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This may seem like a no brainer, but if I have 5 years paid work experience in health care; Do I need volunteer work as well?
Volunteer work needed?
- Thread starter HM3
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Yes, but not in the healthcare field. Everyone claims they are going into medicine to help people so you need to prove it. One of the hoops.
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Pretty much... just go out into your community and help out. You don't need to be superman, but having a few hundred hours over the course of a year or two does do good for your application.
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Why don't you just joint the Red Cross DAT team. It's an on-call responsibility, you are volunteering in the community, and you have the opportunity to see some cool stuff. Instead of branching out, why don't you expand on opportunities within the Red Cross. Perhaps even try to obtain a leadership position as a shelter manager or something similar.
If you don't want to do that, just volunteer in a hospital.
But you definitely need some volunteer experience in addition to the paid experience.
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👍
Yup, I'm on the local DAT. I am only on still because I'd like to remain on for at least one year, but seeing as it's only on call for emergencies, the odds of you actually having to go out and work are slim. You can be on call 3-4 nights a month, and odds are you will only go out once, if that. But when you do, it's fun, the people you work with are great, and you are actually also doing what you (hopefully) want to do with public service/community assistance.
Now I'm a volly firefighter/EMT, so I get my kicks in almost daily.
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I joined the DAT team this past May and I've already responded to three house fires with relocations, I got my name in the paper, and I a volunteered at a picnic for war veterans. Our job boss even promoted me to shelter manager at our chapter. I'm in the tri-state area and our region set up a shelter for the hurricane. I wish I could have spent some time there as you don't always see a shelter but I had class. DAT team is a very cool EC to have. Who knows, you might even meet somebody who knows somebody at a medical school!
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An excellent volunteering opportunity is joining a Citizen Emergency Response Team, or CERT. These are like DAT teams but more broad. They are generally run by the county and sponsored by the government. In this group you function as a civilian responder, and operate along side EMS, fire and police departments. You then get 'mobilized' when bad things happen in your community. We help with disaster preparedness education, search and rescue, weather emergencies, forest fires, building fires - all sorts of stuff.
http://www.citizencorps.gov/cert/
The bottom line is that you serve as an extra set of hands and eyes, and you engage in helping the authorities so that the people who train for 'important' jobs can do them. It is an awesome experience, gets you involved in your community, and it looks good on resumes.
http://www.citizencorps.gov/cert/
The bottom line is that you serve as an extra set of hands and eyes, and you engage in helping the authorities so that the people who train for 'important' jobs can do them. It is an awesome experience, gets you involved in your community, and it looks good on resumes.
