Volunteering

[Apparition]

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How long have you volunteered in a hospital by the time you applied to med school?

 

[jlee9531]

i loved my time volunteering at the childrens hospital. i wouldnt trade that experience for anything.

 

[Apparition]

It's great to have an enjoyable volunteering experience. What did you do there?

 

[scrabbler]

So if I've volunteered for exactly one year (or exactly two years for that matter), what am I supposed to pick?

 

[Apparition]

Originally posted by scrabbler
So if I've volunteered for exactly one year (or exactly two years for that matter), what am I supposed to pick?

If it's exactly 1 year, then pick 6 months - 1 year.
For two years, pick 1-2 years

 

[jlee9531]

Originally posted by Apparition
It's great to have an enjoyable volunteering experience. What did you do there?

worked with the kids one on one, in groups, at the hospital school....

went everywhere...picu, icu, burns, neutropenic, etc...

i did anything that would make em smile, learn or would help em out during times they felt scared or lonely. i lived for those kids. 😍

but yes... it is great to have a great volunteering experience.

 

[ixitixl]

7 years in a combination of ENT and Ortho clinics.

 

[docmemi]

5 years.

 

[CalBeE]

I'm actually surprised that many people volunteered for less than 6 months...but then again, they're probably not applying yet.

 

[twinklz]

Just to comment....

You don't have to do a lot of strictly hospital volunteering work to apply to medical school. I didn't do any. Granted, I did a lot of other volunteer work. At my school, there are so many pre meds who want to volunteer at the hospital that other more worthwhile (sometimes it can be worthwhile, but most of the time its pretty useless) programs suffer due to lack of volunteers.

 

[Tezzie]

Around 1 year for me.

I have 3.5 or even more years of volunteering in other things though.

 

[Amy B]

I think alot of people find better palces than hospitals to volunteer at so that is why your poll shows more people only going 6 months or less.

I was only there 6 months, but volunteered at a free health clinic for 3 years. I got way more clinical experience there.

 

[fullefect1]

I need to start soon. I still have 2 1/2 years left to start though.

 

[Amy B]

Now is the perfect time for you to get started. Look for somewhere you like and stick with it for the next 2 years.

 

[NYGirl12]

Originally posted by fullefect1
I need to start soon. I still have 2 1/2 years left to start though.

me too! im in my second semester of college and i'll start volunteering next week. 🙂 it would be awesome!! 😍

 

[camisho]

I did a lot of health volunteering in high school (great experiences) and stuck with this one place like through my first year of college. Since then, I've been doing non-medical volunteering, (along with a summer of shadowing and working at a health insurance company) but since I am graduating in May, I am thinking about volunteering from now until June when I apply. Is it a big deal that I haven't had much health volunteer work in the past couple of years, and if so would it help that I am doing some now, albeit for only 3 months?

 

[Optimist]

I think number of hours volunteered is a better indicator than time span in years. A person who only volunteered for a year might have gone all out, while a person who volunteered for 3 years might have only done a couple hours a week.

 

[doctorcynical]

I agree Optimist. I volunteered/worked in a hospital for 9 months. 40 hours a week. I have over 1000 hours of clinical experience. Much better than that little premed who delivers flowers or mail for 4 years and doesn't learn jack about medicine.