How to find most "hands on" clinical experience for volunteering?

[ButAtYourBest]

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I'm looking for "hands on" clinical volunteering in SF. Just fishing for advice.

for example, someone said to look into the prison system or free clinics, because they tend to be understaffed and need the most help, so i'll get the most "hands on" help (compared to a major hospital or UCSF).

 

[loveoforganic]

psych hospital

 

[AmeriClerkships]

Well let me ask you, are you a licensed doctor in the US? Also did you go to medical school here or did you study abroad?

I'm looking for "hands on" clinical volunteering in SF. Just fishing for advice.

for example, someone said to look into the prison system or free clinics, because they tend to be understaffed and need the most help, so i'll get the most "hands on" help (compared to a major hospital or UCSF).

 

[petlee1]

I don't understand how we're suppose to get clinical experience thats worthwhile if we are just college students w/ no exp. or degrees.

 

[Geekchick921]

I highly recommend a unit secretary position, if you can find one.

It's difficult to find true "hands on" experience as we're not professionals and our being directly involved in patient care is a liability risk, but you can still get clinical experience and interact with patients and staff and get a good idea of the daily grind at a hospital.

 

[illegallysmooth]

Unit secretary, nurse aid, medical assistant, nursing assistant, immediate treatment assistant, patient care assistant, etc. - look for part-time jobs with these titles, even if they "require" some cert or 2 year degree. In many cases, they will understand that with your education you are competant enough to make it through the on-the-job training.

You're not going to find much hands-on VOLUNTEER stuff (aside from EMT) because of liability issues. If you want to be an EMT, join a volunteer fire company and they will often pay for your EMT course.

 

[portlandpixie]

Yeah I was going to say try getting certified as an EMT or a CNA... I'm doing the EMT-B training starting in three weeks actually. In fact, I was reading somewhere a while ago that there's some kind of free EMT training in SF for students. I'm not totally sure if that's right but you should look into it.... would save you like 2000 dollars!

 

[Geekchick921]

You can also probably find something like a transport/orderly volunteer gig, too. That'll get you hands-on experience, and shouldn't be too difficult to find.

 

[venacontracta]

Yeah I was going to say try getting certified as an EMT or a CNA... I'm doing the EMT-B training starting in three weeks actually. In fact, I was reading somewhere a while ago that there's some kind of free EMT training in SF for students. I'm not totally sure if that's right but you should look into it.... would save you like 2000 dollars!

EMT-B training is that much where you are?! Here there are courses run by local community colleges in association with local volunteer EMS companies that are around $200-300ish.

 

[Revilla]

You're not going to find much hands-on VOLUNTEER stuff (aside from EMT) because of liability issues.

This isn't true. It just depends on where you go. My friend volunteered at a major teaching hospital and did nothing but file all day. I volunteered at a smaller community hospital and got to do everything from taking vitals to bandaging wounds to working labor and delivery. The smaller the hospital/staff, the more opportunities as long as you prove yourself. They have to trust you before they'll give you any responsibility.

The free clinic advice was good. Also try any community hospitals in your area, especially ones in underserved neighborhoods. Stay away from the big teaching/academic hospitals if you want hands-on stuff.

 

[Tesseract]

Yeah I was going to say try getting certified as an EMT or a CNA... I'm doing the EMT-B training starting in three weeks actually. In fact, I was reading somewhere a while ago that there's some kind of free EMT training in SF for students. I'm not totally sure if that's right but you should look into it.... would save you like 2000 dollars!

EMT-B training is around 700$ in NY state I believe. Paramedic comparatively is in the thousands. Many folks sign a contract with an ambulance agency to pay for their training.

EMT-B is crazy fun work. The adrenaline, the diverse patient populations, and the early medical exposure is awesome. I suggest it to anyone looking for clinical volunteering 👍👍👍

 

[surftheiop]

Children's hospitals are great for patient contact oriented clinical volunteering. I spend about 90% of my time volunteering doing stuff 1 on 1 with inpatient kids.

And the other %10 of the time is spent going around the wards to find out which kids want to hang out/play.

 

[getright]

I'm volunteering for the Red Cross this summer. They staff a bunch of major summer events around the city. I am providing first aid to the visitors 😀.