Volunteering in the ER

[Shinobiz11]

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Hey y'all.

Just wanted to express my experience in the ER yesterday. I volunteered for 4 hours and had a great time. If you read my blog entry you can get most of the details. But I just wanted to recommend this to anyone who is unsure of a career in medicine. Go volunteer or job shadow, it is a great experience and really shows you if you want to go into medicine.

 

[FutureOrthoDoc]

No matter what area of medicine you decide to explore, an ER rotation is a great experience. As a former EMT, I had ALOT of exposure to the ER and field medicine. The only thing I might suggest to you is to do more than just a 4 hour stretch. The tides of the ER can change quickly and you want to get a good cross section of the types of patients the ER has to deal with on a daily basis. Also, but not always true, the ER experience is going to vary by day of the week. For example Friday night when the bars close is going to be busier than say a Wednesday morning around 10:00. I'm glad you were able to see and appreciate the ER staff and hope you can soak up some more hours there.👍

 

[Shinobiz11]

Yeah, I do Saturday's 12-4 for a couple of weeks, then I can add and extra day so I'm thinking Friday 4-6/8 or Sunday 4-8.

 

[rmbsstock]

out

 

[the duck]

I did the ED thing for six month is Pasadena CA. It was GREAT. Till one day I will never ever ever forget. I was told to go help quickly in room so and so. I will never forget the smell, and this Asian lady my size (petite) spilled a huge pot of boiling water all over herself, and he clothes are stuck to her and...... The doctors gave her pain killers, and she was still in so much pain and still talking. One of the doctors was so nice and could tell I was ready to start crying (I know stupid but she totally broke my heart). So, he gave me a big jar of a white soft medicine, and he told me to think of it as spreading icing on a cake, and Ms. xyz will be happy,. Then, every time he cut the skin, I spread the icing 😛 he made my life and his life much easier.
Burns are the worst for me.

Jesus. That intense for a volunteer, I wish I got to do that...

 

[indianjatt]

I volunteered at a prestigious hospital and I made a terrible mistake. I decided to choose to volunteer at the Vascular Clinic over doing wheelchair roundup, gift shop, and patient care. What I found out when I got to the Vascular clinic was that it stunk. I simply sat on the floor for 3 straight hours with my back aching pulling out papers from files and then separating it into piles. I basically did this for 50 hours and was so boring. However, I was very happy that I decided to do an additional volunteering opportunity at the hospital for a Cardio Clinic by helping guide patients. THIS WAS THE BEST EXPERIENCE EVER! @

 

[the duck]

I volunteered at a prestigious hospital and I made a terrible mistake. I decided to choose to volunteer at the Vascular Clinic over doing wheelchair roundup, gift shop, and patient care. What I found out when I got to the Vascular clinic was that it stunk. I simply sat on the floor for 3 straight hours with my back aching pulling out papers from files and then separating it into piles. I basically did this for 50 hours and was so boring. However, I was very happy that I decided to do an additional volunteering opportunity at the hospital for a Cardio Clinic by helping guide patients. THIS WAS THE BEST EXPERIENCE EVER! @

You will do lots of stuff in your life that is boring get used to it, and suck it up. Also, if you found volunteering on a cardio clinic for a few hours a week to be the best experience of your life, I feel bad for you...

 

[Shinobiz11]

Wow that must have been crazy.

lol I had to put together admissions packets for about hour, 4 papers + a paperclip 🙂

 

[indianjatt]

You will do lots of stuff in your life that is boring get used to it, and suck it up. Also, if you found volunteering on a cardio clinic for a few hours a week to be the best experience of your life, I feel bad for you...

You do not seem to understand what I meant. It was boring and I pulled through, otherwise I wouldn't have gotten 50 hours, but rather 3. The only reason I left was because summer was over, so don't say I didn't suck it up. Despite it being boring, I enjoyed going into the hospital everyday, seeing doctors and patient smiling. You may have thought the vascular opportunity it was the best experience of my life, but that wasn't my intention. It was the best experience I have had at the hospital. I guess that was ambiguous... my apology. It was a great experience and that to me was what mattered... I got to understand other heart patients sufferings and conditions (I am a patient myself) and was able to be of assistant to others which was nice.

Also, I stated it was a bad mistake to volunteer at the vascular clinic because I wasn't able to get a lot out of my volunteering experience as I wanted. From other friends and relatives who volunteered at the hospital too, they told me that some other volunteering sites would be better. When I initially signed up for the Vascular Clinic I thought I would have gotten more.

 

[BSMD Hopeful]

There really isn't a lot of trauma at the ED I volunteer at. =\
But hey, at least it's at the ED (Where I'm on my feet) and not triage.

 

[Silverman780]

I've been volunteering in the ED almost every week for the past year and I lucked out and am now the designated Psych Pt babysitter. I get everything from the schizoid to the detoxing druggie. My favorite patient of all time was a heroin addict who was tased (Tazed?) and brought in by the police. He spent his time trying to convince me that the cop that was with me in the room was trying to kill him and that I should take the handcuffs/restraints off. He claimed "the cop shot me in the heart, but took out the bullet and "hid" the wound."

Ahhhhhhh I love the crazies