Why is Volunteering In A Hospital Beneficial?

[Narmerguy]

Obviously each experience will be different, but IMO shadowing provides a much more realistic and interesting look at what being a physician is like. In contrast, working as a general hospital volunteer doesn't provide that experience, at least based on my hospital experiences. You may not have to deal with patients directly, but you do get to see how patients interact with physicians, which can often be just as valuable.

(sent from my phone)

Perhaps but this is not the only thing one will hopefully glean from volunteering or from shadowing. Seeing a day (or days) in the life of a physician is not the singular goal--a well directed video could accomplish this. There's much to see in the hospital, and volunteering provides a unique experience to do so. I think this is a good plus for applicants taking part in both shadowing and volunteering.

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[tiedyeddog]

Obviously each experience will be different, but IMO shadowing provides a much more realistic and interesting look at what being a physician is like. In contrast, working as a general hospital volunteer doesn't provide that experience, at least based on my hospital experiences. You may not have to deal with patients directly, but you do get to see how patients interact with physicians, which can often be just as valuable.

(sent from my phone)

I think both are pretty terrible views of what a physician's life is like.

 

[tiedyeddog]

Perhaps but this is not the only thing one will hopefully glean from volunteering or from shadowing. Seeing a day (or days) in the life of a physician is not the singular goal--a well directed video could accomplish this. There's much to see in the hospital, and volunteering provides a unique experience to do so. I think this is a good plus for applicants taking part in both shadowing and volunteering.

Agreed. Again, I think volunteering is more about showing you enjoy and can work with patients. Watching an attending do it is not the same as doing it yourself, or else we would all skip residency and be superstars after M3+4.

 

[deleted393595]

Learning people skills, and experiencing the hospital environment.

 

[Bookish]

Hmmm. I don't know why my volunteering experience has been so different from what I normally read on SDN. Maybe its because my hospital only has like 3 volunteers (including me) in the ER, but I really love it, and I feel like I'm learning a lot from it. Even if I have to do some menial tasks like restocking blankets and pillows and making coffee, I get decent time with patients. Most of the nurses and techs at least say thanks once in a while and I've made pretty good friends with some of them. I've been able to observe some pretty cool stuff, and while it can be boring, you just have to realize you aren't there to have fun and it's not the ER's purpose to teach you. You have to have the initiative to learn on your own. You can mope about having to do grunt work or you can appreciate the opportunity. While my goal as a volunteer is to gain clinical exposure and new thoughts about medicine, the nurses just need someone to help out, so I am happy to do so. That being said, I love volunteering and it's been very beneficial to me. Maybe it's just my hospital.

 

[A7X]

Some people consider volunteering another hoop to jump through for Med Schools.
Some people love it, others don't see the point.

 

[ribbondino]

I love reading the different points of view on this. I think that I will use my summer to volunteer and shadow. I really want to try to squeeze it in now but I am taking six classes and I spend all of my time studying...

What is it like to volunteer in a nursing home? Has anyone had much experience with that? It seems like you'd get a ton of patient contact there, and they would come from all kinds of different experiences and walks of life.

 

[UoCfin]

Obviously each experience will be different, but IMO shadowing provides a much more realistic and interesting look at what being a physician is like. In contrast, working as a general hospital volunteer doesn't provide that experience, at least based on my hospital experiences. You may not have to deal with patients directly, but you do get to see how patients interact with physicians, which can often be just as valuable.

(sent from my phone)

Hey Nick,,,hope you can answer this for me:
As a nontrad, working full time and doing pre-reqs, at the end of it all i can't find enough time to do volunteering. I had started it not long ago and accomplished about 10hours then my schedule changed. As a UoC guy, how do you find it if i end up not getting any volunteering hours in (short to say any shadowing)? Can i just represent myself as a hardworker (been working since i was 16---pushing to survive)? How does the AdCom (at UoC) grade someone with out any volunteering or too little there of? Thanks Nick or anyone.

 

[NickNaylor]

Hey Nick,,,hope you can answer this for me:
As a nontrad, working full time and doing pre-reqs, at the end of it all i can't find enough time to do volunteering. I had started it not long ago and accomplished about 10hours then my schedule changed. As a UoC guy, how do you find it if i end up not getting any volunteering hours in (short to say any shadowing)? Can i just represent myself as a hardworker (been working since i was 16---pushing to survive)? How does the AdCom (at UoC) grade someone with out any volunteering or too little there of? Thanks Nick or anyone.

IMO, clinical volunteering in and of itself is not important. Ultimately, your application should demonstrate a few important things (this list probably doesn't include everything, but it hits the high points):

1) You have a genuine interest in medicine
2) You have some idea of what a medical career entails
3) You care about people, and you have some appreciation for the importance of service
4) You have an interest in science
5) You are capable of working well with others, especially in a group environment
6) You have the ability to serve as a leader

Clinical volunteering is nice because it covers #1-3, so you get multiple benefits from one activity. However, if you can't do clinical volunteering, find another way to demonstrate an interest in service that fits with your schedule.

