<p>I'm about to start volunteering at a local hospital, and I want to know how I am supposed to keep track of my hours spent at the hospital. Do I keep my own log, or do I need a hospital employee to sign off for me, etc? Thanks!</p>
<p>If you're doing this for a formal high school requirement of service hours, you need (in NY state, anyway) a letter or form signed by someone at the volunteer location. It can be one sentence on their letterhead, but shouldn't just be on a piece of plain paper. State dates and hours, and be sure your name is on the paper, too!</p>
<p>Most courteous is for you to hand the hours on a piece of paper to the person who does these forms, wait at the desk while they turn it around and give you something to walk away with that's official and signed. </p>
<p>It's better to get a letter each day you work than let it all back up and then have it be questioned later, IMHO, but you can ask that question there. Everyone hates paperwork but really I'd feel happier knowing you got a note each time you were there. </p>
<p>Keep the notes in a file at home to hand in to school at the end of the term or whenever they collect them. The hospital might not keep any record at all, so don'[t lose your record. </p>
<p>Most hospitals have Volunteer Offices, which is a good place to ask where h.s. kids go to get these forms issued.</p>
<p>if your school doesn't have a form, create on...and every night when you get home spend two minutes jotting down notes for what you did that day</p>
<p>Also are you sure that summer hours count? My kid's school didn't accept them; it had to be done during the year he took Government, and not in summer.</p>
<p>Volunteering is always worthwhile, so even if it doesn't "count" for school and you want to do it, more power to you!! You'll just add more hours during the school year if that's what's necessary in your district. :)</p>
<p>daughter's school had a form which was to be signed every day when working. total hours was easy to keep and not much effort on the part of the supervisor. All hours, whether summer or during the school year, where part of the total. Many kids only had summer hours for some of their volunteer work. (local acquarium and zoo)</p>
<p>"Volunteering is always worthwhile" but even if it doesn't count for school it could count for a scholarship app later on. Some of the national scholarships from Coca-cola, Best Buy, etc. if I recall correctly ask for how many volunteer hours you have accrued. It's nice to think that 4 years put in helping out somewhere (instead of a job) could actually end up earning you some scholarship $$!</p>
<p>If you are considering qualifying for a Presidential volunteer service award (bronze, silver or gold), or even if you're not sure you will, go to the website and they have a pretty good "track your hours" tool. It's easy to track all your volunteer hours for different activities that way. Here's the URL (don't know if I have made it a link):
<a href="http://www.presidentialserviceawards.gov/%5B/url%5D">http://www.presidentialserviceawards.gov/</a></p>