Hi, I’m currently a junior that hopes to go into medicine in the future. I’ve been shadowing? being an intern? volunteering? at a local pediatrician’s office. I’m not sure if I still have to volunteer at a big hospital or this experience is enough to apply for BSMD programs. All the summer programs of local hospitals around my area are full, so I would start at the fall of my senior year. What should I do?
It doesn’t hurt, and it helps the community. If you can afford it, you can go on a service trip to South America to bring medical care to impoverished nations. I say South America because that is cheaper than Asia or Africa or even Europe to fly to. Colleges will love this. If you cannot afford this, check out local hospitals or try to get a job in a PT or Chiropractors office. This might not be your branch of medicine, but at least it’s medicine! SO what I’m trying to say is, as long as you strive for the best you can do, it doesn’t matter whether you volunteered at a hospital or in another continent, if it’s the best you can manage than you have demonstrated equal passion and committment.
The path to get to an MD degree is so long and so difficult that you want to be very sure that you want to do it before you commit to doing it. Volunteering at a hospital is a very good step in the direction of finding out whether this is for you.
Most HS level volunteerings are administrative, not clinical. While it is good to get some brownie points in college application, it cannot be used as an EC while applying medical schools. However, as the other poster stated, it is a place for you to get acquainted with medical profession and make a determination whether medicine is for you. Majority of the kids cannot endure the constant bloody or vomiting environment.
I volunteered at a hospital during my junior year. It helped me get experience in the hospital environment. it doesn’t mean much, but I do recommend it. Also, I made a lot of friends with similar interests in medicine. It also gave me a chance to talk to the doctors working at the hospital which was really nice