I Don't. Want. to. Volunteer.

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RDBK

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I HATE volunteering. Like I hate it more than anything.
Any tips on getting myself to like volunteering? I thought about the reasons why I hate volunteering.
Volunteering at the hospital sucked because I got to have no interaction with the patients and was limited to stupid things like restocking gloves, wiping down stretchers and stuff. The hospice was pretty boring too. I'd get to talk to patients but after 30 minutes at best I'd run out of things to talk about and it's just plain awkward.

Volunteering has been a great demotivator in everything else too. Thinking about volunteering -> Kills my motivation -> Ruins my day.

What should I do... Do I even need to volunteer anymore? I still want to be a doctor because I like everything else I've done to "know" more about medicine, but all the experiences with volunteering (not necessarily other aspects of medicine) have been so negative that I can't stand it anymore. Also what should I tell the interviewers about volunteering? I don't want to lie but I don't think telling them the truth will go by very well...

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I feel ya man. Hang in there.



Also what should I tell the interviewers about volunteering? I don't want to lie but I don't think telling them the truth will go by very well...

The obvious answer is: LIE THROUGH YOUR TEETH.

Tell the adcoms you loved every minute of volunteering and would have done it every day to help the poor orphans/octogenarians/whoever. But you couldn't because of [_insert_life_obligation_here_]. Bonus points if you can shed a crocodile tear and need a minute to compose yourself.
 
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I understand the part about volunteering in hospitals being mundane. I also hated it when I went to the hospital on a Sunday afternoon, and there was literally nothing for me to do (asked the nurses every 30 minutes or so, if they needed help), so I had to sat on a chair for 5 hours.

Try to do 30 more hours at the hospital, to get that to 100 hours.

Also, you need to rack up on your non-clinical volunteering. I feel like this type of volunteering is the most fun! You don't have to volunteer at a hospice/hospital.

You can...
- Volunteer at your local soup kitchen (you get to partake in making the food, serving the food - love it!)
- Tutor kids at disadvantaged communities
- Do arts and crafts with kids at a hospital
- Or since you said you're a BME major, perhaps you can bring in some cool, simple engineering projects to keep kids entertained at a local school.
- If you like horses/dogs, you can volunteer at your local animal shelter or hippotherapy ranches.

There are sooooooooo many options for non-clinical volunteering that are super fun and definitely not like hospital volunteering.

Just join one of the volunteering organizations at your school, and volunteering won't seem that boring. You can also make plenty of friends while you're at it! ;)
 
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Extra bonus points if you put this line in your facebook summary: "committed to providing social justice and healthcare for diverse populations"



And BTW, if I seem a little jaded, it's because I've seen tons of pseudo-sociopathic liars get into med school while people who are honest get waitlisted forever.
 
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Thank you all... I guess I need to suck it up. Will volunteer again beginning tomorrow at the same time as fabricating a moving story ;)
 
Seems like you hate volunteering because you don't get to actually help anyone. Bringing blankets, etc. can feel really useless. I hate that kind of thing as well.

If you need more clinical hours, I'd suggest volunteering as a clinical research assistant - you get to interact with patients, you get research experience, you have actual tasks to do instead of wandering around looking for someone to need you. The disadvantage is that you're not exactly "serving" anyone so you might need to supplement with service volunteering.

Another suggestion: find community volunteering where you actually do get to help. Like a suicide hotline or domestic violence shelter/hotline. You will be trained to actually provide a meaningful service to someone and this can feel rewarding.
 
Try a more interesting volunteer opportunity. For example, I volunteered at a therapeutic horseback riding program for children with special needs alongside an RN. Or maybe try a different department in the hospital.
 
Volunteering has been the main reason I wanted to apply for MD/PhD

That is NOT a reason to pursue MD/PhD. You want to give up 4 years of salary and spend 8 years in med school because you don't want to volunteer a few hours a week for this year?

Suck it up and volunteer. Maybe try to find a different position at the hospital that will give you more patient interaction.
 
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That is NOT a reason to pursue MD/PhD. You want to give up 4 years of salary and spend 8 years in med school because you don't want to volunteer a few hours a week for this year?

Suck it up and volunteer. Maybe try to find a different position at the hospital that will give you more patient interaction.


Sorry I didn't mean it was the only reason. I love research. It was rather like I was debating between MD and MD/PhD (because obviously you can do research as an MD) and volunteering made me want to go for the MD/PhD route.

Also, thanks to everyone else who posted replies :) I will look into nonclinical volunteering. The only nonclinical I've done is pretty much being a TA lol.
 
