Volunteer/shadowing etc

[Silver goose12]

Hi folks, non-trad here looking for some insight on how/when to go about getting in volunteer/med experience. This fall I'm heading into Chem 2 and bio 2 while also working full time in a completely unrelated field. My cumulative GPA is right around a 3.5 and I'd like to keep it/bump it up by really focusing on classes, but at what point do I really need to hop into the extracurriculars? Is it insane to finish all classes and then take a year to volunteer/shadow? Or am I better off getting it in while I can over the next couple years? As far as number of hours go, I'm sure the more the merrier is how I should think about it, but are there any guidelines as far as number of hours go to even be considered showing a commitment to the field? Better yet, what did you all do for volunteer experience while working and going to class??

Cheers

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[Cali_NP_to_MD]

I'm in the same boat! Realistically it's going to be pretty difficult to volunteer on top of a full courseload and working. My idea is to aim for 4 hours/week at an animal shelter, homeless shelter, free clinic, food bank, or something. Maybe on Saturday mornings.
Someone who replied to me on a different thread said 4 volunteer hours per week for a year, minimum.

 

[esob]

Hospice is really flexible for clinical volunteer hours. For the community service stuff, the best way to take care of that without detracting from your studies is to use your breaks (Christmas, Spring break, etc) to do 6 or 8 hr shifts for a week straight at the food bank or something similar. Premeds have some silly idea that their time off should be spent relaxing, spending time with family, destressing or even participating in self-care. This is not the case. Time off is meant for shadowing, studying ahead, volunteering or simply finding ways to outgun your fellow premeds

 

[CyrilFiggis]

Most EDs have scribes or volunteers. They're open 24hrs so you can work odd hours.

 

[Nevergup]

I will have started volunteering 4 years before I finally apply next year. Right before looks strange.

 

[djtallahassee]

Most EDs have scribes or volunteers. They're open 24hrs so you can work odd hours.

EDs are clutch for us non-trads with jobs. Once you get known you can basically make your own schedule.


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[bears1992]

EDs are clutch for us non-trads with jobs. Once you get known you can basically make your own schedule.


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I second this. I'm a non-trad engineer and I started volunteering at my hospital's ER a year ago. It's perfect. I'm scheduled for four hours on Saturday but I'm free to come in whenever I want. ERs have huge patient turnover so you get to see a lot of different things. At my ER, the physicians dictation is sort of an open area so you can see/hear everything they do. It's sort of like volunteering/clinical experience/shadowing all in one, although I would not count it as shadowing hours on your app.

 

[hipsnontrad]

I am probably just re-iterating what others have said. You don't want to just do it at the end. You want to show that you decided to become a doctor and have made time to do everything from that time. You don't want it to be checkboxes that you do and stop except for course work. Everything else it is better to a little for a long time than to try and get 80 hours in 2 weeks.
I'm in a similar boat. I work full time but my job is super flexible. Sometimes I question why I'm leaving software for medicine. I have school every morning and then work after school. I try and fit a different mix of activities in every week. I am doing hospice care on weekends and a community service thing 2 afternoons a month. I will do a little early morning shadowing with some doctors once or twice a semester. I then fill up as much time as possible between semesters with shadowing or service or just catch up on all the work I have missed through finals. I will probably stop shadowing for a while and put focus on mcat now in that time.

Any way to continue my ramble, try and do a little here and a little there. It is hard since the hours don't add up fast, but not only are you showing med schools you are committed, you also are being someone that is serving a lot and getting to know someone that could write you a LOR and you are putting that persons name down as a reference for that activity. Doing 100 hours over a year is lots better than 200 hours over a month.


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[Elscy]

I agree that it is better to start early. I started volunteering about a year ago because a)I wanted to get more involved in my community and b)if I apply in the future, it will look good.

I was wondering if those of you who have been volunteering in the ED had any advice. Did you just go through the standard volunteer office for the hospital?