Volunteer options at a Hospital

[freesolo]

Made a new thread, maybe ill get more replies here . I interview tommorrow for a volunteer position, here are some of the positions open what would you guys suggest i pick? Patient Transportation, Intensive Care Waiting Area, Surgery Waiting Area, Cath Lab Waiting Area, The descriptions for the Waiting area postions is serve as a communication link between physicans, nursing staff and waiting family members.

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[bewitched1081]

i'd say surgery cause i think you'll get the most action there. pt transportation: you'll probably only be wheeling pt's around either in a chair or in a bed. but if you take them to other dpmt's, it might give you a chance to see what's up in those dpmt's. intensive care will probably be slow cause the pt's mostly lay in bed all day long. i dont know about cath lab cause i never worked there.

 

[bewitched1081]

it seems like this hospital will not give you much clinical experience at all. the waiting area is like for high school students. i suggest that you try to find another hospital or volunteering program that actually lets you work on the floor.

 

[Apparition]

Originally posted by bewitched1081
it seems like this hospital will not give you much clinical experience at all. the waiting area is like for high school students. i suggest that you try to find another hospital or volunteering program that actually lets you work on the floor.

I think volunteering in the waiting room, especially surgery, is a much better experience. Most of working on the floor for volunteers involves assisting nurse techs in making beds, stocking shelves, and doing paperwork. It is pretty much a waste of time. In the waiting room at least you know what's going on and you are actually useful to the family and doctors.

 

[freesolo]

i chose ER waiting room, maybe that will be beneficial.

 

[musiclink213]

Originally posted by Apparition
I think volunteering in the waiting room, especially surgery, is a much better experience. Most of working on the floor for volunteers involves assisting nurse techs in making beds, stocking shelves, and doing paperwork. It is pretty much a waste of time. In the waiting room at least you know what's going on and you are actually useful to the family and doctors.

maybe you had a bad experience. when i was volunteering on the floor, yea i had to help make beds and restock supplies, but i also got to act as a liason between patients and the docs and nurses, assist on simple procedures, take vital signs, perform EKG's, run to the labs and they would actually tell me what it is they were looking for and let me see. i also got to see procedures on the floor. i saw chest tubes and central lines and intubations and stuff like that.

it really depends on what floor you get on, how understaffed the hospital is (the hospital i was in had a severe shortage of nurses, physicians, PCT's, just about everything, so we were able to cross over the "legal" lines of volunteer work), and the attitudes of the nurses and docs towards volunteers./