There are summer camps for children suffering from chronic diseases you can volunteer at. You are usually the counselor or activity leader and get to hang out with a bunch of awesome youngsters.
 
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For dealing with hospice patients, work on a longer list of things to discuss. Talk to your supervisor(s) about what else you can do.

Do something for the patients. Do something for their families. I can see you need to think outside the box.

If not, consider working at clinics, Planned Parenthood, nursing homes, or be a counselor at a camp for sick children.

You can also find lots of non-clinical volunteer work at your local houses of worship.

Any tips on getting myself to like volunteering? I thought about the reasons why I hate volunteering.
Volunteering at the hospital sucked because I got to have no interaction with the patients and was limited to stupid things like restocking gloves, wiping down stretchers and stuff. The hospice was pretty boring too. I'd get to talk to patients but after 30 minutes at best I'd run out of things to talk about and it's just plain awkward.


And Spinach, we're not the idiots you think we are. We're pretty good at spotting liars.
The obvious answer is: LIE THROUGH YOUR TEETH.

Tell the adcoms you loved every minute of volunteering and would have done it every day to help the poor orphans/octogenarians/whoever. But you couldn't because of [_insert_life_obligation_here_]. Bonus points if you can shed a crocodile tear and need a minute to compose yourself.
 
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And Spinach, we're not the idiots you think we are. We're pretty good at spotting liars.
The obvious answer is: LIE THROUGH YOUR TEETH.

Tell the adcoms you loved every minute of volunteering and would have done it every day to help the poor orphans/octogenarians/whoever. But you couldn't because of [_insert_life_obligation_here_]. Bonus points if you can shed a crocodile tear and need a minute to compose yourself.

nawwww

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...stion-stealing-iPad-dying-cancer-patient.html
 
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There are summer camps for children suffering from chronic diseases you can volunteer at. You are usually the counselor or activity leader and get to hang out with a bunch of awesome youngsters.
Ah yes! I loved following my shadowing doc to the diabetes camp. That was when I was in another state for an internship, and I don't know why I never thought to find one like that in my state. That's brilliant. Thanks so much!
 
For dealing with hospice patients, work on a longer list of things to discuss. Talk to your supervisor(s) about what else you can do.

Do something for the patients. Do something for their families. I can see you need to think outside the box.

If not, consider working at clinics, Planned Parenthood, nursing homes, or be a counselor at a camp for sick children.

You can also find lots of non-clinical volunteer work at your local houses of worship.

Thanks so much for the advice! I definitely could ask my supervisor what to talk about... and thanks for all the other suggestions too! I don't know why but I'm kinda getting excited for trying any of these. Too bad I have less than one year left before applying to med schools :(
 
Plenty of time!


Thanks so much for the advice! I definitely could ask my supervisor what to talk about... and thanks for all the other suggestions too! I don't know why but I'm kinda getting excited for trying any of these. Too bad I have less than one year left before applying to med schools :(
 
Quick summary on my numbers (you can skip this):
GPA: 4.0 Major: BME. Top 30 school.
Getting about 33-34 on practice MCAT's (Verbal around 8-10). Taking the real one in Jan 2015.
Going to submit a first-author journal article by the end of this month. (google scholar h-index around 30)
Graduating in Spring 2016.

Also, until Summer 2013:
Shadowed for about 150 hrs (almost 10 doctors I think?). Loved it.
Volunteered at the hospital for 70 hrs
Volunteered at a hospice for about 50 hrs. <- This though has been kind of ongoing.. like once every month.
^ Not expecting any rec letter from the supervisors. Well, perhaps from the hospice if I continue.​

^ Based on this, I think volunteering will pretty much close the deal, but I HATE volunteering. Like I hate it more than anything. Volunteering has been the main reason I wanted to apply for MD/PhD, but I have a feeling my MCAT's not going to be good enough. How in the hell am I going to get a 36. No way my VR's going to be higher than 10 (I started speaking English at 16).

Any tips on getting myself to like volunteering? I thought about the reasons why I hate volunteering.
Volunteering at the hospital sucked because I got to have no interaction with the patients and was limited to stupid things like restocking gloves, wiping down stretchers and stuff. The hospice was pretty boring too. I'd get to talk to patients but after 30 minutes at best I'd run out of things to talk about and it's just plain awkward.

Volunteering has been a great demotivator in everything else too. Thinking about volunteering -> Kills my motivation -> Ruins my day.

