I have been volunteering for a very long time in different settings and capacities. For instance, I used to volunteer in India at free eye clinics, in poor villages as a public health educator, in hospitals etc.
Since I came to the US, I have volunteered in the ER and NICU. Non-clinically, I taught basic computer skills to women in shelters, built homes for the poor etc.
Currently I push the beverage cart, in the hospital I work at, to provide patients and their families beverages, once a week and sometimes I do respite care.
I shadowed an OB nurse and an OB physician one time. It was a truly amazing experience because I got to see 3 C-sections, one normal delivery (I was allowed to feel the dilation of the cervix progressively and I actually felt the crown of the baby's head) and some other minor procedures (epistiomy). I have shadowed a couple of pathologists and seen a few autopsies and I will be shadowing a children's oncologist sometime in the near future.
My questions are:
1) Is this sufficient volunteering and clinical experience/exposure, or do I need to also volunteer in the ER or some other setting? I want to do another volunteering shift only if it will really add to my application because the only time left during the week is Saturday mornings.
2) How many hours of shadowing is expected or is the norm?
3) For much of the volunteering I did in the past, I do not have names of contact people etc because at that time medical school was not on my cards and I volunteered out of sheer interest. How badly will this affect me?
Thank you all for your input. Any advice, suggestions to help improve my future application (2007) will be greatly appreciated.
