Newbie to community service

[shaq786]

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Hey everyone,

I know we have to do some community service at a hospital...I am yet to ask my advisor about more information on this. But before I do, can you guys tell me what you know?

Do hospitals have any special community service programs for pre-med students? Or is it just a "go to the hospital and get a community service packet"?

Are hospitals picky about what days you can come in to do community service? I wanted to work fri and saturdays only becuase I have another job as well as school in the way. I would assume its community service...you work for free, so they should be a little more loose with you on your availability.

 

[stoleyerscrubz]

do a search on "volunteer" and you will get more info.

most hospitals do have a volunteer department so contact those offices of the hospitals near you. Some hospitals have programs for high school or pre-med/pre-health students and some don't.

Most have a lot of flexibility on the amount of time and availability you have. 4 hours/day seems to be a good starting point. Some places will want a comitement of at least a year.

for clinical experience you can work at a hospital, health clinic, etc.

 

[jlee9531]

some places you gotta call the volunteer dept and ask them whats up.
when an orientation is to come in and do the necessary things and listen to what you need to do to get into the program.

usually scheduling is flexible, but if you want to come on a day that a lot of volunteers are already coming, like on a saturday...then they might say they dont need you on that day and ask if you can do another. sometimes things like that come up...

 

[SanDiegoSOD]

Hospital work isn't community service - it's service to the hospital. Unless you work in a free clinic, your service is really to the shareholders (if its for-profit) or to the accounting department (if its non-profit). If you feel the need to do community service, go to a homeless shelter, or an elementary school, or park services, or anywhere else that your efforts will really assist the general public. Most hospitals have budgets in the multi-millions of dollars, so your four hours a week of answering phones and moving patients isnt much of a service, and in my opinion, should be done to gain clinical experience; get as much as you can out of your efforts.