Is hospital volunteering truly considered “good clinical experience”?

[Ultimakey]

Is volunteering at a hospital the type of clinical experience schools look for? I, personally, enjoy my hospital volunteering position because I feel like I have some level of autonomy and enjoy speaking with/helping patients and their families. My role basically consists of asking every patient if they need blankets, pillows, art supplies, socks, etc. They usually spend some time talking to me and I check up on them every so often to be sure they’re doing alright. However, this doesn’t feel like actual “clinical experience” because I don’t get to see doctors, nurses, or PAs actually performing anything clinical. I scribed for 300 hours and felt like that taught me more about medicine and being a doctor than this position ever will, but this position has shown me that I love interacting with and helping patients.

So, I was wondering if this sort of hospital volunteering is considered good, legitimate clinical experience.

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[LizzyM]

Shadowing is the opportunity to see what doctors do. In some settings they'll be working with nurses and other team members.

Clinical experience is an opportunity to be in the presence of people who are receiving health care services for illness, injury or preventive services (annual check-ups, screenings, etc). People who are sick or injured are not always at their best. Furthermore, you are working within an organization that is highly regulated and has requirements and training for you as a volunteer or employee.

 

[Ultimakey]

Shadowing is the opportunity to see what doctors do. In some settings they'll be working with nurses and other team members.

Clinical experience is an opportunity to be in the presence of people who are receiving health care services for illness, injury or preventive services (annual check-ups, screenings, etc). People who are sick or injured are not always at their best. Furthermore, you are working within an organization that is highly regulated and has requirements and training for you as a volunteer or employee.

Thank you for the explanation.

If I can just ask one more thing: Do doctors typically write strong letters for volunteers? I don’t work directly under a doctor, and the ER is very busy, so I don’t know if I’ll be able to get to know a doctor well enough before leaving. I’ll qualify for a letter b/c I’ll have 100 hours done, but I doubt it’ll be anything outside of a run-of-the-mill letter.

 

[LizzyM]

Thank you for the explanation.

If I can just ask one more thing: Do doctors typically write strong letters for volunteers? I don’t work directly under a doctor, and the ER is very busy, so I don’t know if I’ll be able to get to know a doctor well enough before leaving. I’ll qualify for a letter b/c I’ll have 100 hours done, but I doubt it’ll be anything outside of a run-of-the-mill letter.

Except the DO schools that want a letter from a DO, most letters written by someone who knows you as a hospital volunteer are not highly regarded. Those written by directors of volunteers tend to be bare bones and those written by physicians tend to be the result of shadowing and tend not to focus on what adcoms want from letters which is far more about your academic performance, engagement in classroom discussion, teamwork in labs, etc.

 

[Ultimakey]

Except the DO schools that want a letter from a DO, most letters written by someone who knows you as a hospital volunteer are not highly regarded. Those written by directors of volunteers tend to be bare bones and those written by physicians tend to be the result of shadowing and tend not to focus on what adcoms want from letters which is far more about your academic performance, engagement in classroom discussion, teamwork in labs, etc.

I completely understand. I need an MD/DO letter for my Committee Letter and was wondering how to go about getting one. I guess it will have to be a bare bones shadowing one?

 

[LizzyM]

Committee letters are different. The pre-med letter writing committee wants proof that you did some shadowing/clinical work and that's how they get proof. They know what they are going to get and that's what they want. If you weren't getting a committee letter (which adcoms love) and were going with the 2 science, 1 non-science set of letters, the letter from a volunteer coordinator or doctor would be less useful as the adcom has the contact info etc about your work and activities, including clinical volunteering and shadowing and can verify experiences that way.

 

[LizzyM]

I completely understand. I need an MD/DO letter for my Committee Letter and was wondering how to go about getting one. I guess it will have to be a bare bones shadowing one?

Shadowing letters tend to say that you showed up on time, were dressed and groomed appropriately, were respectful of everyone's time, that the patients loved you and that you asked good, thoughtful questions of the physician and maybe even took time to read on your own and come back with even more in-depth questions. Depending on how much the doc feels like putting into it, the letter can be good. Just be sure not to ask a neighbor or friend who has known you since your first birthday. Those letters are not considered reliable given that a family friend is not likely to be objective in writing about you.

 

[Ultimakey]

Shadowing letters tend to say that you showed up on time, were dressed and groomed appropriately, were respectful of everyone's time, that the patients loved you and that you asked good, thoughtful questions of the physician and maybe even took time to read on your own and come back with even more in-depth questions. Depending on how much the doc feels like putting into it, the letter can be good. Just be sure not to ask a neighbor or friend who has known you since your first birthday. Those letters are not considered reliable given that a family friend is not likely to be objective in writing about you.

Thank you so much for all of the valuable information. Now I just have to do the impossible by finding a shadowing opportunity during this pandemic.

 

[KnightDoc]

Thank you so much for all of the valuable information. Now I just have to do the impossible by finding a shadowing opportunity during this pandemic.

It was impossible in April 2020. Not so much in April 2022. Good luck!!

 

[LizzyM]

The equivalent of 6 months of full-time work in the presence of a practicing physician in a clinical setting should suffice. However, if this was in the emergency dept or a surgical specialty, it might behoove you to acquire at least 3 days (25 hours) with primary care providers. Even Tele-health would suffice.... just see what the day-to-day is like in the routine office visit, chronic disease follow-up (diabetes, hypertension, heart failure, hypercholesterolemia, all in the same patient) etc.

 

[Goro]

I was going to make a new thread but might as well piggyback here since a similar topic.

If we have 1000+ hours of scribing, should we bother getting more shadowing hours? I have about 25 hours inpatient shadowing a general surgeon from before the pandemic. Our school still does not allow shadowing. Am I worrying about nothing?

Scribing is glorified shadowing, and you get paid for it too!

 

[TragicalDrFaust]

The adcoms have already weighed in but I'd like to add that the perspective I got from working as a MA, scribe and pharmacy tech at various times was different and much more enriching than volunteering in the ER. Got a lot of fodder for my essays and interview from the work experience. Of course your experience volunteering may be different than mine.