That's my own personal opinion, so that may or may not be the view of adcoms.

 

[ribbondino]

IMO, clinical volunteering in and of itself is not important. Ultimately, your application should demonstrate a few important things (this list probably doesn't include everything, but it hits the high points):

1) You have a genuine interest in medicine
2) You have some idea of what a medical career entails
3) You care about people, and you have some appreciation for the importance of service
4) You have an interest in science
5) You are capable of working well with others, especially in a group environment
6) You have the ability to serve as a leader

Clinical volunteering is nice because it covers #1-3, so you get multiple benefits from one activity. However, if you can't do clinical volunteering, find another way to demonstrate an interest in service that fits with your schedule.

That's my own personal opinion, so that may or may not be the view of adcoms.

I really like your opinion on this. I have a friend that thinks it would be "cool" to go to med school because she wants to be rich. I was like "....." She doesn't like hospitals and wants to open her own office, and she refuses to volunteer. Lol.........

 

[farnk20]

Hmmm. I don't know why my volunteering experience has been so different from what I normally read on SDN. Maybe its because my hospital only has like 3 volunteers (including me) in the ER, but I really love it, and I feel like I'm learning a lot from it. Even if I have to do some menial tasks like restocking blankets and pillows and making coffee, I get decent time with patients. Most of the nurses and techs at least say thanks once in a while and I've made pretty good friends with some of them. I've been able to observe some pretty cool stuff, and while it can be boring, you just have to realize you aren't there to have fun and it's not the ER's purpose to teach you. You have to have the initiative to learn on your own. You can mope about having to do grunt work or you can appreciate the opportunity. While my goal as a volunteer is to gain clinical exposure and new thoughts about medicine, the nurses just need someone to help out, so I am happy to do so. That being said, I love volunteering and it's been very beneficial to me. Maybe it's just my hospital.

This. I think volunteering is largely what you put into it. I also make a lot of beds and go on a fair few coffee runs, but I'm pretty good friends with most of the nurses on my floor now and I get to sit in on procedures and see a lot of stuff that way. Maybe this is just unique to ER volunteers, but I find that there's always some way to be at least a little helpful, and considering that I've got no medical training, flipping rooms and cleaning up trash is pretty much the best I can do. That being said, I'm happy to do it.

 

[NickNaylor]

I really like your opinion on this. I have a friend that thinks it would be "cool" to go to med school because she wants to be rich. I was like "....." She doesn't like hospitals and wants to open her own office, and she refuses to volunteer. Lol.........

That's just idiotic. Medicine is just about the worst way to get "rich" there is. If you're smart enough and dedicated enough to get into ANY medical school, you can make money with much less effort in much less time.

 

[Planes2Doc]

Hey Nick,,,hope you can answer this for me:
As a nontrad, working full time and doing pre-reqs, at the end of it all i can't find enough time to do volunteering. I had started it not long ago and accomplished about 10hours then my schedule changed. As a UoC guy, how do you find it if i end up not getting any volunteering hours in (short to say any shadowing)? Can i just represent myself as a hardworker (been working since i was 16---pushing to survive)? How does the AdCom (at UoC) grade someone with out any volunteering or too little there of? Thanks Nick or anyone.

I was in a similar position as you. I was a non-traditional student. I only started volunteering when I began my post-bacc. Therefore, my volunteer experience was considered below-average to average according to SDN standards. This did not give me any trouble.

I have seen in the non-traditional forum where some applicants with good stats want to take an ADDITIONAL year off to build up their EC's, I think for most part, non-traditional students get a pass of some sort. Yes, you still need to do SOME volunteering. But it can be at a minimum. I highly doubt you will be penalized for a lack of volunteering during undergrad or anything else. Plus all the work you do would count as an activity.

Don't feel bad about lacking these activities compared to a TRADITIONAL student, you came from a different path.

 

[ribbondino]

That's just idiotic. Medicine is just about the worst way to get "rich" there is. If you're smart enough and dedicated enough to get into ANY medical school, you can make money with much less effort in much less time.

Yeah... I don't know the most about any of this, but I know that isn't the way to go with it haha. I feel like way too many people try to become doctors for the money and social status. A doctor/mentor of mine once told me that there isn't enough money in the world to do what doctors do everyday.The hours are long and harsh and medical school is a bitch, so if you don't have a deep passion for medicine and people you are going to end up either dropping out of med school or being miserable for the rest of your life.

