How important is clinical volunteering?

[clippersfan88]

Hey all,

Im having a really hard time finding clinical volunteering around me for whatever reason, and I'm wondering if its worth still pursuing at this point.

I work as a PCA in a big hospital and have tons of clinical contact through that.. will have like 750 hours when I apply. I also have shadowed two DOs in different specialties and have LORs through that. I was a leadership role in a huge undergraduate non clinical but health care related charity for four years in college. So I have clinical experience and volunteering, but no "clinical volunteering."

Would this hurt me for this upcoming cycle? I'll keep trying regardless but I'm curious as to where I stand.
Thanks!

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[Yhorm the Giant]

Similar circumstance here. I know that the whole theory is to look at a person as a whole, so if there's a couple deficient areas it can potentially be made up, to a degree. Obviously there are a lot of people who are the whole package, which makes competition fierce. But there are some schools who will see what you have and it will be something that they put a lot of emphasis on. When I asked if I should try and get some clinical volunteering about a month ago, I got a lot of mixed advice from people on here and from my pre-med counselor, saying if you can do it that is great, but with the small amount of time before the application don't let it interfere with anything like MCAT studies or Grades

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[AlteredScale]

Hey all,

Im having a really hard time finding clinical volunteering around me for whatever reason, and I'm wondering if its worth still pursuing at this point.

I work as a PCA in a big hospital and have tons of clinical contact through that.. will have like 750 hours when I apply. I also have shadowed two DOs in different specialties and have LORs through that. I was a leadership role in a huge undergraduate non clinical but health care related charity for four years in college. So I have clinical experience and volunteering, but no "clinical volunteering."

Would this hurt me for this upcoming cycle? I'll keep trying regardless but I'm curious as to where I stand.
Thanks!

Clinical volunteering is a two for one deal. You want patient contact (however they comes), you want to show a heart for service (however that comes).

I don't believe you need anymore hospital volunteering. Set your goals on continuing your volunteering and if possible. Do something outside of healthcare. Help at a homeless shelter. Something like that.


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[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

From what I've been told by and seen adcoms tell other here, if you have a paid clinical position that gets you patient contact, you do not need to get clinical volunteer hours. You do still have to have non-clinical volunteering to show your "heart for service" as @AlteredScale so aptly put it. You might even want to get some more hours than you would if you had clinical volunteering, just so your total volunteer hours don't seem artificially low.

 

[Goro]

Being a PCA more than shows you want to be around sick people and that you know what you're getting into. So stop fussing. As a teaching moment, clinical experience can substitute for clinical volunteering.

Hey all,

Im having a really hard time finding clinical volunteering around me for whatever reason, and I'm wondering if its worth still pursuing at this point.

I work as a PCA in a big hospital and have tons of clinical contact through that.. will have like 750 hours when I apply. I also have shadowed two DOs in different specialties and have LORs through that. I was a leadership role in a huge undergraduate non clinical but health care related charity for four years in college. So I have clinical experience and volunteering, but no "clinical volunteering."

Would this hurt me for this upcoming cycle? I'll keep trying regardless but I'm curious as to where I stand.
Thanks!