Volunteering or shadowing?

[SundayT]

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Hi all, so I'm exploring my options right now and am not entirely sure if I want to do a post-bac program yet. I'm currently interning at UCLA's center for community health, volunteering in the ER as well as working full-time in social services. I just started volunteering, but I'm wondering if it would be more beneficial to shadow a doctor instead...for those of you who have done both, what would you say is a better "eye-opening" experience? And if you say volunteering is better, what department would you recommend? I heard the ER is good just because you're able to see anything and everything, but I wanted to get more opinions on this...

I'm really trying to figure things out and decide what direction I want to go in. I've thought about everything from getting a MPH, MSW, MD or even nursing degree, so my next question for all of you is: is there anything I could/should do (e.g. volunteering, take more BCPM classes, etc.) that would make this decision a little easier to make?

 

[Isoprop]

you should do both. shadowing only requires a handful of hours, ~25 hrs. it's not a very long-term commitment. volunteering should be a longer commitment, probably 6 months.

i recommend you rotate, if you can, through the hospital and get a mix of both inpatient and outpatient care (e.g. clinic and icu). the downside is that you sacrifice a great lor from faculty/staff. the upside is that you are exposed to different areas of medicine.

 

[fireflygirl]

I agree with Isoprop. I think you should do both since there are benefits to both. For me, I shadowed a small family practice, so it was easy for me not only to get an LOR but I got exposed to a lot of different insights into the way things worked in a practice, and saw a variety of cases. Since the practice was small, I also got a lot of hands on experience that I might not get in a volunteering job at a large hospital. So perhaps it might be worthwhile to explore the size of the place and the kind of doc that you will be working with to see what kinds of experience you might get.

As for volunteering, I had some ok experiences. Most of the time, I worked for large organizations where there were plenty of volunteers and not enough work to do. Instead, I once worked for a small HIV/AIDS Respite Center and got a lot of hands on experience but only with one type of medical issue rather than the variety that you might get at a hospital.

Another suggestion is to get on board with a physician and help him/her do research. You could do lab work or there are some docs that focus more on clinical medicine and you could help recruit patients. It would be another way for you to stay involved with medicine, shadow your doc in clinics...etc, and get a good experience. That's what I've done for the last 2 years and it's been very worthwhile. Plus some of the big hospitals may have tuitiion reimbursement programs to help you pay for any classes you take on the side.