Is hospital volunteer good enough for clinical experience?

[UCStudent999]

Hi, I have a question about clinical experience. So far I have lots of hours in shadowing, non-clinical volunteering (food bank, senior home, red cross/blood drives), and clinical experience (hospital volunteer), and one summer of volunteering in a lab. Is volunteering at a hospital enough for clinical experience if I've done shadowing? All I did as a hospital volunteer was restock shelves, push patients around on wheel chairs, and deliver food. Would mid-tier or upper-mid tier medical schools expect more intensive clinical experience?

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[PA_dud3]

If you are close enough to smell patients it is clinical experience, from the wise LizzyM. Lots of people do exactly what you did and are accepted with that sort of activity as their only clinical exposure outside of shadowing.

 

[honeybee87]

Hi, I have a question about clinical experience. So far I have lots of hours in shadowing, non-clinical volunteering (food bank, senior home, red cross/blood drives), and clinical experience (hospital volunteer), and one summer of volunteering in a lab. Is volunteering at a hospital enough for clinical experience if I've done shadowing? All I did as a hospital volunteer was restock shelves, push patients around on wheel chairs, and deliver food. Would mid-tier or upper-mid tier medical schools expect more intensive clinical experience?

No you’re good, try to get more pt interaction tho and less restocking lool

 

[NickNaylor]

That's pretty much all I did and it seemed to work out fine. For your own education, though, I would encourage you to make sure to do a lot of shadowing so that you can actually see what physicians do in their day-to-day work. Typically these hospital volunteer gigs don't give you much clinical exposure, which is kind of the whole point. While clinical exposure is partially a box to check, it also serves the very important role of giving you a look into the job and if it's something you can see yourself doing. That's far more valuable than whatever it is you end up listing on your application.

 

[Catalystik]

Hi, I have a question about clinical experience. So far I have lots of hours in shadowing, non-clinical volunteering (food bank, senior home, red cross/blood drives), and clinical experience (hospital volunteer), and one summer of volunteering in a lab. Is volunteering at a hospital enough for clinical experience if I've done shadowing? All I did as a hospital volunteer was restock shelves, push patients around on wheel chairs, and deliver food. Would mid-tier or upper-mid tier medical schools expect more intensive clinical experience?

Transporting patients and delivering their food trays is as "clinical" as you need to get. Hopefully, you also interacted with these folks through conversation.

 

[Goro]

Hi, I have a question about clinical experience. So far I have lots of hours in shadowing, non-clinical volunteering (food bank, senior home, red cross/blood drives), and clinical experience (hospital volunteer), and one summer of volunteering in a lab. Is volunteering at a hospital enough for clinical experience if I've done shadowing? All I did as a hospital volunteer was restock shelves, push patients around on wheel chairs, and deliver food. Would mid-tier or upper-mid tier medical schools expect more intensive clinical experience?

1000% fine!

Med schools aren't expecting you to place IVs or do surgery.

 

[Engrailed]

Hi, I have a question about clinical experience. So far I have lots of hours in shadowing, non-clinical volunteering (food bank, senior home, red cross/blood drives), and clinical experience (hospital volunteer), and one summer of volunteering in a lab. Is volunteering at a hospital enough for clinical experience if I've done shadowing? All I did as a hospital volunteer was restock shelves, push patients around on wheel chairs, and deliver food. Would mid-tier or upper-mid tier medical schools expect more intensive clinical experience?

Even if you're just there to deliver food trays or something like that, if you are around often enough and you make yourself available to the patient care staff/nurses etc, they might even show you cool things like when they place IVs or such. You wont be doing any of that obviously but it's all good stuff to just know and learn about. Maybe you'll also come across doctors who you can shadow later on.
Dont think of it as a passive experience! 🙂

 

[UCStudent999]

Transporting patients and delivering their food trays is as "clinical" as you need to get. Hopefully, you also interacted with these folks through conversation.

Thank you, that's reassuring to hear. I do have one more year before applying though, do you think it would be better for me to continue my volunteering position or try something different like EMT-B? Or would additional lab experience be better? I'm trying to finish up my double major so I don't want to overstretch myself by doing all of these.

 

[UCStudent999]

1000% fine!

