Volunteering troubles

[ClickityClack]

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Hello,

Not sure if any of you are accustomed to Myers-Briggs tests, but I'm basically an idealist. A strong INFJ. I'm having difficulty finding any sort of medically related volunteering opportunities, as I tend to have problems with administrators.
I'm here for help.

I've tried the local hospital corporation, with disastrous results.
I'm involved in Big Brother/Big Sister, but it's not very medically relevant.
I'm cautious of giving my time to a retirement home, worried that it won't be respected by schools.
EMT certification is useless in this economy.

I haven't yet tried the Red Cross, but I'm worried of how it would be.
Local clinics aren't taking white male volunteers (their words, not mine... patient liability...).
Pre-med advisor is knee-deep in research, too busy for networking.
Health department doesn't need volunteers.
Local HIV clinic only lets you deliver groceries.
No phlebotomy certification.


I don't know what else to do.
I'm relatively new to the health field, and I've been trying to find something MYSELF... but I don't know where else to look.
I've called the city volunteering organization, and all they offer are retirement home opportunities. I've asked doctor upon doctor, admin upon admin... nothing.

I've got shadowing experience, research experience, a decent GPA, no MCAT scores yet, military experience, and some non-clinical volunteering... but where can I find the clinical aspect that schools are looking for?

 

[Chocolate Bear]

Honestly, you don't need some garbage hospital-volunteer-wheel-patients-around-candy-striper-volunteer gig if you already have significant shadowing experience. I'd just shadow some new specialties instead of taking some useless hospital gig. It's well-respected as meaningful clinical experience if you actually get something out of it.

Your BBBS experience will be highly respected, especially if you stick with it for a while and have something to say about it on your apps and in your interviews.

Adcoms really look for well rounded ECs that were longitudinal (it takes a while to make a real difference in an organization, learn from the experience, and have it change you in a meaningful way) and that you were passionate about. Have a real reason to get involved and then be able to talk about *why* you did it and *how* it will affect you as a physician and a caregiver.

Did your grandpa die early from heart disease? Do you feel passionate about the cause? Get involved. Spend some time in it, learn about what can be done and how you'll better care for your patients in that situation in the future.

Does your little brother have type I diabetes, driving you to help raise money for research on the subject? Do exactly that.

It's late, and I'm rambling, but I think you get where I'm going...

 

[ClickityClack]

Well, I'm extremely passionate about veteran's affairs. Homeless, disabled, traumatically stressed, etc.
But, would it be respected by the medical community?
I don't really care, after my latest stint with Moses Cone volunteer services.


Vets have never received enough counseling in response to traumatic stress; the recent bump in counseling services is mostly due to media criticism placing pressure on heads of state and therefore military command. However, it's very, very poor care, and once you're out... it only gets worse.
I'd like to help with that, somehow.
But, there isn't anything to bandage or scrub.
Schools will probably just look right over it, and ask me why I haven't come prepared.

 

[Chocolate Bear]

Well, I'm extremely passionate about veteran's affairs. Homeless, disabled, traumatically stressed, etc.
But, would it be respected by the medical community?
I don't really care, after my latest stint with Moses Cone volunteer services.


Vets have never received enough counseling in response to traumatic stress; the recent bump in counseling services is mostly due to media criticism placing pressure on heads of state and therefore military command. However, it's very, very poor care, and once you're out... it only gets worse.
I'd like to help with that, somehow.
But, there isn't anything to bandage or scrub.
Schools will probably just look right over it, and ask me why I haven't come prepared.

VA stuff is very important. Geriatrics is a very very important part of primary care in this country, and we have a shortage of help and care for this patient population. If you pursue this interest, I guarantee it won't be brushed off by adcoms, especially since it's something you're passionate about. You're sure to get something very meaningful out of it, and I'm positive it will affect your outlook as a future physician.

 

[ClickityClack]

Also,
The pediatrician that I shadow is a sports fanatic. I'm decidedly not.
I've been asking questions, being attentive, friendly, everything except taking notes on immunizations. But, I'm just a pinworm to this guy.


