Ronald McDonald House VS Habitat for Humanity for nonclinical volunteering

[Dr panda]

Hello everyone. I want to pick one good position and stick to it for a while (1+ year), I plan to come every other week for 3-6 hours. Which one would be better? I personally would like to choose Habitat for Humanity mainly because it seems more interesting for me.

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[Engrailed]

Seriously.. why is this even a question. Do what interests you! I think both are great ideas and whether you do one or the other probably is not going to matter in the overall scheme of things 🙂

 

[Catalystik]

I want to pick one good position and stick to it for a while (1+ year), I plan to come every other week for 3-6 hours. Which one would be better? I personally would like to choose Habitat for Humanity mainly because it seems more interesting for me.

For H4H, if you would be working side-by-side with the folks who will live in the house (they will be required to provide a certain number of hours of "sweat equity"), that is a good choice. Even better if you volunteer for a Chair position of a subcommittee and also get some leadership experience in an off-campus position.

 

[studentgrad18]

Have you heard of Camp Ronald McDonald for Good Times? It is run by the Ronald McDonald House Charities, and is basically a summer camp (there are some family/winter camps) for children who have or had cancer, and their siblings. It is the most eye opening, heart warming, and soul fulfilling experiences you could ever do!! You basically volunteer as a camp counselor for one week in the summer, the people are fantastic, it is completely free, and counts as approximately 210 hours or so of volunteer work. Look into it, it changed my life!!

 

[Catalystik]

Have you heard of Camp Ronald McDonald for Good Times? It is run by the Ronald McDonald House Charities, and is basically a summer camp (there are some family/winter camps) for children who have or had cancer, and their siblings. It is the most eye opening, heart warming, and soul fulfilling experiences you could ever do!! You basically volunteer as a camp counselor for one week in the summer, the people are fantastic, it is completely free, and counts as approximately 210 hours or so of volunteer work. Look into it, it changed my life!!

Did you mean 112 hours? 24 X 7 = 168 hours. And one doesn't count sleep time when volunteering.

 

[rdyotz]

I'm guessing they included the training times to get to 9 days * 24 hours = 216 hours total. What if someone sings soothing songs in their sleep?

 

[LizzyM]

I'm guessing they included the training times to get to 9 days * 24 hours = 216 hours total. What if someone sings soothing songs in their sleep?

This is a good way to get a smackdown from an adcom. Don't count the time you are asleep, showering, hanging out with peers. Only count the time you are actively engaged with clients/patients/campers, etc.

 

[Dr panda]

This is a good way to get a smackdown from an adcom. Don't count the time you are asleep, showering, hanging out with peers. Only count the time you are actively engaged with clients/patients/campers, etc.

What about people who work as EMT/Paramedics and plenty of time they spend at a station, how to count hours in that case?

 

[studentgrad18]

Sorry for the confusion. The session is 8 days, but when I asked for a verification from the volunteer director (for an application) she entered a total of 216 hours. They for some reason counted day and nights (since you are patrolling around nights and sleeping in the cabins with these kids who you are responsible for even during the night if there's a medical emergency), and I'm guessing they counted in the interview/orientation time we took. I was surprised too, but really if you do this it isn't so much about the number of hours as the experience. Like I said, it was life changing, the number of hours really didn't matter to me. If you're going to put down an experience I would think adcoms care a lot about what you got out of it vs the exact number of hours🙂

 

[LizzyM]

What about people who work as EMT/Paramedics and plenty of time they spend at a station, how to count hours in that case?

As a volunteer or as an employee. If it is a 40 hr/wk gig as an employee, then count al the hours even if some of them are spent sleeping or studying because you are "on the clock" for your employer and can't leave. If it is volunteer, it is a little bit of a gray area and could lead to padding if you are sleeping and studying most of the time but counting it as community service.

I can just tell you that listing anything as 168 hrs/wk will get that labeled "baloney".

 

[Dr panda]

As a volunteer or as an employee. If it is a 40 hr/wk gig as an employee, then count al the hours even if some of them are spent sleeping or studying because you are "on the clock" for your employer and can't leave. If it is volunteer, it is a little bit of a gray area and could lead to padding if you are sleeping and studying most of the time but counting it as community service.

I can just tell you that listing anything as 168 hrs/wk will get that labeled "baloney".

Technically if you pick couple 8-hour shifts even as a volunteer you are still supposed to be on duty and cannot just leave the job side if you wish so, you are still responsible for doing the job, though not obligated. I understand that hours will probably be inflated, just don't know how much.

 

[LizzyM]

Technically if you pick couple 8-hour shifts even as a volunteer you are still supposed to be on duty and cannot just leave the job side if you wish so, you are still responsible for doing the job, though not obligated. I understand that hours will probably be inflated, just don't know how much.

To be on the safe side, if you were to report, let's say, 16 hrs/wk for 2 years you might, in the description, say that the hours represent time spent "on call" at the fire station (or whatever the location is called) and not solely the time spent responding to calls. You might then make an estimate of the hours spent directly with patients -- maybe you'd say that you averaged three 30-60 minutes per call (or whatever) per shift with as many as N calls on a very busy weekend. Just give some context for the hours.

 

[Dr panda]

To be on the safe side, if you were to report, let's say, 16 hrs/wk for 2 years you might, in the description, say that the hours represent time spent "on call" at the fire station (or whatever the location is called) and not solely the time spent responding to calls. You might then make an estimate of the hours spent directly with patients -- maybe you'd say that you averaged three 30-60 minutes per call (or whatever) per shift with as many as N calls on a very busy weekend. Just give some context for the hours.

Thank you!

 

[Dr panda]

Also, could you please shed some light on the following: is volunteering at the nursing home that serves the needs of those dealing with Alzheimer and memory impairment counted as clinical experience? Thank you! @LizzyM

 

[LizzyM]

Also, could you please shed some light on the following: is volunteering at the nursing home that serves the needs of those dealing with Alzheimer and memory impairment counted as clinical experience? Thank you! @LizzyM

I am very conservative when it comes to calling something "clinical". Others are more liberal in their definitions. It comes down to whether the person you are in close contact with is a patient or not a patient at the time you are interacting. Is a person in a nursing home a patient? Some would say that this is their home (although it is an institution) and that they are residents. If they are receiving a medical service, or a treament ordered by a physician, or personal care provided by a licensed health care professional (e.g. you are there as a patient care technician checking skin integrity while bathing or dressing the patient) then they are a patient but if you are playing the piano or playing bingo, I'd be hard pressed to call that clinical care if it takes place in a nursing home. I'm just one person and my strictness on this may just be my bias of preferring outpatient clinical settings and acute care hospital settings where is where doctors tend to spend more of their time than in nursing homes.