What should I do... Do I even need to volunteer anymore? I still want to be a doctor because I like everything else I've done to "know" more about medicine, but all the experiences with volunteering (not necessarily other aspects of medicine) have been so negative that I can't stand it anymore. Also what should I tell the interviewers about volunteering? I don't want to lie but I don't think telling them the truth will go by very well...

Just as another idea that might help you OP:

I started volunteering for a group that helps raise funds for basic science research in IBD. You get to meet patients, families, and even reserachers who are also patients because of IBD. It's a wonderful way to build some awesome relationships with your community. I did this along with conducting a thesis in IBD research and it has really inspired me.

You just need to find the motivation. If you have family who have gone through a disease, there's bound to be a support group, volunteer and help them out!

I'm headed to another event tomorrow. We get free wine! hahah :D
 
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Find the nearest free clinic, you will absolutely have more patient interaction and a better experience. It's worth it even if you have to commute there, trust me. For non clinical volunteering, just pick something you actually like to do and find a way to do some related service (i.e. I love basketball, so I volunteer as a head coach for a little league team. It's a blast!).
 
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I feel ya man. Hang in there.





The obvious answer is: LIE THROUGH YOUR TEETH.

Tell the adcoms you loved every minute of volunteering and would have done it every day to help the poor orphans/octogenarians/whoever. But you couldn't because of [_insert_life_obligation_here_]. Bonus points if you can shed a crocodile tear and need a minute to compose yourself.

In my life experience, you cannot lie very effectively for very long. I would seriously caution OP against lying to AdCom for any number of reasons. If you don't see why not, then at least understand Karma is real. Good things happen to good, genuine people. Most liars I know end up falling in their web of lies and end up unhappy, unsuccessful, and untrusted by others.
 
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You're going to have a hard time in medical school and residency with your attitude. There will be far bigger hoops to jump through. Volunteering is easy stuff, and you probably help more people than you ever will as a med student.
 
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I found that the volunteer program at my local hospital made me feel as you do, so I decided to pursue volunteer work at a local clinic as a front desk helper. Even though I'm not working directly with patients, I learn a lot about social work, public health, and patient interaction through the staff there. Find volunteer work in something you truly enjoy, whether it be clinical or non-clinical, and stick to it! Try to get patient/clinical experience through shadowing to make sure you have adequate exposure to the field before making the decision to start med school. And as others have said, you can also focus on research and various other ECs.
 
My suggestion is volunteering in an area that genuinely interests you. I used to look at volunteering as some kind of "x" hours requirement, but after I started helping out in areas I actually enjoy, I look forward to it. Instead of volunteering in the hospital I now go into the nursing home and be a companion for some of the hospice patients. I like science, so I volunteered at the science center. I'm good at manual labor, so I help out with small community renovation projects in my community.

Find something that interests you and have fun!
 
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I was in the same situation as the OP. I was the techs' bitch in the hospital ED that I volunteered at. While I had some nice moments of patient contact, the majority of it was being taken advantage of doing the work of the orderly. The bad far outweighed the good. However, I did manage to do some non-clinical volunteer work, which I enjoyed tremendously. Unfortunately, it was very sporadic, and thus had to be piggy-backed on top of the crappy hospital volunteer experience.

A pre-med that isn't naturally altruistic can go one of two ways:

1. Go through the motions.

Or...

2. Find something they are passionate about.

If the OP chooses to stick with option number one, they should look for what people on SDN would deem a "crappy" hospital volunteering gig. As I always say, hospital volunteering is like Vegas minus 99% of the fun. What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, and same with hospital volunteering. Assuming the pre-med racks up legitimate hours, ADCOMs can only go by what the applicant tells them. Therefore, two applicants will write glowing essays about their experiences, but one was a very helpful member of the ED team, while the other sat on their ass for 75%+ of their shift. If you want to rack up the hours but not do much else, find an experience where you can sit around for a majority of your time. This time can be spent studying, which would obviously help your GPA and MCAT. These are the most important factors for getting into medical school. Also, if you find some nice physicians on your shifts, you can also see if you can shadow them during your volunteer time. You can technically double-dip, and rack up shadowing hours while getting your volunteer hours all at the same time. It's maximum productivity. And as long as you're not being yelled at by the staff, it's all Kosher. There's nothing unethical about being an unproductive volunteer. Of course it's not a good thing, but in the case of hospital volunteering with NO oversight, it can actually help your application in absolute terms to be unproductive since your grades and MCAT will be higher, and you can maybe get some shadowing in there as well.