I don't watch football, could care less about golf... but it's all he's interested in.
Questions about procedure or anatomy, things to expect in the career, etc... short answers and frustration.

Since it's very, very difficult to find a DO in my area willing to let me shadow, should I expect an LOR? Or, move on; find another doc, if I'm lucky?
I'm filling out the mentorship page on your signature line, and I've used another of the same to no avail.



Stupid economy.

 

[boothorp]

You seem a bit closed minded. If it's that hard to find a DO in your area (which you seem rather picky) stay with the one you have. You want to become a doctor and need a LOR, maybe watch some sports and build a relationship with the man. What are you going to expect from patients? Are you just going to ignore the small talk? Building relationships and talking builds trust, which is what you want when dealing with... anyone and patients.
On another note, if you can't deal with administrators while volunteering how will you ever survive in a clinical realm?

 

[ClickityClack]

Thanks for your help, Brown Bear.

 

[Exalya]

Another tip... worry less about what someone else might think of your volunteering. Anyone who has a problem with you volunteering for the VA has a screw loose--seriously--and there won't be a lot of those. Some people get in not having volunteered in a hospital at all. It's about whether or not you're willing to give of your time, without any monetary return, to help someone else. So go do that, wherever you're most comfortable.

 

[Mohammed1989]

I say find somewhere you like to volunteer and stay there. Like I volunteer in the ER and build a relationship with the director. He told me one day to attend a ATLS course which only residents and doctors can take. Guess what now I have this lor and a very nice certification under my belt. You'll be surprised how you can get hooked up just stay put.

 

[rocketbooster]

okay, no offense, but you must be the worst searcher ever.

at the VA, you can choose to volunteer in a specific department. the only ppl who are allowed to do nothing but push patients around (which I think you should enjoy to some extent if you want to be a doctor) are high schoolers. You can choose the ER, IM hall, finances, etc. to volunteer where you will do more clerical work. If you are in finances, you probably won't get as much as patient contact. In the ER, though, you will be used to setup appointments and whatnot for patients so you're definitely in direct contact with patients.

you said you've looked to local clinics, did you look at a local FREE clinic for uninsured? they do NOT turn caucasian volunteers. give me a break. if they are telling you that, then it's an excuse they are giving because you are coming in with the wrong attitude. you telling them, "I'm a premed student and need volunteer hours for my resume" is going to make you look like a douche. of course, they are going to turn you away. you should actually WANT to volunteer. it's all in your attitude and how you present yourself.

have you tried looking at hospices to volunteer? they always need volunteers to simply visit and spend time with seniors.

sorry for being harsh, but there are amazing medical volunteer opportunities all around you.

sometimes you have to start off doing things you don't like. that is sometimes required in order to be given the opportunities you love. hang in there.

 

[ClickityClack]

has a screw loose--seriously--and there won't be a lot of those.

Yeah, I worry about that.

Thanks for the insight. Hopefully I'll run into more folks like you at VCOM.

 

[sshashid87]

Why are you so concerned about what adcoms/medical community will think? Volunteering in any manner, as long as you can take something useful away from it, is a good opportunity. Do a volunteer activity that you actually like, and stick with shadowing for clinical experiences if you're so worried about it. My most significant volunteer experience comes from a domestic abuse shelter where I get to play and talk with kids who come from non-ideal situations. It is in no way clinical, but any adcom would have to be a complete idiot to look down upon it. Remember, they were in your shoes at some point, and chances are they had good experiences both clinical and non, and they won't hold it against you for enjoying time spent outside the medical field. There is a feeders program at the VA where you basically serve meals to patients, you could look into that? It allows you to spend time with the patients one-on-one, so if you're good at starting conversations pick something like that. Personally, I choose to push patients around because I like talking to them, and even though sometimes they just need to vent about the terrible healthcare they receive, I don't mind acting as a sounding board. (I don't think it's a garbage job, but that's my opinion) You need to stop worrying about people's perceptions of you, or more specifically the medical community; they aren't a bunch of pretentious...people...if you don't have anything positive to say about hospital/clinical volunteering, then adcoms will see through your fake prepared statements, and nothing good will have come out of it.

