Which Specialties Are Volunteer Friendly?

[pasiley]

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I would like to have the opportunity to volunteer with uninsured patients.

I originally thought this limited me to primary care but after looking through some websites of free clinics I see the volunteers come from many different specialties.

Which specialties tend to be most in demand at these clinics?

Thanks

 

[Cinclus]

Emergency departments see quite a few uninsured patients essentially for free. They get billed, but no one ever gets paid. So, emergency medicine.

 

[pasiley]

Emergency departments see quite a few uninsured patients essentially for free. They get billed, but no one ever gets paid. So, emergency medicine.

ok

 

[NickNaylor]

Most PCPs (FP, peds, IM, etc.) will be especially valuable if you're interested in serving in a free clinic type of situation. Specialists are of course capable of doing pro bono work as well, but you might imagine that it's a little easier to see patients for free versus doing, say, a surgical procedure for free. It's possible but difficult unless you own all of the resources necessary to do the procedure OR the entity you work with is amenable to providing free care.

 

[punkedoutriffs]

Thank you

I had originally planned on going into family pratice but after doing more research, it seems funding for clinics where a large percentage of patients are uninsured is going to go down. I am worried I may not be able to get a "job" that helps the uninsured if I go into family practice.

Now I am looking into emergency medicine or possibly OB-GYN as my career path. However, I would like to work with these patients before they need to step foot in an emergency room or before they have the baby.

I think going into OB-GYM should make me eligible to volunteer at these clinics. Is it possible to volunteer in a clinic like that if I go into emergency medicine?

Might that be because the number of uninsured is going to go down due to the ACA? If you want to help people who otherwise would not get care, I think access due to location/physician distribution will be a more pertinent issue to tackle than pure insuredness.

 

[peppy]

You will be able to find jobs working with low-income/disadvantaged people in just about every specialty, if that's something you want to do. I'm in psychiatry, and I would say that low-income/disadvantaged people are the rule, not the exception, in who we help as psychiatrists because many forms of mental illness interfere with someone's ability to stay employed, to have stable relationships (which helps with financial security), and often people with mental illness self-medicate with alcohol or drugs which can blow your bank account fast.
Also worth noting: Sometimes people with Medicaid have a harder time finding decent care than those who have absolutely no insurance.
At least int he area where I live, there is a decent (not great, but decent) safety net for those with no insurance, but medicaid reimburses so poorly that many providers can't afford to see many medicaid patients or simply don't want to.
Pick a specialty you find intellectually interesting, and then if you really want to you'll be able to find a way to apply that to helping unfortunate people.