Since when does a hospital not need FREE volunteers?
Hospitals are all for getting FREE volunteers. But pre-meds, on the other hand, are a special breed. As you know, pre-meds have a terrible reputation, and for good reasons. They don't like putting forth much effort, they can be extremely flaky, and do a terrific job putting forth their attitude that they don't want to be there. This can be counter-productive for some hospitals, if anything. For instance, I have a friend who is currently doing a residency at a hospital. He told me that the pre-meds at his hospital are not allowed to do things like work the computer system and answer phones (therefore, they are not doing administrative tasks), since it takes time to train them, and they are too flaky or won't do a good job. This is reserved for the elderly volunteers who actually want to be there.
I volunteered at a suburban hospital during my post-bacc. There were no pre-meds there since I commuted to school. I was the only volunteer during a shift, and therefore ended up doing scut work. Despite having a poor attitude while I was there (being treated like garbage does a number on you), having me there was better than nothing. If I took a day off, I wasn't missed. If I was there, the techs would have me clean patient rooms whenever they spotted me so they could go ahead and chat or look at their phones. If I was wandering around and the techs or nurses couldn't spot me, then they'd do the work they are paid to do by themselves. It's not like the ED would fall apart when I wasn't there.
I had a hard time finding hospital volunteering too. I ended up going to this volunteer learning session (with my fully completed application, including 2 printed LOR) and 80 people showed up for 25 spots! I did end up getting a volunteering offer from them, but by then, I had already found hospice. I love it! Hospice tends to be less popular with volunteers but they really need them. I also get a lot more interaction with my patient. For example, I will get to take him outside or share a meal with him.
I'm lucky that I was at a suburban hospital with no pre-meds when I did my time. A few fellow classmates weren't so lucky. They were either put on long waitlists, or had to perform over 100 hours of service doing administrative tasks before they were allowed to even see a patient. Hospitals aren't stupid, they know why pre-meds are lining up at the door to do free labor, while any other person their age would never dream of doing such a thing! The hospitals near large college campuses have the luxury to choose from a wide variety of applicants. As for my suburban hospital, I would get emails from them saying how more volunteers were needed. The former can have you jump through a variety of hoops before you can see a patient. Or there might be plenty of oversight to make sure you're doing your work, otherwise you might get kicked out the door.
Hospital volunteering sucks. My hospital experience was 10% grunt work, 90% sitting around bored and playing Angry Birds on my phone. Barely lasted a few months at that place.
Is this such a bad thing?
Imagine if you spent the time playing Angry Birds instead to study for your classes or the MCAT instead? Now you're accumulating volunteer hours while you're doing productive things for school to help your application.
Imagine if you spent the time playing Angry Birds instead to shadow physicians at the hospital? Now you're accumulating volunteer hours while you're also accumulating shadowing hours at the same time? Once again, this is very helpful to your application.
Do you see where I'm going with this? If you started volunteering as a pre-med and your end goal is to get into medical school, then a "crappy" hospital volunteering experience is a big blessing in disguise. You might not be helping all too many people, but you can sure help yourself by helping your application. If your goal is to help the most people, then by all means find a free clinic or other place where you can have more direct patient contact. But like I always say, even to this day, I have yet to see a pre-med asking how they can help more people. I only see everyone asking how they can help themselves. If you picked up volunteering only at the start of pre-med, then I'm guessing your goal is to get into medical school. It's hard to believe that people go from not caring about the underserved/community to suddenly being passionate about it, like flipping a light switch. No, I'm not trying to insult anyone. And there's nothing wrong with it, since genuine altruism is very rare. But honestly, I have a hard time believing that people go from being typical human beings to altruistic ones virtually overnight.
If you want what's best for your application, find a hospital where there is minimal oversight. The time commitment is the best you'll find as a pre-med, and that will give you some time to piggyback a non-clinical activity, which would provide some talking points to ADCOMs. Volunteering is also a significantly lower time commitment than entry-level clinical jobs, which won't really set you apart considering the time you need to put in. It's better to volunteer and have the highest grades possible, than doing a job and having lower grades as a result.
Keep on chugging, and keep your eyes on the light at the end of the tunnel. That's your ultimate goal. Don't you forget it!
