Volunteering in a Hospital: What to do?

[Doc2019]

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Any tips on what I should try to gain from my experience as a volunteer in a hospital. I currently am volunteering for my local hospital's dermatology and plastic surgery department. My job is to greet patients on their way in and to help them sign up for the hospital's new health management system. Should I try to do something else? The position is pretty relaxed and I read or surf the computer whenever there's nothing to do. Should I try to reach out to the doctors or nurses? One of the nurses suggested I do that but I don't know if she was just saying that to be nice and I don't want to bother the staff because they could be busy. Should I just maybe cruise through this job the whole summer and just stick with what I'm doing or maybe ask for a change in position or maybe just take the nurse's suggestion and just reach out to them and strike a conversation? If I would I be bothering them? Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[Doc2019]

Ok. I will definitely apply for that next year! Thanks for the suggestion!

 

[AlphaBeta<3]

you should be making connections to do research/shadow.

 

[Doc2019]

Yeah definately going to stick with volunteering at the hospital this summer. Going to check out the free clinic idea next summer is what I meant. @Huggy

What do you mean by research/shadow? Like in the hospital? I have connections for research at school but I don't know how to reach out for shadowing here. I don't want to bother them :/ Any tips? @AlphaBeta<3

 

[aldol16]

In my opinion, volunteering in a hospital is the most box-checking, mind-numbing pre-med activity you can do - right next to patient transporter although the latter is slightly better. Because hospitals are heavily regulated, you won't have many responsibilities and will be either stuck doing bitch work or lounge around. I would suggest that you come up with a list of what you want to get out of volunteering and then look for volunteer opportunities that are more suited to those goals.

 

[Doc2019]

Yeah I didn't really put too much thought into what I was going to be doing this summer. My advisor said volunteering was a great idea and I saw many people saying they have many hours of volunteering but it wasn't until I started did I realize what it truly entailed. I need to put more thought into this next summer.

 

[AlphaBeta<3]

Yeah definately going to stick with volunteering at the hospital this summer. Going to check out the free clinic idea next summer is what I meant. @Huggy

What do you mean by research/shadow? Like in the hospital? I have connections for research at school but I don't know how to reach out for shadowing here. I don't want to bother them :/ Any tips? @AlphaBeta<3

literally just ask lol

 

[confidentandgood]

What do you mean by research/shadow? Like in the hospital? I have connections for research at school but I don't know how to reach out for shadowing here. I don't want to bother them :/ Any tips?

You're not going to bother them. You're a dedicated volunteer who wants to know more about the field. Strengthening your application will involve reaching out to others regardless (letters of recommendation, feedback on your personal statement, etc.) so don't doubt yourself.

 

[Jersanta]

You can ask your advisors to move up and volunteer into a different department (i.e. emergency department, pediatrics, transportation, etc). This will allow you to have significant patient interaction, and exposure to the clinical environment

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[Doc2019]

Ok. I'll ask. Thanks guys!

 

[ChymeofPassion]

Keep in mind no matter where you are volunteering, it isn't going to be the pre-med dream medical volunteer scenario (I feel I don't even need to describe it lol). The fact of the matter is that aside from patient interaction (the most important part of clinical volunteering), clinics and hospitals have people better trained and paid to do stuff other than "bitch work". Clinical Volunteering in any capacity shows that you are familiar with the environment, can thrive in the environment, and enjoy the environment. Most importantly, it shows that you can interact with patients and enjoy helping them in whatever capacity you can (whether or not that's true who cares). Previous posters bring up a good point, making connections at hospitals is also important. I currently work at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston as both a patient escort (classic) and a book cart volunteer. While Patient Escort is self-explanatory, book cart involves me going into patients rooms, offering them books and talking to them in whatever way possible to make their time easier and lend an ear (you learn to recognize people who don't have a lot of visitors). While on book cart, I struck a conversation with a clinician, who turned out to be a Harvard med professor with an opening in his lab. One thing led to another, and he's now my PI! Any volunteer experience is what you make of it, and you can keep chasing the pre-med dream volunteer dragon, or buckle down and make your current situation the best it can possibly be, which if done correctly, is something that will definitely shine in an interview.

 

[DoctorCakes]

Find a doctor whose not in the middle of a transplant surgery and spark a conversation. Doctors are people to and some do like helping students as they were also in our position before. Worst that can happen is they say no they are too busy. On to the next one. Shadowing is a numbers game. I also suggest going into a smaller hospitals OR, I shadowed a surgeon there who kind of let me roam the halls and I would look at the OR schedule every day and look for interesting surgeries. I would introduce myself and ask if he is okay with me stopping by and watching his case. Great way to rack up a diverse shadowing experience.