Is this valuable experience?

[canmed96]

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Hi guys, i recently started volunteering at my local hospital in the "Cardiac Wellness Gym"
- i motivate patients recovering from a cardiac event as they exercise, talk to them
-check their heart rates and blood pressure

These are pretty much the only two things where I am interacting with the patients the rest is housekeeping. I do enjoy it and i can relate it to my personal interest in fitness but is this a valuable medical experience since i am not really around doctors?

Thanks

 

[LizzyM]

Here we go again. You are certainly up-close and personal with these people. And you might actually have doctor-endorsed protocols to follow if someone has an abnormal blood pressure reading or worse while on the premises. Are they "patients"? It is in a hospital and you do call them "patients" so I would say that it is a clinical experience. If you were doing the same at the local Y, it would be more of a gray zone.

 

[kamakazi5]

Most definitely clinical. The fact that you get to be hands on is great and better than a lot of hospital volunteering where you are relegated to stocking or getting ice chips and not much else.