Medical Missionary
Started by Baylor91Bound
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Mission work is often sponsored by churches. These may or may not include a "medical" objective. You'd have to check on the individual trip for details, but even if it doesn't, mission work can be life-changing and inspirational, depending on your experience and perception. Med schools don't just want students who have had clinical experience since birth--they want people who've experienced life and have a sense of perspective about the world around them. I'm sure you can find something this summer to help you grow as a person. 🙂
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I think the word you were looking for is "qualified" 😉
To go with a church I'm sure you would have to be a member but I'm sure they're are also programs out there eager for volunteers. It will probably require a great deal of research to find a program to participate in though.
Meh, you don't always have to be a member. Sometimes trips are open to the community, since there may not be enough general members of a church to make a trip cost effective or produce enough of a given skill to be useful (doctor, contractor, etc.).
But I agree that it will take some research. Look around, Google in your area, call some churches. But if you're atheist and go with a church, you may feel like your religious freedoms are being infringed upon. Try to keep your sanity! 😀
But I agree that it will take some research. Look around, Google in your area, call some churches. But if you're atheist and go with a church, you may feel like your religious freedoms are being infringed upon. Try to keep your sanity! 😀
Here's an example of a non-religious medical mission group: http://www.mmissions.org/
There are others out there such as Smile Train and Operation Smile. I'm not sure if any take on high school volunteers. They typically limit group sizes in order to keep the cost of the mission low. I used to work for two docs who do a mission every year and the group consists of three docs, 1 nurse, 1 surg tech, 2 office people, and 1 college student. The amount of work required to plan a trip like this is just enormous though, I bet if you looked around, you might be able to volunteer your services to help a medical mission group from here in the US. For example, as a part of my old job I wrote letters to medical supply companies requesting donations of sutures, bandages, etc., kept track of the supplied received/still needed, and helped with travel plans.
If you are interested in paying to volunteer abroad, there are groups like Cross-Cultural Solutions. Search through their programs and I think you'll see they offer a range of experiences, including those at health clinic/programs and orphanages around the world.
There are others out there such as Smile Train and Operation Smile. I'm not sure if any take on high school volunteers. They typically limit group sizes in order to keep the cost of the mission low. I used to work for two docs who do a mission every year and the group consists of three docs, 1 nurse, 1 surg tech, 2 office people, and 1 college student. The amount of work required to plan a trip like this is just enormous though, I bet if you looked around, you might be able to volunteer your services to help a medical mission group from here in the US. For example, as a part of my old job I wrote letters to medical supply companies requesting donations of sutures, bandages, etc., kept track of the supplied received/still needed, and helped with travel plans.
If you are interested in paying to volunteer abroad, there are groups like Cross-Cultural Solutions. Search through their programs and I think you'll see they offer a range of experiences, including those at health clinic/programs and orphanages around the world.
GREAT POST! I'm interested in something like this myself.
Haha, I'm actually going on a Medical Mission trip in ah... 3 days!! I'm going with my church, however it's a part of BMDMI (Baptist Medical & Dental Mission International) organization. I'll be sure to come back to this thread and post about it when I return, until then here's the webpage for BMDMI http://bmdmi.org/service/trips/honduras.html
In the information I had to provide they required you state that you've accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. I s'pose there's no way that they could tell that you were lying but a lot of the stuff we do requires you to give testimonies and witness to people and all that. I'm not sure it would be the same for all denominations though...
EDIT: By the way I'm not a member of the Baptist church, I'm a Methodist... most Protestant mission trips are open to all Christians though... I can't say for Catholics and Church of Christ though.
Meh, you don't always have to be a member. Sometimes trips are open to the community, since there may not be enough general members of a church to make a trip cost effective or produce enough of a given skill to be useful (doctor, contractor, etc.).
But I agree that it will take some research. Look around, Google in your area, call some churches. But if you're atheist and go with a church, you may feel like your religious freedoms are being infringed upon. Try to keep your sanity! 😀
hhahaa. i'm not those hard-core atheist who shivers at the "god" word. I'm a pretty flexible person & is pretty much open to anything-- even being around religious people for a few months in the middle of nowhere (;
My mom, who is a dentist, has been on one of these with some of her dentist and doctor friends. I went along, but I was like 10 so I didn't really pay attention.
Anyway, they went sponsored by a Lions Club. Lions Clubs International is a nonprofit organization that is dedicated to community service. Maybe you can contact your local Lions Club(s) to see if they're doing anything of that magnitude.
A few unique things about my situation though are that our Lions Club is like 99% Filipino and full of doctors/dentists/the like, so that definitely pushed my club towards going to the Philippines.
This was a nonreligious experience by the way, I mean, almost everyone who went is Catholic and the Philippines is highly Catholic, but it would probably be noticeably less religion-oriented than a church mission (if that even matters to you).
They mostly did relatively simple surgeries like fixing cleft lip and cleft palate.
Sorry if these things seem random or out of order, I'm just typing as things come to me.
Good luck and have fun 🙂
Anyway, they went sponsored by a Lions Club. Lions Clubs International is a nonprofit organization that is dedicated to community service. Maybe you can contact your local Lions Club(s) to see if they're doing anything of that magnitude.
A few unique things about my situation though are that our Lions Club is like 99% Filipino and full of doctors/dentists/the like, so that definitely pushed my club towards going to the Philippines.
This was a nonreligious experience by the way, I mean, almost everyone who went is Catholic and the Philippines is highly Catholic, but it would probably be noticeably less religion-oriented than a church mission (if that even matters to you).
They mostly did relatively simple surgeries like fixing cleft lip and cleft palate.
Sorry if these things seem random or out of order, I'm just typing as things come to me.
Good luck and have fun 🙂
Bump.
We definitely need the more information on non-religion medical missions !
We definitely need the more information on non-religion medical missions !
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