteer and be paid. The armed services of the US are volunteer and paid. The opposite would be a draft (compulsory service).

Research subjects must voluntarily give consent... that's where the volunteer part comes in. Furthermore, in some places, only passive recruiting, as with posters and ads can be done... no one is allowed to corner you and ask you to "volunteer". This is particularly true in places where young volunteers in labs & clinics might be coerced into being guinea pigs with the hope of getting a good LOR, etc.

 

[apumic]

I received a BA in Psychology so I guess I could try looking up psychiatry offices/clinics. Do private practices tend to take volunteers?

Would it be possible to count my volunteering also as shadowing if I ended up w/ a private practice? Technically, I'd be shadowing the psychiatrist by following him/her around a lot..

You're looking in the wrong places. Psych offers a TON of possibilities for clinical experience. Go type "residential counseling," "troubled teens," "psychiatric hospital," "mental health tech," "mental health," "therapeutic residential treatment," "substance abuse treatment," "alcohol treatment," etc. into Google along with the name of your city/town (or the nearest metro area). This should bring up all kinds of organizations that could provide excellent clinical experience (psych-related but still dealing w/ medical pts; some of these may be more psych than medical but as long as your pts have medical issues, are taking medications, etc., this is still very much clinical experience)