how is volunteering at all?

[rumy]

hard?, interesting? (what is most important),
difficult to find where to? how is it at all??

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[beep]

depends on where you volunteer and what you do.

 

[vhawk]

hard?, interesting? (what is most important),
difficult to find where to? how is it at all??

What kind of sentence is that? "how is it at all??" That dont make no darn sense, boy. How is it, in all? How is it et al, mixing languages? How do it be? How is it y'all? I demand clarification.

 

[rumy]

What kind of sentence is that? "how is it at all??" That dont make no darn sense, boy. How is it, in all? How is it et al, mixing languages? How do it be? How is it y'all? I demand clarification.

by the way i'm gemini so i change my mind very often. it's why i mixed the languages.

anyway, say the ER volunteering

 

[45408]

a lot of volunteering is kinda boring, but not hard, although some people have had some great experiences

 

[clc8503]

by the way i'm gemini so i change my mind very often. it's why i mixed the languages.

anyway, say the ER volunteering

I start volunteering in the ER this Friday. I'll keep you posted on that. I have shadowed primary care and cardiology. They are both unique in their own way. The hardest part about shadowing is getting your foot in the door. Once your in and meet a few physicians, it's fairly easy to shadow any doctor that isn't an ***hole. I might even have the opportunity to shadow urology soon. Once you get past the receptionists and get a chance to meet the physician it's all up hill from there. I originally needed hours in order to apply to a PA program; this required 80 hours of volunteer/shadowing/hospital experience for admissions. I told the receptionists what I needed and also how many receptionists had turned me away before. They felt sorry for me and talked to an Internal Medicine doc. I have since met many physicians and get to shadow an array of different specialties among them. Shadowing is the main reason I decided to go pre-med (inspiration I guess). I have met so many physicians though volunteering/shadowing that I will have plenty of letters of recommendation from some of the best doctors out there. I might even get a job their soon. That would be sweet. The job I have now sucks.

Yours,
Caraway

 

[nicholonious]

hard?, interesting? (what is most important),
difficult to find where to? how is it at all??

I think I get the gist of this question.

Depending on what programs/internships/volunteering opportunities are available gives you the options to choose accordingly. I went to UC Davis, and there were a few choices. One was a lottery system for different departments at a few hospitals in Sacramento. Of those were UCDMC, Sutter, and Shriners Childrens hospital. I would look into what those internships offer, how credit is attained, the amount of hands on or hands off learning available, and other components that would either amplify or hinder your experience there. There were also local clinics (mainly for the underserved community) that were run and offered respectively for students, but those were rare and offered few positions. These were great because of the close proximity of interning and from what I hear, they offer more interaction between patients and volunteers. Back to the lottery system, it had almost every department open, anything from oncology to radiology to ER to endoscopy...etc. I know friends that have had the most enriching experience possibly and had good rapport with their respective staff that they worked with. I also know people who have been stuck doing the monotonous 'walking around doing nothing trying to learn, instead doing candy striping move patient here, hostile environment....', you get my point. Its always good to test the waters, get well acquainted with what some of the internship programs are about, and to hopefully find something that will benefit your needs well.

I was lucky. UCD offered a program in early 2000 called EMRAP (emergency medicine research associates program), it allowed us to go through 4 of the main wards of the ED and look for potential candidates for multiple clinical trials conducted by PIs. This was a program that let us look through doctors and nurses notes, actively learn about clincal studies, question patients, gather info, and much more.

Hope this helps. Main thing is to find something that gets you INVOLVED!


(check your university's career/internship center for volunteering opportunities.)

 

[SitraAchra]

I demand clarification.

enjoyable.

 

[clc8503]

enjoyable.

Gulay! Will Ferrell is the bomb!

 

[nicholonious]

I start volunteering in the ER this Friday. I'll keep you posted on that. I have shadowed primary care and cardiology. They are both unique in their own way. The hardest part about shadowing is getting your foot in the door. Once your in and meet a few physicians, it's fairly easy to shadow any doctor that isn't an ***hole. I might even have the opportunity to shadow urology soon. Once you get past the receptionists and get a chance to meet the physician it's all up hill from there. I originally needed hours in order to apply to a PA program; this required 80 hours of volunteer/shadowing/hospital experience for admissions. I told the receptionists what I needed and also how many receptionists had turned me away before. They felt sorry for me and talked to an Internal Medicine doc. I have since met many physicians and get to shadow an array of different specialties among them. Shadowing is the main reason I decided to go pre-med (inspiration I guess). I have met so many physicians though volunteering/shadowing that I will have plenty of letters of recommendation from some of the best doctors out there. I might even get a job their soon. That would be sweet. The job I have now sucks.

Yours,
Caraway

Caraway,

I shadowed a Urologist. Let me know if you want to read a journal I made on my experiences doing so.

 

[clc8503]

Caraway,

I shadowed a Urologist. Let me know if you want to read a journal I made on my experiences doing so.

sure!

 

[blingblah]

volunteering at the ER sucked!!! They say thats where all the action is but the hospital where I did it, the doctors rotate and so every week there was an almost entirely new staff. SO its hard to build some kinda rapport and anyways you are only a measly volunteer while they are busy in the ER or yappin it up drinkin coffee. They say the ER is cool for watching procedures; its true but you better damn hope they have some action between 1 and 4 in the afternoon or you are screwed.

What i recommend is going to your nearest fire or ambulance station and asking if you can volunteer with the EMTs. You might need to be at least CPR certified but that takes 4 hrs. But you can definitely do it if you ask them and the experience is great especially if you do it at night. You can get a feel for patient interaction in a tense situation, an idea of your common patient base (old people) and a really good feel for the ER when you get to the ER on the ambulance.

Shadowing a doctor is differnent than volunteerin and probably more useful...but DO NOT VOLUNTEER IN THE ER. It blows most of the time!!!