Secondly, you can also find something you're passionate about. With recent changes on AMCAS, you're no longer asked to put hours per week. Thus, you can now do more sporadic activities without it looking bad. This makes doing things that can actually be fun and meaningful more attractive. Just make sure you're able to rack up enough hours.

But then again, maybe some people just don't want to volunteer. I think that's okay... Remember, only a small portion of the population actually volunteers because they want to. We don't judge our friends and family for not taking part in volunteer activities. Then why should we judge our fellow pre-meds? Why do we view those who don't volunteer as being evil? I don't get it...

I have an absolutely terrific primary care physician. I've been going to him for years. When I needed to see him, I would usually get a same-day appointment, and at worst, would have to come in the next day. He has usually been spot-on with his diagnosis, and always asked me to update him on my progress. I honestly don't know what he does in his free time. I don't know if he spends his weekends with his family, with his friends, or screwing hookers in Vegas. It's none of my business, and has no effect on patient care. I have no idea what his salary is, what car he drives, or how big his house is. It's none of my business, and has no effect on patient care. I also don't know what his true intentions are when he walks into the exam room. Is he doing it because he's passionate about healing others, or is it because he wants to make a living? I'm not a mind-reader, I don't know. But once again, it's none of my business, and it has no effect on patient care.

I realize that ADCOMs don't have much to go on, but a little too much emphasis is put on volunteering now. Pre-meds have ruined the meaning of it. It's kind of sad that they read off laundry-lists of ECs, yet you don't care about it when you hear it. It's lost nearly all of its meaning because these have become nothing more than mere check-boxes. As I have mentioned above with my primary care physician, I don't know if he volunteers or not. And frankly, I don't care, and neither should you.
 
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I will never understand why people feel the need to volunteer at places they dislike. There are so many people and organizations that need help/free labor in this country (hospitals don't qualify at all). If you really can't find a way to volunteer in a way that you enjoy, there is a) something socially wrong with you or b) maybe medical school isn't the right direction for you.

I mean hell, I give this guy props for making this kind of video. Certainly looks more favorably than restocking cabinets for free at a hospital.

 
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I will never understand why people feel the need to volunteer at places they dislike. There are so many people and organizations that need help/free labor in this country (hospitals don't qualify at all). If you really can't find a way to volunteer in a way that you enjoy, there is a) something socially wrong with you or b) maybe medical school isn't the right direction for you.

I mean hell, I give this guy props for making this kind of video. Certainly looks more favorably than restocking cabinets for free at a hospital.


While this is true as far as it goes, it ignores the required clinical experience aspect of the application. It is easy to say get a job in a clinical environment, but depending on how much time you have, how much training you have, your ability to get further training and certifications, and the local job market, hospital volunteering might be the only realistic option for a pre-med student to get clinical experience. Depending on the opportunities available in a given location, all the available options might suck. This means, a student could either volunteer for something really awesome, and apply without clinical experience, or they have to suck it up and do something they hate to check the box. How many times on SDN have you seen someone describe an experience that they enjoy and actually helps other people, but the consensus is "not really clinical experience"? As long as the attitude, or perception of the attitude of adcoms, is that you have to have significant clinical exposure to even be considered, you will continue to have people forgo meaningful and helpful non-clinical experiences, just because they need to get the box checked.
 
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I will never understand why people feel the need to volunteer at places they dislike. There are so many people and organizations that need help/free labor in this country (hospitals don't qualify at all). If you really can't find a way to volunteer in a way that you enjoy, there is a) something socially wrong with you or b) maybe medical school isn't the right direction for you.

I mean hell, I give this guy props for making this kind of video. Certainly looks more favorably than restocking cabinets for free at a hospital.






this video by him is even better
 
While this is true as far as it goes, it ignores the required clinical experience aspect of the application. It is easy to say get a job in a clinical environment, but depending on how much time you have, how much training you have, your ability to get further training and certifications, and the local job market, hospital volunteering might be the only realistic option for a pre-med student to get clinical experience. Depending on the opportunities available in a given location, all the available options might suck. This means, a student could either volunteer for something really awesome, and apply without clinical experience, or they have to suck it up and do something they hate to check the box. How many times on SDN have you seen someone describe an experience that they enjoy and actually helps other people, but the consensus is "not really clinical experience"? As long as the attitude, or perception of the attitude of adcoms, is that you have to have significant clinical exposure to even be considered, you will continue to have people forgo meaningful and helpful non-clinical experiences, just because they need to get the box checked.

