<p>Hi, I was offerred a volunteering position at a local hospital, and they told me to choose what I wanted to do. Unfortunately, they will not let me volunteer in the cardiology department or the ER room. Here is the list of options that I can pick from: </p>
<p>1) Volunteering at the Pharmacy
In this position I would basically be helping the staff by delivering prescriptions and assisting with checking in drug orders. </p>
<p>2) Volunteering at Info desks with patient contact
In this position I will be working at the info desk, surgical waiting room, the mail room, or the ER desk. I will be helping the staff with paperwork (...sounds like stapling papers :( ). In the surgical waiting room I will be talking to the family of the patient.</p>
<p>3) Book volunteer
In this position I will be walking around the hospital giving patients magazines and books to read. Also, I will have to organize the magazines. </p>
<p>Which one of the above do you think would be the "best" position? I'm most interested in the pharamcy position but I don't know if it would still count as being in the "hospital atmosphere" as I am not having direct contact with patients. On the other hand, I don't really like the book volunteering thing because it sounds too much like I'm volunteering at the library haha. Lastly, the info desk thing sounds like I'll be the receptionist.</p>
<p>All advice is appreciated. Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>p.s.
Perhaps it would help if I stated that I am still in high school. Thanks.</p>
<p>I think the book volunteer thing is pretty neat provided you don’t actually just walk around giving patients stuff to read. When you pop into a room, say hello, ask how the patient is doing, and strike up a conversation. In my first year of med school, we had a course where that’s all we did. We would go see random patients and talk about their illness (illness, not disease; no science involved) and how they cope, impact on their family, etc. Your experience in the hospital is what you make of it. You can grit through 120 hours of volunteering, which is what most HSers and premeds do, or you can spend those 120 hours actually talking to the patients. You guys do want to be doctors, right? I think that’s what doctors do.</p>
<p>Here is the full job description for the book volunteer thing:</p>
<p>1) Distribute old magazines and all religious material to patients via library cart
2) Organize magazines in designated storage areas
3) Distribute new magazines throughout the hospital waiting areas</p>
<p>Could you please tell me why you disliked the idea of volunteering in the pharmacy?</p>
<p>Also, norcalguy, since you have a lot of volunteering experience, what department do you think would be most beneficial to a high schooler?</p>
<p>Because it has nothing to do with being a physician. I don’t understand why so many of you guys think being an EMT or phlebotomist or CNA or medical assistant would be impressive to adcoms. Outside of the fact these people may work in hospitals, there are fundamental differences between the roles of these healthcare professionals and physicians. “Delivering prescriptions” and “checking in drug orders” sounds like b*tchwork.</p>
<p>Fourth years at my med school actually conduct interviews and evaluate prospective med school applicants. I’m a fourth-year med student. If I’m interviewing someone and the only thing he can say is that he worked as a secretary in a pharmacy, I would think that he wasted his time. If, on the other hand, he can tell me a couple of cool stories of patients he met (whether they’re sad or inspirational stories), I’d be far more impressed, if for no other reason than the fact he didn’t treat patients like they’re toxic waste. He actually took the time to talk to the patients, which they ALWAYS appreciate whether it’s a med student, doctor, nurse, or even just a premed. Stories are really the backbone of your personal statement/essays or whatever they make you write nowadays as well.</p>
<p>Thanks for the great advice norcalguy. I no longer see this book job as me replacing the local librarian. Perhaps I can learn something meaningful from this. I"ll give it a try, and I"ll tell you know how it goes.</p>
<p>Whatever you choose, make the most of it. I think a lot of Hsers are expecting substantial hospital jobs. That’s just not going to happen. No one is going to trust a high school student with anything important. So, you’re going to get stuck wheeling around patients, or delivering cards and flowers, or working in the pharmacy. It’s up to you to get the most out of the experience.</p>
<p>I am with Norcal in terms of patient interaction. The pharm is a good responsibility, but an adult friend has a similar (paid) job as a pharm asst and describes it as grunt work. In contrast, as a hs kid, anything where you get to interface with patients is more impressive. It takes a bit more courage. Btw, on the courage and commitment side, EMT does impress me. It’s not easy, even for an adult. It is an adult-level responsibility, with training and certification usually required. I don’t do med sch admissions, but do review for UG.</p>
<p>A bunch of people get their EMT certifications and never get an actual EMT gig. Useless. Some people get their EMT certifications and then work on their college’s EMT crew, eating donuts half the time and servicing drunk college kids half the time. A few lucky ones actually get an outside EMT job but all they do is drive the ambulance around. Adcoms really aren’t stupid. We’ve been through it all. We’ve experienced it all ourselves. </p>
<p>EMT isn’t horrible but I personally don’t think it’s worth the commitment if you’re just going to do a few hours of clinical experience for med school purposes. If you truly enjoy the work, want to get to EMT-I or paramedic level, then have at it.</p>
<p>I’m personally more impressed with someone who is insightful about the medical profession than a story about how they were able to intubate someone in under 30 seconds. Unless you become a EM physician or anesthesiologist, you may very well go through med school and residency without doing a single intubation or putting someone in a neck brace. If you can ride a bike backwards standing on your head. That’s pretty impressive. But, it’s ultimately not related to being a physician. And, in the end, it’s just a cool footnote.</p>
<p>I assume we’re talking about in context of BS/MD programs (since this is the BS/MD board) and not just for college admissions. I would evaluate a BS/MD prospective student the same way I evaluate a med school applicant since a med school spot in on the line.</p>
<p>I deleted my msg until I could confirm- OP is a rising junior in hs. At the school whereI review, BS/MD starts in U admissions. From our different roles in the process, we have different perspectives.</p>
<p>I think number 2 is the best. This will give you a chance to feel the pain, the joy that the patients and family members may have. The paper work may give you useful statistics about the kinds of patients admitted to the hospital, the patients’ background, the costs,…</p>
<p>^At the info desk, mail room, or waiting room?</p>
<p>The reason I suggest #3 was because I’m assuming he was talking about the inpatients. Generally, they just sit there all day and are quite receptive to people talking to them.</p>
<p>The info desk is a good place to help patients and family members. Imagine a mother bringing a sick child to the hospital and does not know where is the radiology department, how to get back to the parking lot,… Your help will ease a lot of anxiety. The mail room carries a lot of emotion (if mails are for patients), or information about hospital business (who does the hospital communicate with). If you don’t feel the worry of people in the waiting room then your volunteering time does not have a lot of meaning.</p>
<p>Thank you all for the insight. It really has helped me make my decision. Yes, I am a rising junior in high school, and I will be applying to BS/MD programs in the future so I hope to use this volunteer experience in the interviews (…provided I get an interview LOL).</p>
<p>Also, I just realized that the hospital I will be volunteering at is an osteopathic hospital. Does this change anything? I really don’t understand the difference between osteopathic and allopathic hospitals. Can anyone shed some light on how this will impact my volunteer experience? (Or if it even makes a difference?). Thanks.</p>
<p>Won’t make a difference. DO’s and MD’s practice medicine the same way (fewer than 5% of DO’s use OMM in their daily practice). Again, the main point of volunteer experience is for you to get patient interactions. That really has nothing to do with osteopathic vs. allopathic.</p>