 

[Planes2Doc]

That's just idiotic. Medicine is just about the worst way to get "rich" there is. If you're smart enough and dedicated enough to get into ANY medical school, you can make money with much less effort in much less time.

This is way easier said than done. I graduated from a top 20 university, and was working for less than $50k up until I did my post-bacc. Investment banking jobs were nearly impossible to land, and other high-paying business fields like private equity are also nearly impossible to get into unless you were already doing investment banking.

In theory, the sky is the limit with entrepreneurship. But you can give it 120%, and still fail and lose money. Sometimes people who argue "medicine and money" make it sound like it's very easy to just make bank in business. Had I stayed in business, I probably could have realistically been making around $100k maybe 20 years from now as a senior analyst, and that's hardly what a physician will make.

 

[NickNaylor]

This is way easier said than done. I graduated from a top 20 university, and was working for less than $50k up until I did my post-bacc. Investment banking jobs were nearly impossible to land, and other high-paying business fields like private equity are also nearly impossible to get into unless you were already doing investment banking.

In theory, the sky is the limit with entrepreneurship. But you can give it 120%, and still fail and lose money. Sometimes people who argue "medicine and money" make it sound like it's very easy to just make bank in business. Had I stayed in business, I probably could have realistically been making around $100k maybe 20 years from now as a senior analyst, and that's hardly what a physician will make.

Of course - I didn't mean to imply that business and the like are guaranteed high incomes. Medicine grants you a solid upper middle class, essentially guaranteed income at substantial cost. Contrast that with other things that require significantly less monetary and time costs devoted to JUST training. The average salary will be lower, but as you say, the sky is the limit. Depending upon one's costs to become a physician, though, even an average salary could very well put you on par with what your net worth would be if you became a physician.

In general medicine will put people greatly ahead financially, but it's not going to make you super rich by any means (said with the understanding that "super rich" is relative).

(sent from my phone)

 

[UoCfin]

Thanks so much Nick...UoC here we come

 

[UoCfin]

thanks: planes2Doc...by the way...do you fly?...got your ratings? i work with united airlines...go figure

 

[Smiles91]

So

This post is good. As of this weekend I am going to apply to volunteer at the hospital or at a hospice. In my town it is really hard to shadow doctors. They really dont want to allow people to follow them. I guess that could get to be a bit annoying lol

 

[ribbondino]

So

This post is good. As of this weekend I am going to apply to volunteer at the hospital or at a hospice. In my town it is really hard to shadow doctors. They really dont want to allow people to follow them. I guess that could get to be a bit annoying lol

I understand that it could be annoying or distracting, but I really hate when people act like that. Once they were in your position, wishing they could shadow someone too...

 

[Smiles91]

I understand that it could be annoying or distracting, but I really hate when people act like that. Once they were in your position, wishing they could shadow someone too...

EXACTLY! I totally agree! I dont understand why they act like that! Hopefully when I get to that point in my life, I wont be too jaded or too busy to help an upcoming student/person out.

 

[ribbondino]

EXACTLY! I totally agree! I dont understand why they act like that! Hopefully when I get to that point in my life, I wont be too jaded or too busy to help an upcoming student/person out.

Yeah.. me too! It's easy to forget. It's just like how seniors pick on freshmen. If people stopped for a few minutes to put themselves back into the other person's shoes I think things would be a lot different.

 

[Anathema]

Trying to get back on topic, why is there a stigma between seeing patients checking in and greeting them versus those that are deathly sick? I've seen it here a couple times and in real life where people discount experiences based around healthy people. Patients are patients right? I always found that as an annoying compliment to this whole volunteering fiasco.

 

[Planes2Doc]

Trying to get back on topic, why is there a stigma between seeing patients checking in and greeting them versus those that are deathly sick? I've seen it here a couple times and in real life where people discount experiences based around healthy people. Patients are patients right? I always found that as an annoying compliment to this whole volunteering fiasco.

Because only pre-meds will say: "My volunteering at X was clearly superior to your volunteering at Y." I knew a guy at work who volunteered extensively and was not pre-med. I thought it would sound absolutely ridiculous if I came up to him, and said that my volunteer activities were "superior" to his because mine were at a hospital with sick people, while he did things like Meals on Wheels and what not. No sane person outside of medical school admissions would ever discount any experience that someone has. While with medical school admissions, this happens all the time.

 

[ribbondino]

Because only pre-meds will say: "My volunteering at X was clearly superior to your volunteering at Y." I knew a guy at work who volunteered extensively and was not pre-med. I thought it would sound absolutely ridiculous if I came up to him, and said that my volunteer activities were "superior" to his because mine were at a hospital with sick people, while he did things like Meals on Wheels and what not. No sane person outside of medical school admissions would ever discount any experience that someone has. While with medical school admissions, this happens all the time.

