Volunteering....clinical?

[Ace Rimmer]

Hi all,

I've been volunteering at a hospital in the perianesthetic care unit. I pretty much bring juice to patients, wheel them around, and change the bed sheets. Once in a while a nurse will let me take a temperature, but it's rare.

My question is, how valuable is this to adcoms? In terms of personal value, it's great because they really need all the help they can get, and it helps to push the perspective of hospitals I've come to have from years of Grey's Anatomy and House out of my head.

Should I be pursuing more "hard core" hospital volunteer opportunities?

Thanks!

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[hopefuldoc97239]

Assuming that you have all your other ducks in a row, this can be an excellent experience.

Adcom people know that lots of applicants are good at science and bad at working with people. If you can show that you have good bedside manner that's a big plus.

The question is how to frame the experience. What are you going to say about this in your application? Start thinking about this. How are you going to sell this as an experience that helped prepare you for medicine? If you have a lot of other experiences, you might consider not saying "This prepared me to be a physician," but rather frame it, "In addition to my other qualifications _______, I know that medicine is right for me because I've always enjoyed working with patients."

If I were in your position, I'd probably limit myself to 250 hours or 1 year, whichever comes first. After that, you've probably learned all you're going to learn from this experience and you should be ready to move on.