Question about volunteering

[beautifulBio]

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Hi All,

I have been visiting SDN non trad section for a year now and I have to say all of you guys are very inspiring because it is not easy to leave established careers and venture into unknown .

I have a question regarding volunteer activities. My story is I work full time in IT industry and have been doing my prerequisites for past one year. It is hard to find classes I want to take in evening hours and on weekends but It is even harder to find meaningful volunteer opportunities. I wanted to ask you if it is a good idea to volunteer at assisted living senior housing. I visited that place for submitting my application and saw all the seniors sitting in wheel cheer relaxing /napping etc. So I am not sure what kind of experience I will get there at the end of the day that will be considered as relevant because I think I will just go there and sit around . I am 36 so I do not have much time and want to get best return in terms of satisfaction for my hours spent in volunteering in terms of so please advice.

Another question what do you guys mean by clinical experience and where can I find place to shadow physicians on weekends or in evenings.

I live in northern Virginia / DC area so any folks from this area with some tips/pointers to location will be very helpful.

 

[Chip N Sawbones]

Clinical experience means any time spent working, volunteering or shadowing in a hospital or clinical environment. It's important to have some so you know exactly what you're getting into with a career in medicine. If you want to volunteer at odd hours, try your local emergency department.

 

[Dzerzhinsky]

I have a question regarding volunteer activities. My story is I work full time in IT industry and have been doing my prerequisites for past one year. It is hard to find classes I want to take in evening hours and on weekends

University of Maryland's SIE program. The DC metro area is very resourced.

but It is even harder to find meaningful volunteer opportunities. I wanted to ask you if it is a good idea to volunteer at assisted living senior housing. I visited that place for submitting my application and saw all the seniors sitting in wheel cheer relaxing /napping etc. So I am not sure what kind of experience I will get there at the end of the day that will be considered as relevant because I think I will just go there and sit around . I am 36 so I do not have much time and want to get best return in terms of satisfaction for my hours spent in volunteering in terms of so please advice.

You can call it medical, sure, I guess. Would I? Probably not. I don't think it'd be high-value for you, either in terms of finding out if you really like this stuff or in terms of being shiny.

If you only have nights and weekends, you can look into becoming a volunteer EMT. Right across the bridge, in Maryland, Prince George's, Howard, Baltimore, and Montgomery counties have volunteers. In Virginia, Loudoun does as well; not sure about Fairfax or Arlington, but Google is your friend. DC is a career-only service, as is Baltimore City.

EMS will suck you in, and it's a large time commitment. You can also look into hospital volunteering. Inova takes volunteers, I believe. So does GWU and possibly Georgetown, as well as (further away) University of Maryland. Hospital volunteering is of the warm-blanket-fetching variety, though; you don't actually do anything with patients. Maybe that will work for you. It didn't for me.

Another question what do you guys mean by clinical experience and where can I find place to shadow physicians on weekends or in evenings.

Clinical experience is where you're close enough to smell patients and doing things to help them. EMT counts. So does hospital volunteering. So does being a CNA. It can either be paid or unpaid, but it's nice to kill two birds with one stone by volunteering.

In re: shadowing: yes, the emergency department. Also, expect to take some time off of work if you're serious about this.

I live in northern Virginia / DC area so any folks from this area with some tips/pointers to location will be very helpful.

The resources are there. You've just got to find them. If you want it bad enough, you'll make it happen.