The only clinical exposure that you need in is enough to say convincingly, "I know what I'm getting into because I have some experience." Shadowing physicians is more than sufficient. I'm sorry, but admissions does not work with "box checking". If people insist on treating it as such, despite it being illogical and disputed by virtually every adcom that talks about it, there isn't much any of us can do.
 
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I HATE volunteering. Like I hate it more than anything.
Any tips on getting myself to like volunteering? I thought about the reasons why I hate volunteering.
Volunteering at the hospital sucked because I got to have no interaction with the patients and was limited to stupid things like restocking gloves, wiping down stretchers and stuff. The hospice was pretty boring too. I'd get to talk to patients but after 30 minutes at best I'd run out of things to talk about and it's just plain awkward.

Volunteering has been a great demotivator in everything else too. Thinking about volunteering -> Kills my motivation -> Ruins my day.

What should I do... Do I even need to volunteer anymore? I still want to be a doctor because I like everything else I've done to "know" more about medicine, but all the experiences with volunteering (not necessarily other aspects of medicine) have been so negative that I can't stand it anymore. Also what should I tell the interviewers about volunteering? I don't want to lie but I don't think telling them the truth will go by very well...

Not everything is going to be fun. Get over it..
You start from the bottom and work up in most jobs.
 
I also found hospital volunteering to be lacking although I did it for about 2 years. I found a children's grief center through a club I was in and LOVED it, so I signed up to be trained as a support group leader there. I wish I had found that place earlier! Others have mentioned camps for sick kids - it was kind-of like that but year round. We talked about people the kids had lost obviously, but mostly through crafts and games. You could tell it really helped the kids, but was fun for all of us at the same time.
 
I hated my first volunteer position.

I quit, and found another one - working with kids - that I loved so much that I doubled my commitment.

Don't be afraid to look around.
 
The only clinical exposure that you need in is enough to say convincingly, "I know what I'm getting into because I have some experience." Shadowing physicians is more than sufficient. I'm sorry, but admissions does not work with "box checking". If people insist on treating it as such, despite it being illogical and disputed by virtually every adcom that talks about it, there isn't much any of us can do.
Shadowing is sufficient? Can't say I have ever seen an adcom on here say that before. Established wisdom on SDN seems to be the exact opposite, and I haven't seen any established adcoms directly dispute the "shadowing alone is not enough" advice. If that is true, it is great news for those who are looking to apply, but I personally wouldn't forgo clinical exposure beyond shadowing based on the above alone.......
 
Shadowing is sufficient? Can't say I have ever seen an adcom on here say that before. Established wisdom on SDN seems to be the exact opposite, and I haven't seen any established adcoms directly dispute the "shadowing alone is not enough" advice. If that is true, it is great news for those who are looking to apply, but I personally wouldn't forgo clinical exposure beyond shadowing based on the above alone.......

My post should have said, "shadowing physicians can be more than sufficient". I worked on an admissions committee. We had dozens of people get in with nothing more than that, if not a sizable fraction. Personally, I didn't have any other "clinical experience" and not a single top 10 seemed to care. Truthfully, I can't remember a single applicant meeting where this was an issue. If someone had nothing, people did ask, "But this guy doesn't know what he is getting into, do we really want him?" Every piece of an application has a purpose. Clinical experience is all about knowing whether or not a career in medicine is the right thing for you. If you can answer that (and convince others that you know what you are talking about) with minimal experience, what else is there?

Again, if people feel the need to jump off the metaphorical bridge even though it is illogical and pretty well established, unnecessary, not much we can do.
 
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My post should have said, "shadowing physicians can be more than sufficient". I worked on an admissions committee. We had dozens of people get in with nothing more than that, if not a sizable fraction. Personally, I didn't have any other "clinical experience" and not a single top 10 seemed to care. Truthfully, I can't remember a single applicant meeting where this was an issue. If someone had nothing, people did ask, "But this guy doesn't know what he is getting into, do we really want him?" Every piece of an application has a purpose. Clinical experience is all about knowing whether or not a career in medicine is the right thing for you. If you can answer that (and convince others that you know what you are talking about) with minimal experience, what else is there?

Again, if people feel the need to jump off the metaphorical bridge even though it is illogical and pretty well established, unnecessary, not much we can do.

What was the longest you shadowed a physician for? I understand it has been a while, but if you were to give a guess.
 
Look at non-profits - ALS orgs could really use the man power to just field bucket challenges - and I am not kidding.