As for shadowing your doc, try to keep up with the small talk. Chances are he doesn't want to talk about medicine 24/7, which is fair. People have other hobbies and such, and your patients will have them too, you have to be able to keep a 10 min conversation with people, otherwise everything gets boring (shadowing, volunteering, etc). That's just my advice...suck it up and do what you have to do...it's all a game to get into med school, there's no getting around it, but it certainly doesn't mean you can't enjoy yourself doing it...good luck with everythign...

 

[Exalya]

Yeah, I worry about that.

Worry... about... what? You can't go through medical school being *worried* about every choice you make. Make your own choices. Don't back down from helping someone.

 

[jkmph]

To the OP-

This is strait from the 'adcom's mouth' - Big Brother/ Big Sister and Habitat for Humanity are exactly the kind of volunteer experience they are looking for on an application. It definitely doesn't need to be medically relevant. It needs to demonstrate the type of character you have which those two opportunities [theoretically] demonstrate.

That would be my advice. Crank up the volunteering anywhere you find yourself attracted to, clinical, medical or otherwise.

 

[ClickityClack]

.

 

[Tizoc]

Did the OP actually stop reading after Exalya's comment? Man, he'll regret missing jkmph's. Oh well, you gotta let some people go.

 

[MedStudentWanna]

To the OP-

This is strait from the 'adcom's mouth' - Big Brother/ Big Sister and Habitat for Humanity are exactly the kind of volunteer experience they are looking for on an application. It definitely doesn't need to be medically relevant. .

In a word, you're wrong. Yes, those are good volunteering experiences and would be great if a person has clinical experience already or is a paid EMT or something, but clinical experience is a REQUIREMENT for med school applications. It's an unspoken madatory component to the application process. Please don't pass around false information.

 

[MedStudentWanna]

Hello,

Not sure if any of you are accustomed to Myers-Briggs tests, but I'm basically an idealist. A strong INFJ. I'm having difficulty finding any sort of medically related volunteering opportunities, as I tend to have problems with administrators.
I'm here for help.

I've tried the local hospital corporation, with disastrous results.
I'm involved in Big Brother/Big Sister, but it's not very medically relevant.
I'm cautious of giving my time to a retirement home, worried that it won't be respected by schools.
EMT certification is useless in this economy.

I haven't yet tried the Red Cross, but I'm worried of how it would be.
Local clinics aren't taking white male volunteers (their words, not mine... patient liability...).
Pre-med advisor is knee-deep in research, too busy for networking.
Health department doesn't need volunteers.
Local HIV clinic only lets you deliver groceries.
No phlebotomy certification.


I don't know what else to do.
I'm relatively new to the health field, and I've been trying to find something MYSELF... but I don't know where else to look.
I've called the city volunteering organization, and all they offer are retirement home opportunities. I've asked doctor upon doctor, admin upon admin... nothing.

I've got shadowing experience, research experience, a decent GPA, no MCAT scores yet, military experience, and some non-clinical volunteering... but where can I find the clinical aspect that schools are looking for?

You sound extremely high maintenance. What do you mean you have problems with administrators? You realize that as a med student and resident, you'll be dealing with administrators all the time, right?

Have you tried free clinics? Have you tried children's hospitals? The VA thing is good and no one is going to look past it, but honestly you sound so picky and high maintenance that I wonder how you'll come off talking about it.

 

[Signaq]

BB/BS and Habitat to me sound like great clinical introductions. Are you walking around with a white coat, chart, and thermometer making decisions and calling shots? No, but that's not the only definition of clinical experience. Any opportunity to learn how to talk with people in need, ease their anxieties, find mutual ground, work towards common goals, forge relationships even if brief, work with others on a team, show commitment over time, and giving of yourself without expecting anything back or even getting verbally abused by those you're trying to help...to me that sounds absolutely clinical. If a premed is already considering themselves too precious for ground level volunteer work and turns their nose up at agencies that change lives and society for the better, then....bummer all around.

