What exactly can I do as hospital volunteer?

[NLS]

I'm about to start my second semester in college and want to began volunteering. What types of responsibilities do they give to a second semester freshman pre-med? What types of positions will they offer me?

Thanks for any replies in advance!!!!

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[Malftap]

Depends on what department you work in and what hospital you work in. I always suggest trying to get a spot in the emergency room. This might be hard depending on the number of hospitals in your area in relationship to the number of pre-meds volunteering. My advice is to find people that are volunteering at your local hospitals and see if they are doing a lot. I know when I volunteered in the emergency room I end up doing a lot. The staff was really nice and allowed me to take vital signs on patients and I was allowed to follow the docotrs around into the exam rooms. I even got to the point where I was allowed to follow the cardiac patients to cath labs and watch procedures done on them. They allowed me to do this stuff because I was dedicate to learning. You have to go in wanting to learn the stuff and not go in just wanting something to put on your application. So you can actually end up doing a lot and like I said it all depends upon the hospital.

 

[Deoxynando]

Excellent question. First off, I completely agree with what was mentioned earlier by Malftap: They allowed me to do this stuff because I was dedicate to learning. You have to go in wanting to learn the stuff and not go in just wanting something to put on your application. So you can actually end up doing a lot and like I said it all depends upon the hospital." I only want to add two things: (1) you are not trained or licensed to give any medical or psychiatric help so don't do it, and (2) you are REALLY there to prepare yourself emotionally for medicine by interacting with patients and seeing if you can discover the value in working with them.

To directly answer your question, you should expect to run errands or help patients in a non-medical manner. More specifically, that may mean taking samples to the lab or helping a patient communicate with a family member or friend if visitors are not permitted. In my case, I volunteer at in an emergency department at a county hospital in Oakland, California; county hospitals need help so I greatly encourage you to volunteer there instead of at a private hospital. Moreover, I serve as a Spanish translator and help patients communicate with everyone from the triage desk up to the physician's H&P; knowing another language will make you very popular if the staff needs you to communicate with patients. Lastly, if the emergency room is not your thing, try the cardiology lab. There you can learn about the heart, EKGs, and echocardiography. Good Luck.

 

[alceria]

Well, I got my badge and volunteer jacket today and I'll be starting as soon as I go to the last two orientation meetings and get my health screening done. I got to talk to a couple ER volunteers today and they assured me that I would see a lot. I've heard some people on this board say that volunteers usually don't see anything, so I was excited about that. The hospital I will be volunteering at is a level one trauma center in downtown Detroit, so I expect it to be crazy. Right now they are short on volunteers, so hopefully that will work out as an advantage for me, because I'll get to see more that way. I'm so annoyed that I couldn't get an appointment for the health screening until next week, I want to start tomorrow!

I can't really be much help, since I haven't started volunteering yet, but from the people I've talked to, a lot of time is spent running lab results, x-rays etc. over to the proper person and bringing families to see the patients, talking to the patient's family, and working at the walk-in desk in triage. When there's nothing to do, you can kinda wander around and observe.

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^v^

 

[cshelz]

Hi

I just started to volunteer in the ER. I am to get food ready for the patients, drinks, anything they need but through the nurse. I take lab items to lab, place new sheets on beds, basically anything that needs to be done, that is basic and that would help.

Good Luck and have fun!

Michelle

 

[dfleis]

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[AUDREYHEPBURNFAN]

I volunteer in the emergency department at UCSF and I think your experience depends on how aggressive you can be. I usually have really positive experiences during my shifts and it may be due to the fact that I take it upon myself to follow a resident or an attending around. Sometimes I just randomly start talking to patients when the clinical research stuff is slow. I help enroll patients into the clinical research studies that are being conducted and I often find awesome residents who let me help out even though I am not supposed to. I suppose your volunteer experience is as interesting as you make it out to be. I have found that friendly assertiveness will enhance your volunteer situation. I usually don't go to the cafeteria to pick up food, I don't re-stock the supply carts, and I don't run things to the lab unless the research stuff is extremely slow. The volunteer program I am involved in is more focused on patient interaction and enrolling them into the syncope or laceration studies. Along the way, I have picked up a lot of terminology and met people from different walks of life. I guess the limitations of your volunteer experience really depends on the hospital you choose to work at. Before you decide on volunteering, look into the various departments that may interest you. Good luck! I hope you find something that suits you!

 

[Malftap]

I definetly agree with AUDREYHEPBURNFAN that you have to be a little aggressive to get the most out of the experience. In the ER that I worked, many pre-meds would come in a volunteer for awhile then quit. They figured they were not doing a lot of stuff and it was boring. These people usually came in a sat on their butts and did not express an interest in learning the stuff or was afraid of asking a nurse or doctor for information. During my last few weeks in the ER I kind of ended up training the new volunteers and I told they what they could do but nore importantly to introduce themselves to the staff. This is very important. Also I agree with another poster that hospital work is not the only place where you can get volunteer experience. I had a classmate that worked with a physician in private practice. This guy was give a lot of responsibilities! Though jobs like this are rare and hard to come by you got to be aggressive when searching for opportunities. There are so many people that want to go into medicine and are out there getting experience. You have to be aggressive enough to find good position because if you don't someone else will. Good luck!!

 

[Deoxynando]

Lots of good points have been made. I want to add just a few more since some thoughts have come to mind as I prepare for a new volunteer that will shadow me tomorrow night. 2/3 of the time you will see nothing dramatic as the producers of ER would have you believe. Make sure one of the first things you learn is the location of the lab/central supply/etc so you don't get lost or worse give bad directions and get a patient lost. Get a notebook so you can write down important hospital phone numbers (eg pharmacy) and also notes of things that you have learned/observed (WARNING: the staff will raise Hell if you write down patient names). Last but not least, you are an extra set of eyes so look out for potential disasters, such as someone bleeding or removing their neck brace or threatening another patient. Its always best to get the attention of a staff member than attempt to handle a potential dangerous situation yourself.

 

[Kimya]

If there's a pediatric medical center close to you, you may want to consider that. Here's why- kids and babies like to move around! I was an emergency room volunteer at a children's hospital, and often was called in to help hold/restrain a child or baby for an IV/catheter/laceration. Less errands, and since you're in the room you get a chance to observe more!

 

[TheAce]

David: I think you're wrong. What they are looking for is commitment, not necessarily that you stay in the same position for semesters or years. It's ok to move around to different departments each semester. That's how you will get a taste for all aspects of medicine.