But mostly I wanted to talk about what you could do at the hospice center. It is not about talking about things…. it's about practicing to be kind. And take advantage of other people's life experiences. Some people welcome the opportunity to reflect on their lives. The best gift I gave my mother before she died was showing her how proud she should be of her life and the legacy that she would all too soon leave behind. So I asked her… Do you remember what you wanted to be when you first went to college? What was your very first job in life? What was your favorite character trait of your mother. What did you THINK you were going to do for a career before you actually became ….? All I am suggesting is you think of it less as making conversation and more about taking the time to learn something about them. It won't work for everyone as everyone is likely at a different stage of dying, but one day I held up a picture of my mom at 15 and asked if her if she remembered that girl. It was the most memorable conversation of my life to date. I saw the whole of a life… and knew I would miss her more than I ever thought I would. So please… don't hate it. Compassion is so important.
 
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What was the longest you shadowed a physician for? I understand it has been a while, but if you were to give a guess.

I think I put down like 60 hours of ER shadowing. Maybe it was more, if it was, it certainly wasn't much more.

I have a brother who is applying next year. He was doing some stats work for us (on several papers) and I asked a few of our faculty if they minded him shadowing them for a bit. I doubt that he will have more than 100 total hours and I feel very comfortable telling him that that is all he needs and he will be aiming top 5 for sure.

I've posted it numerous times on here. You gotta have clinical experience. You have to. Every season we have stacks of academically superior applications. It is a disaster for the student AND the school if someone isn't actually a good fit for medical school. We have to really try to figure out who really just shouldn't be applying to med school, despite their good grades. That is the purpose. If you treat it as a check box, or any part of the application as a check box, you are missing the point and will ultimately hurt your application. Everything has a purpose. Understanding that is what differentiates applications.
 
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I think I put down like 60 hours of ER shadowing. Maybe it was more, if it was, it certainly wasn't much more.

I have a brother who is applying next year. He was doing some stats work for us (on several papers) and I asked a few of our faculty if they minded him shadowing them for a bit. I doubt that he will have more than 100 total hours and I feel very comfortable telling him that that is all he needs and he will be aiming top 5 for sure.

I've posted it numerous times on here. You gotta have clinical experience. You have to. Every season we have stacks of academically superior applications. It is a disaster for the student AND the school if someone isn't actually a good fit for medical school. We have to really try to figure out who really just shouldn't be applying to med school, despite their good grades. That is the purpose. If you treat it as a check box, or any part of the application as a check box, you are missing the point and will ultimately hurt your application. Everything has a purpose. Understanding that is what differentiates applications.

I understand. My state school looks for a pretty long relation ship with a physician. For them it is about how long an experience is, rather than than about individualized amount of hours (i.e. having the same amount of hours, but shadowing a variety of physicians). A friend of mine took two tries to enter medical school. The first try he did not get in because of the amount of clinical time he had was not enough (this was from my state school). He did shadow physicians, but I guess he did not have anything long term with them. He then was a ward clerk for more than a year and then applied and got in (again my state school). I am guessing you had a long term experience with the physician that you shadowed and this carried you through with the clinical experience portion of your app.
 
Change your attitude or change your career choice.

Out of all places... Volunteering at a hospital, a place you will spend the majority of your LIFE, should be in some way positive and fulfilling regardless of what you're doing. I do the same things in the ED and I enjoy it. It's all what you make of it - especially if you interact with patients and staff members on some level and genuinely want to help. It also doesn't hurt if you are also socially equipped to carry a conversation (and without ranting about how much you hate being there - just saying)


Now who wants a warm blanket?
 
I was exactly like you, OP, when I was volunteering in an ER. It was just super boring and I felt like I was wasting time that I could've been using to study. I would end up walking around in circles around the ER a lot and I even once had a patient notice and comment that I was "getting my laps in for the day." I eventually quit after a semester. Of course when I later frequented that ER as a patient, I realized how important some of that boring stuff (cleaning beds, restocking sheets, etc) is for the patient. I'm currently awaiting my volunteer orientation for a children's hospital and it seems like I'd enjoy it there a lot more.

But anyway, like everyone said, you need to find something that you enjoy doing and that takes trial and error. I've had tons of non-clinical volunteering that I loved so much (working with the homeless, children's homework tutor, Alternative Spring Break, mentoring, and so on) and I think trying to find something like that will change the way you feel about volunteering. Of course we need both clinical and nonclinical volunteering so it's just about finding another position that you might enjoy more or...just suck it up like others said. : )
 
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