 

[jkmph]

In a word, you're wrong. Yes, those are good volunteering experiences and would be great if a person has clinical experience already or is a paid EMT or something, but clinical experience is a REQUIREMENT for med school applications. It's an unspoken madatory component to the application process. Please don't pass around false information.

I didn't say you didn't need exposure to healthcare or clinical experience. What I said was that your volunteer time doesn't have to be medically oriented. This is directly from the mouth of an admission committee member from an osteopathic medical school.

I'm neither wrong nor spreading false information.

 

[MedStudentWanna]

I didn't say you didn't need exposure to healthcare or clinical experience. What I said was that your volunteer time doesn't have to be medically oriented. This is directly from the mouth of an admission committee member from an osteopathic medical school.

I'm neither wrong nor spreading false information.

Then you should read the original post again:

I've got shadowing experience, research experience, a decent GPA, no MCAT scores yet, military experience, and some non-clinical volunteering... but where can I find the clinical aspect that schools are looking for?

 

[MedStudentWanna]

BB/BS and Habitat to me sound like great clinical introductions. Are you walking around with a white coat, chart, and thermometer making decisions and calling shots? No, but that's not the only definition of clinical experience. Any opportunity to learn how to talk with people in need, ease their anxieties, find mutual ground, work towards common goals, forge relationships even if brief, work with others on a team, show commitment over time, and giving of yourself without expecting anything back or even getting verbally abused by those you're trying to help...to me that sounds absolutely clinical. If a premed is already considering themselves too precious for ground level volunteer work and turns their nose up at agencies that change lives and society for the better, then....bummer all around.

BB/BS and HFH is in no way clinical experience. By clinical experience, they mean they want you to be around patients. The reason for this is so that you don't go through two years of med school and then get to third year and discover you can't stand to be around sick people. Neither BB/BS nor HFH will help you with that. They're great volunteer opportunities just to have, but they're not clinical.

 

[jkmph]

Then you should read the original post again:

Physician shadowing and non-medical volunteer experiences are more than satisfactory for a medical school application. The OP has taken to playing defense and name-calling rather than actually reading and digesting the content of this thread.

 

[MedStudentWanna]

Physician shadowing and non-medical volunteer experiences are more than satisfactory for a medical school application. The OP has taken to playing defense and name-calling. Clearly he is oblivious.

Based on the wording of his post, I'm guessing his shadowing experience is very minimal. That's not enough for DO schools.

 

[rocketbooster]

Physician shadowing and non-medical volunteer experiences are more than satisfactory for a medical school application. The OP has taken to playing defense and name-calling rather than actually reading and digesting the content of this thread.

why do you try to start fights in every thread? *siiighhh*

physician shadowing and non-medical volunteer experiences is NOT enough for any medical schools. well, maybe carribean schools where all you need is money to attend...

you need clinical volunteering or at least clinical exposure beyond shadowing such as through work.

 

[Styria]

EMT certification is useless in this economy.

Since you're looking for volunteering opportunities, how is the economy relevant to the usefulness of an EMT certification? Aren't there emergency squads or fire departments in your area that take volunteers?

 

[MarieMarie]

Since you're looking for volunteering opportunities, how is the economy relevant to the usefulness of an EMT certification? Aren't there emergency squads or fire departments in your area that take volunteers?

Not to mention that an EMT license is definitely not worthless. You will probably be underpaid and work for some shady private company, but jobs will be there. Same idea with a being a CNA.

 

[BigDolla]

From what I understand, if you have had some significant shadowing experiences, you should be fine. Additional volunteer work does not necessarily have to be relevant to the medical field as long as you have done volunteer work. Schools just want to know you care about the community in general and want to help people other than yourself.