I know there is no min/max amount of time or strict guidelines for students to follow when deciding how long is sufficient for volunteering/shadowing, but based on your experiences, how long is a "solid" amount of time to be volunteering/shadowing. I was thinking of doing something like 1 year of volunteering and around 3 months of shadowing. What do you guys think of this amount of time?
Volunteering/Shadowing time length
- Thread starter mcattaker
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Its more about the quality of your experience rather than the experience itself. for example, a lot of my volunteering was summer camps, activities spread out throughout college (not 10 hrs a week for 3 yrs etc). As far as shadowing, there are some specialties I spent a day in and had had enough... others, a few full days and a few call weekends, others, months. When I found what I really loved, I stayed there for a while.
Don't tie yourself to a time schedule. Do what you can do, enjoy what you do, and make the most of what you do. It'll get you much further than 500 volunteer hrs and 100 shadowing hours ever will.
Don't tie yourself to a time schedule. Do what you can do, enjoy what you do, and make the most of what you do. It'll get you much further than 500 volunteer hrs and 100 shadowing hours ever will.
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From my observations here on SDN, the average applicant has about 1.5 years of clinical experience (face-to-face interaction with sick people) gained at 3-4 hours per week to give a total of about 150 hours. Some do more hours in chunks of time over breaks, but this is a less desirable way than consistent, dedicated service. Some gain it in the workplace and have thousands of hours. Some gain it while doing clinical research.
Shadowing experience can be much briefer, like 8-40 hours per each of 2-3 types of specialist. Some shadow 5+ specialists. Some follow one for a longer time. A month seems like a lot unless you are completely fascinated with what is going on. The purpose is to show you what you're getting yourself into if you go into medicine. As you are a passive observer, you are not giving anyone but yourself any benefit with this activity.
Keep in mind that community service is needed too. While this is embedded in "clinical volunteerism" it is nice to see some non-medical humanitarian service on your activity list as well.
