Hospital Parking and Volunteering

[PD187540]

When you volunteer at a hospital, are you entitled to a parking pass? I live in NY, and the costs for parking at hospitals that don't offer free visitor parking is ridiculous.

I'm hoping that they let volunteers park for free. If you're working for nothing and contributing to the orderly operations of the hospital unit, why on earth should you have to pay for parking? I'm hoping that they'd give starving pre-med students a break!

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Cinclus]

I'd imagine that you won't have to pay, because that's no way to keep volunteers. I live in a suburban area, where hospital parking is free at all the local hospitals. Some of these hospitals have spots for volunteers only, and volunteers have a parking decal that identifies them as such. The hospital where I volunteer does not have volunteer spots, but it's fairly easy to find a spot.

 

[alwaysaangel]

When you volunteer at a hospital, are you entitled to a parking pass? I live in NY, and the costs for parking at hospitals that don't offer free visitor parking is ridiculous.

I'm hoping that they let volunteers park for free. If you're working for nothing and contributing to the orderly operations of the hospital unit, why on earth should you have to pay for parking? I'm hoping that they'd give starving pre-med students a break!

You won't know until you ask. In areas with very limited parking I imagine they don't give volunteers free parking.

When I volunteered at a free clinic in downtown Berkeley they had parking permits for the docs but volunteers had to pay the meter on the street.

Most hospitals don't NEED volunteers and many have plenty of premeds waiting to get some clinical experience. If I were you I would expect to not get parking and then if you do you can be extra happy.

 

[Ranna]

Student volunteers were asked to park on the street at one of the hospitals I volunteered at, so it's certainly not guaranteed that they will offer you free parking.

 

[Disinence2]

I would not expect free parking.

 

[CaliGirl14]

I got free parking, and a cool badge

 

[juliedi]

I volunteered in a huge hospital that allowed us volunteers to park in a very small section of one floor of a parking structure for free... but usually the whole structure was completely filled anyway, at least during the normal work day. Luckily I volunteered 8pm-midnight, so I could find parking ok, but if I had to go to the hospital during the day for something, I'd give myself an extra half hour to find street parking someplace. (And I'd have to scrounge around my room for like $5 in effing quarters, ugh.)

 

[PD187540]

I would not expect free parking.

I will inquire about this at a few hospital systems later this summer. If I get free parking at one, great. If not, then I won't volunteer. Easy as that...

The two main guiding questions I'm going to ask in order for me to volunteer at a hospital are: 1) Do you have any volunteer activities that would put me in contact with patients? and 2) Is parking free for volunteers?

If the answer is no for both, then screw volunteering. If the answer is 1) yes and 2) no, I still won't volunteer. I'm happy to sacrifice and volunteer my time, but if I'm doing this for nothing, why are you also inking my pockets?? Gotta think practically!

In fact, I could probably get away with not volunteering at all for a hospital. I did an unpaid internship in 2005-2006, 40 hours a week for a full 52 weeks, as a Pathologist's Assistant for college credit, and that involved rotating through 2 hospitals plus a medical examiner's office. Then I worked full-time as a P.A. for a private lab and I did a 3-month contractual position with a major hospital system (2 years' worth of relevant work exp.).

I'd probably be OK with just trying to find a few shadowing experiences with physicians in other medical fields and volunteering for a non-profit humanitarian organization or something. That's probably the golden strategy in my case.

 

[PD187540]

I got free parking, and a cool badge

Grrr, you're lucky!!!

 

[mdtothepowerof2]

I volunteer at a hospital and they gave me and the other volunteers access to the employee parking lot. Basically the exact same thing as Caligirl. Maybe we just got lucky, California is just really nice, we volunteer at the exact same hospital, or a combination of the above. I just assumed that every volunteer got the same benefits.

 

[n3xa]

Free parking, badge, and dinner.

 

[alwaysaangel]

I volunteer at a hospital and they gave me and the other volunteers access to the employee parking lot. Basically the exact same thing as Caligirl. Maybe we just got lucky, California is just really nice, we volunteer at the exact same hospital, or a combination of the above. I just assumed that every volunteer got the same benefits.

Well it depends. If you work somewhere where parking is generally free of course they won't have a problem giving a volunteer free parking. But in somewhere like NYC parking is a premium - I'm sure its actually pretty pricey for those hospitals to give their volunteers free parking.

 

[mdtothepowerof2]

Free parking, badge, and dinner.

You got dinner...

 

[SoftwareKevin]

We get free parking, but the hospital is in kind of a sketchy neighborhood.

 

[RogueUnicorn]

a parking spot in nyc is probably more valuable than your worth as a volunteer

 

[30Percent]

Got a free parking permit.

Its probably going to be different for you since parking is a premium in NYC.

 

[Potatoman1800]

Free parking, a sweet badge with my picture, and $7 credit for the cafeteria after my shifts were done (or during them)

 

[kexy]

Downtown LA, had to pay for parking (street parking is never, ever feasible here...) It ended up being like $6 a shift. Super lame.

 

[BiopsychStudent]

Free parking, badge, and lunch. I volunteer at a smaller hospital, though. I would imagine larger facilities might be a little shorter on parking and heavier on volunteers.