That makes so much sense. I think people have this idea that helping dying people is weighted more heavily than helping healthy people. I think the point of volunteering is to get a feel for day to day activities and show you that medicine is not glamorous or even necessarily exciting. Depending on the experience you get I think that having to volunteer for 200 hours definitely weeds some people out of the system that were in it for the wrong reasons. I don't see why. Volunteering should be about making life easier for everyone, not a big contest. I hope I don't end up like one of those people who literally stand around counting the hours to when they can quit so their "experience" will end up looking good. When was the last time you saw your doctor bragging that he took care of sicker people than another doctor? >.<

 

[Planes2Doc]

That makes so much sense. I think people have this idea that helping dying people is weighted more heavily than helping healthy people. I think the point of volunteering is to get a feel for day to day activities and show you that medicine is not glamorous or even necessarily exciting. Depending on the experience you get I think that having to volunteer for 200 hours definitely weeds some people out of the system that were in it for the wrong reasons. I don't see why. Volunteering should be about making life easier for everyone, not a big contest. I hope I don't end up like one of those people who literally stand around counting the hours to when they can quit so their "experience" will end up looking good. When was the last time you saw your doctor bragging that he took care of sicker people than another doctor?>.<

You bring up a very interesting point with the last statement. I have never heard anything like this before. Go take a look into the Allopathic forum. You'll see that the the perspectives of posters takes a dramatic shift from the "bleeding heart pre-med" to a more "realistic" perspective (or just talk to people in your class when you are actually in medical school). The pre-meds are all about their strong desire to help the community, while many medical students are already concerned about money and lifestyle, and do not hesitate to share how much they hated jumping through the pre-med hoops.

The true meaning of volunteering is supposed to be selfless service. It's a wonderful thing to want to help others without expecting anything in return. Pre-meds volunteering is the complete opposite.

How do I gauge someone's actual desire to volunteer? If they have already been taking part in long-term commitment (weekly, not a once-in-a-while activity) before ever becoming pre-med. It's that simple.

How do I gauge someone's actual altruism based on pre-med volunteering? I don't think that volunteering has anything to do with your character. You can be a horrible person yet still volunteer weekly. Or you can be a nice person who helps your family, friends, and strangers, and not take part in any volunteering activities. Providing free labor says nothing about you as a person.

And to hit your last point... Will watching the hours until you can quit volunteering make you a bad doctor or anything of the sort? Not at all. In terms of hospital volunteering, which is the subject of this thread, you are typically providing free labor to a hospital system by doing scut work. You don't have to love it, and you are not a terrible person if you don't like it. I don't think it's right to gauge someone's personality based on whether they volunteer or not. The whole point of "volunteering" is that you are doing it because you want to. If you are doing the things that are important to you (which is what SDN members always say) and it doesn't include volunteering, then it's fine and should not be frowned upon.

 

[Smiles91]

Because only pre-meds will say: "My volunteering at X was clearly superior to your volunteering at Y." I knew a guy at work who volunteered extensively and was not pre-med. I thought it would sound absolutely ridiculous if I came up to him, and said that my volunteer activities were "superior" to his because mine were at a hospital with sick people, while he did things like Meals on Wheels and what not. No sane person outside of medical school admissions would ever discount any experience that someone has. While with medical school admissions, this happens all the time.

That makes so much sense.I think people have this idea that helping dying people is weighted more heavily than helping healthy people. I think the point of volunteering is to get a feel for day to day activities and show you that medicine is not glamorous or even necessarily exciting. Depending on the experience you get I think that having to volunteer for 200 hours definitely weeds some people out of the system that were in it for the wrong reasons. I don't see why. Volunteering should be about making life easier for everyone, not a big contest. I hope I don't end up like one of those people who literally stand around counting the hours to when they can quit so their "experience" will end up looking good. When was the last time you saw your doctor bragging that he took care of sicker people than another doctor? >.<

Volunteering and helping people should not be based on whether the person was sick or healthy. If you are helping people and doing for the overall good of people, then that shows your true character. I have volunteered at many places and actually did not like it but I enjoy helping people. I think that it sucks to hear people say that the way they volunteered is better than someone else's. It shouldn't be like that. Totally agree with you guys!

 

[ribbondino]

Volunteering and helping people should not be based on whether the person was sick or healthy. If you are helping people and doing for the overall good of people, then that shows your true character. I have volunteered at many places and actually did not like it but I enjoy helping people. I think that it sucks to hear people say that the way they volunteered is better than someone else's. It shouldn't be like that. Totally agree with you guys!

Totally true! I can't think of anyone that would enjoy making beds or bringing blankets to different rooms for an entire day, but it really shouldn't be about what "you" want. The little things that volunteers do really make things more cozy and efficient.