Hospital Volunteering Position: Best/Worst??

[PreMedder]

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So I just finished filling out forms to volunteer at a university hospital. They allow you to choose which position you want to volunteer as: and the duties vary a lot from position to position.
Some are ONLY clerical-type things such as filing, answering phones, making charts, faxing, copying, alphabetizing, etc.
Some are ONLY patient-contact in the pediatric center/working as a greeting at the department desk/etc.
Some are a mix of these two, with clerical duties and then as much patient contact/keeping company as you wish for example in Medical Oncology department.
One position I thought sounded interesting was in the Hand Therapy department and allows for "extensive observation" of patients and their treatments following injury/surgery on top of clerical duties.

I have never volunteered in a hospital before and was wondering which type of position I should choose - there are over 50 and I only get to choose one so I want to make sure whatever I choose is worth it! Any anecdotes/advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[apumic]

Depends on the hospital. Generally, free clinics will actually give you responsibility for pt care, which (by far) trumps hospital volunteering and "observation" (really shadowing) every time. Nevertheless, any position is of at least some value. The pt-contact positions are far better than the clerical ones. I'd suggest getting a paid position if at all possible as these are far better for pt contact and clinical experience.

For example, recently on my unit we had a pt with apparent gangrene of an extremity that had previously appeared to be nothing but bruising (the pt had extraordinarily poor hygiene and likely injured it and got it infected prior to getting to the hospital as it presented as simply being a bit purple a day ago and due to the nature of our unit, physical assessments are only done q.12h). My job description doesn't typically include full physical assessments but because I have my EMT-B and am going into medicine, my supervising NP had me put on gloves and do the assessment of the extremity alongside her, teaching me what to look for and how to properly assess the pt's condition and the extremity (which was quite a bit beyond the scope of EMT-B training). These kinds of experiences very rarely happen with volunteers simply because of liability and training issues/expenses. Not to mention, healthcare jobs -- even the lowest of all tech positions (the CNA) -- pay far more than most jobs on-campus and even many off-campus.

 

[christina30]

Yeah, I find that hospital volunteering is kind of weak in terms of the kind of clinical experiences you're going to get. You'd be better off getting an actual part time job in one if you want to really get involved in patient care.

Working as a "greeter" or something similar is pretty useless, imho. That certainly wouldn't count as really good clinical/patient contact experience.

 

[Bojangles85]

I would ask the volunteer coordinators which position has the most pt contact. I volunteer as a pt transporter. The university hospital I volunteer at is massive. So I get to learn the layout of the hospital and get pt contact. Contact includes helping pts out of the bed to conversations while I move them from place to place and other things.

As long as they know you want pt contact, they'll most likely help you out.

 

[thebillsfan]

I'd recommend skipping hospital volunteering entirely unless youre directly caring for patients.

 

[addo]

Personally the worst for me is answering phones....absolutely hate that position.
Best position was at the ER where I had by far the most contact with patients.

 

[AH3]

Best was the ER. Frequent patient contact and when they get slammed, you will get to be even more involved trying to keep things running smoothly. It can get slow too though, so be ready for both.

 

[christina30]

Personally the worst for me is answering phones....absolutely hate that position.
Best position was at the ER where I had by far the most contact with patients.

Don't worry, we hate when volunteers answer the phones. Haha

Depends on the hospital, but where I work, even my volunteers (the ER ones) are rarely allowed to transport patients or do anything too patient-related. Sometimes they'll have them accompany a nurse or nursing assistant to the floors with a patient, but they're certainly not allowed to transport patients alone. Mostly run errands that I send them on (run blood up to the various labs, etc.)

Hence why I think hospital volunteering isn't that great for clinical experience.

 

[addo]

Don't worry, we hate when volunteers answer the phones. Haha

That is good to know. Now I wont hesitate to say "you know what, maybe ill just make a couple of new charts instead".

 

[christina30]

That is good to know. Now I wont hesitate to say "you know what, maybe ill just make a couple of new charts instead".

The majority of volunteers, for some reason, will pick up the phone, and, not knowing who is on the other line, do something like.. "uh.. i don't.. uhhhh hold on." and without putting the person on hold, just shove the receiver at me. More often than not, the person on the other line is an attending who is now very irritated by whoever answered the phone. Haha.

 

[Xinlitik]

At the hospital I volunteered at (ER), I was allowed to transport patients alone (even pregnant moms!), and give treatments such as ice packs with the nurse's permission. Your mileage may vary.

I'd stick with a clinic if you could, my friend said he was allowed to take weight/height/BP measurements. Much more hands on.

 

[christina30]

I'd stick with a clinic if you could, my friend said he was allowed to take weight/height/BP measurements. Much more hands on.

👍

 

[Danlee07]

http://mercyhealthcenter.net/

just to be sure...that's a free clinic, right?? I got Social Services where i'm supposed to talk to patients...still waiting on the email from the coordinator...

 

[chman]

The majority of volunteers, for some reason, will pick up the phone, and, not knowing who is on the other line, do something like.. "uh.. i don't.. uhhhh hold on." and without putting the person on hold, just shove the receiver at me. More often than not, the person on the other line is an attending who is now very irritated by whoever answered the phone. Haha.

I think some hospitals are more liberal than others.. At the hospital I volunteer at I am asked to move patients a lot.

OP, I personally really like volunteering and am getting some great patient contact. I work in the physical rehab department, which is two floors. I think it is cool because it is like we are cut off from everything else in the hospital, which is huge. I really get to know the patients, if they are there for a significant amount of time.

It does go the other way though, and some people get some pretty useless jobs. Just be specific that you would like to be around patients. Sometimes those positions are hard to get, but if you put in the work it should be able to happen.

A lot of people on this site rag on volunteering, and I would have to disagree. Perhaps I got lucky, but I always feel a little better after I leave that day. It really helps me when I am stressed to think that some people have it way worse than I do.

 

[PetitAllegro]

As others have said, definitely shoot for whichever position will get you the most "hands on" patient contact, although it sounds like that will be pretty limited regardless. I've gotten really lucky as far as volunteering goes and stumbled upon a program that's pretty much nothing BUT hands on: bathing, feeding, discharging, etc. 👍

 

[Abbeyroad1791]

Some aspects of hospital volunteering are obviously pretty menial and very boring as a pre-med student. However, if you get in contact with some attendings themselves, or happen to know any personally, you can get involved in much more interesting volunteer programs. For instance this summer I'm volunteering at a very reputable teaching hospital with an attending working on her clinical research project. Mainly managing data and enrolling patients into the study, but I get to go on rounds with her a lot, go to pre-surgical evaluation meetings with some world class famous doctors, go to seminars with residents etc etc etc. Tell me if I'm mistaken but this seems to be the best end of the spectrum to me..

 

[justdoit31]

I volunteered at a children's hospital for my entire college career and loved it. I was able to do child life so I played with the kids, brought movies to the rooms, or just talked with kids (sometimes they would tell me about their medical conditions sometimes just about life, friends, family etc).

I also worked in the school room tutoring middle and high school students mostly with math/science. I would go to patient rooms and discuss the school program with families and then bring the kids to the school and work one on one with them. Both placements let me have extensive patient contact and I can't count the number of times I stayed late to watch a movie with a patient who was alone or brought nail polish to do a "spa afternoon" with a teenage girl. The hospital was very flexible with scheduling for me each semester and I even did weekends once because I couldn't make any weekday times with my classes.