Quantity/Quality of Volunteer Hours prior to application?

[cheezer]

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How many hours did you put in the hospital prior to applying?


What did you do while at the hospital?


For med students who have been on adcoms, when did quality vs quantity of volunteer hours come into play?

 

[EEL08]

I have 160 total hours volunteered at the hospital. That doesn't include the hours I volunteered the summer before my freshman year of high school but that was 15 years ago. I volunteered four hours a week for 10 months and would have continued but the hospital shut down.

I did things including making beds, making copies, putting charts together, feeding patients, helping them eat, get dressed and exercise, keep them company, oh and taking samples to the lab.

 

[DropkickMurphy]

Are you talking just in-hospital? Zero. I don't work in a hospital (in the US) unless I am getting paid.

Out of hospital? This is where I have lots of experience doing volunteer work.
As a volunteer EMT and firefighter alone, I've logged probably around 17,000 hrs* of on-call time over the course of a decade.

Note: Hours listed are an estimate to date, not reflective of when I apply in another couple of years; assuming 30 hrs per week on average

 

[Krazykritter]

I can honestly tell you that in all of the students I have interviewed for admissions I have never onced questioned a student b/c they have < 100 hours volunteering.

To be honest, I only care if they list that they have shadowed a physician for only 2-8 hours & then they use that physician as their main LOR. Your LOR should come from someone who knows you well & that isn't really going to happen in one days' work.

To me & others on my interview teams it's only one thing that matters...Can you talk about your volunteering experience in an interview & show that you took something meaningful from your experience? If you can't, you were just going through the motions.

**Edit....DKM, when in the heck are you applying to medical school? Almost 10,000 posts & "not reflective of when I APPLY IN ANOTHER COUPLE OF YEARS"?? What is the hold-up (if you don't mind my asking)?

 

[JasonUD]

About 85...it wasn't a choice.

 

[DropkickMurphy]

About 85...it wasn't a choice.

What was the sentence for?

Edit....DKM, when in the heck are you applying to medical school? Almost 10,000 posts & "not reflective of when I APPLY IN ANOTHER COUPLE OF YEARS"?? What is the hold-up (if you don't mind my asking)?

The short answer is I have had to work and support myself while going to school. Also I didn't decide to apply to med school until a couple of years ago, but I've been a volunteer since I was in high school.

 

[superfan56]

I'm about done with mine. I feel like I've exhausted the ER i work in. starting to feel like an indentured servant. 200+

 

[TexasTriathlete]

I have 500+ (not sure of the exact total), and I love every minute of it. My shift is late nights on the weekends, and we are the regional trauma center, so I get to help out a lot. Some of the nurses even joke that I am more essential than some of the paid employees. I know they're exaggerating, but it feels good to know that I'm helping out.