Med schools aren't expecting you to place IVs or do surgery.

Thanks for replying! I was also wondering if experiences working as an EMT-B or scribing would be better than just volunteering at the hospital? I feel like those jobs might be more intensive experiences but I'm not sure how significant that would be on my application. I do enjoy my current volunteer position so if it doesn't make a difference, I would probably choose to continue with it.

 

[M&L]

just make sure you write it out well in your essays.

 

[Catalystik]

Thank you, that's reassuring to hear.
1) I do have one more year before applying though, do you think it would be better for me to continue my volunteering position or try something different like EMT-B?

2) Or would additional lab experience be better? I'm trying to finish up my double major so I don't want to overstretch myself by doing all of these.

1) How long have you been in the hospital position so far? If over six months, consider asking to transfer to another position within the same hospital. If over a year, you are free to seek another position at a new clinical site if you're bored, as you will have demonstrated sufficient longevity (longer is even better, though). EMT-B probably wouldn't be my first choice of an alternate, if you're going to sit around waiting for calls most of the time, if it's expensive to get certification, or it would interfere with classwork.

2) A summer's worth of research experience is sufficient to check the box, unless you're applying to highly-selective, research-oriented med schools, in which case you'd need more than an extra year's worth.

 

[Ell19]

Thanks for replying! I was also wondering if experiences working as an EMT-B or scribing would be better than just volunteering at the hospital? I feel like those jobs might be more intensive experiences but I'm not sure how significant that would be on my application. I do enjoy my current volunteer position so if it doesn't make a difference, I would probably choose to continue with it.

Hi! I currently work as an 911 EMT-B at a very busy agency, but definitely have down time to study and write secondaries. Being an EMT-B is a very unique healthcare provider because you make clinical decisions about your patients every single call (even more serious calls where you have paramedics on scene, or sometimes they aren't available or too far away), which is different from an MA or CNA/NA where they are taking medical histories or automatic vital signs. But it is a lot of work, an EMT course is around 9 weeks in the summer or 5-6 months during the year, and I also know being an EMT is not for everyone. I love it and love to be able to make an immediate impact on my patient's life and make decisions regarding their care, but you have to be able to remain calm and level headed in the midst of a massive storm. I would highly recommend it because it gives really great clinical experience, even though an EMT is a low level healthcare provider and you gain a lot of hands-on knowledge. Being an EMT is about making it work in the worst of situations with sometimes minimal resoucres, but ultimately knowing that you had a direct impact on your patient's health and well-being. Feel free to DM me if you have any questions! Also for reference I've been an EMT for a little under 2 years and work in NJ

 

[premedprepa]

just make sure you write it out well in your essays.

how can you write out well restocking supplies and transporting patients around the hospital? lol

 

[LizzyM]

how can you write out well restocking supplies and transporting patients around the hospital? lol

If you are reliable and steady, you will be asked to help in additional ways. For example, I had someone who wrote about being asked to sit with a woman who had a minor injury while the staff worked on her husband who had a life threatening injury. Freeing up a nurse in those circumstances can be huge for an emergency dept team.

You might take opportunities while you are pushing a wheelchair to make small talk with patients. Do you live in town? How long have you lived here? Are you a big ___ fan? (based on clothing with sports team logo) Ask a follow-up question about up-coming season or playoffs or whatever? You don't need to know much... maybe the name of the coach or manager or one or two star players. Comment on the flowers in their lap, or whatever. Those little interactions can be a pleasant distraction for the patient and help you connect with people. You might remember them and they might remember you the next time you see them.

 

[M&L]

how can you write out well restocking supplies and transporting patients around the hospital? lol

“Restocking supplies taught me the importance of organization of the department to ensure smooth and fast patient care . I could see how important it is for medical stuff to have access to tools and medications and how much difference something as seemingly insignificant as stocking sponges and gloves can be . Stocked stationed ensured faster patient care. Transportation of patients introduced me to the structure of the department , and helped me understood the components of patient care . It also helped me understand how stressful it was for some patients to have to go from one room to another , how confusing and physically demanding it sometimes was . Getting transported helped them in ...(blah blah )”.
Obviously this is just an example. The idea is that every job in the hospital is important , and talking about what you learned shows insight .