As lots of other people have mentioned, hospital volunteering is great because it gives you both clinical experience and volunteer experience at the same time.
In regards to your point about it being menial work, most hospital volunteering certainly is. My volunteering duties consist entirely of cleaning things, changing sheets, hauling dirty laundry, and getting food and beverages for patients and families. It is definitely menial work, but I'm kind of glad it is. I like to start at the bottom of the totem pole because it gives me a better opportunity to gain respect for everyone involved in the process. I like to think that I'm not a power hungry person who enjoys using authority to put myself above others, but I feel like it can't hurt to sometimes be in situations where I'm at the bottom in order to make sure I'm staying humble. If you worry that adcoms will look down upon your menial work as being insignificant, I doubt they will.
@Goro would be able to tell you more, but I think they realize that it is hard to get any volunteer experience doing anything groundbreaking, and I think some of them may even take it as a good sign that you don't view yourself as being too good to do certain things.QUOTE]
Adcoms take a dim view of stuff like this. We consider it medical tourism. We know most people are at the beach in Cozumel, and take one trip to a local clinic.
working abroad in a mobile clinic for a few weeks
Because you're interacting with either paper or a computer screen, not real patients.
Why is clerical work bad? It's a huge part of learning what healthcare is all about these days. In fact, if you go into private practice your front desk staff will be (besides you the physician) the most important part of the operation. Ever heard of front desk staff stuffing away insurance claims unbeknownst to the dr? This happened in 2 practices I've worked at and its not good news/is a huge mess to clean up. The whole practice could be in danger of going under because basic expenses get difficult to cover without the patient co-pays.