<p>Hello I am about to turn 16 and am intersted in all aspects of becoming a physicain. I am most interested in egmergency medicine, but am not too worried about finding a specialty-theres plenty of time for that. </p>
<p>I am wondering would a almost 16 year old like me be able to volunteer and actually SHADOW a doctor, or would I end up working the giftshop, paperwork etc. Is doctor shadowing only allowed for pre-med majors? I would really like to shadow a doctor early on so I can figure out if this is where I want to go with my life.</p>
<p>Another thing would patients privacy right interfer with me shadowing a doctor. My family is friends with an ER doctor and he says you can't shadow ER docs anymore because the patients privacy would then be violated.</p>
<p>I am really looking for answers, and would be greatly apreciated if anyone could answer. Thanks.</p>
<p>Shadowing you can usually set up yourself. Ask your general physician if you can follow them or some of their colleagues.</p>
<p>As for hospital volunteering, that will vary by hospital. I got to choose where I was stationed when volunteering, but other hospitals may assign you.</p>
<p>A connection for shadowing usually helps. Ask friends of family, your family doctor, doctor's at church, alumni from your high school. Inquire at your county medical society.</p>
<p>Some high schools have formal job shadowing programs, so your high school guidance counselor might be of help.</p>
<p>can anyone tell me what kind of job they did when they volunteered at a hospital like was it stuff like serving cafeteria food, cleaning the hospital, doing paper work, or is there any stuff like that some1 in pre-med would enjoy such as shadowing or watch procedures or surgical operations but obviously not perform them</p>
<p>Varies between hospitals of course. My hospital volunteering experience has been disappointing. A lot of paperwork (putting together charts), discharging patients, etc. You can watch surgeries but only from outside the room. I understand that there are liability and confidentiality issues with hospital volunteers so I think that EMT/shadowing are probably better forms of clinical experience.</p>
<p>I didn't shadow a doctor when I did hospital volunteering, but I did get to actually work in the Emergency room, outpatient surgery, and other areas. Most of what we did was helping out the nurses with stocking, cleaning, errands, and those types of things. One year when I worked we had classes for the first hour in the morning where we learned about stuff and also had a day when we could come in the evening and tour a surgery suite and a doctor would talk to us about his or her job.
Even though it can be boring at times, it's still a good experience that you can learn from I believe- I volunteered during the summer in a special volunteer program for teenagers at a local hospital when I was 14 and 15.</p>
<p>No such programs here.. this is all really good information, thanks guys! It has really helped. Any more input would also be greatly appreciated!</p>
<p>In most states, EMTs have to be 18 , and "ride alongs" (with police dept.) you also have to be 18. </p>
<p>As far as hospital volunteering, it will expose you to the hospital enviroment but don't expect to do any hands on patient anything (legal issue). Most volunteers deliver items, take flowers up to patients from the gift shop, they might answer phones if they have been trained. Usually the volunteer dept. works out of the gift shop. </p>
<p>Nevertheless, this is very good exposure for a 16 year old and it will look good on your applications in the future. Don't discredit experiences just because you aren't in the trenches immediately. A dependable 16 year old volunteer who can be counted on to deliver flowers and is outgoing and friendly and willing to do any task, just might get hired when they are a little older for a part time job with that same hospital. </p>
<p>There is a two week camp at Brenau University in Gainesville, GA (about an hour or more outside of Atlanta) called "medical scholars" - it is part of the Firespark program (do a search for Firespark, Brenau). You might find that interesting. Costs just over $1000 though. It's for ages 15-18. </p>
<p>Something else to consider, some tech schools will let 16 year olds take nursing assistant courses even without a GED or diploma. You could get certified and then hired by a nursing home or hospital and you'll get all kinds of hands on experience.</p>
<p>I'm almost 16 too, and I want to become a surgeon. I'm fascinated by every aspect of it...I used to want to be a pediatrician (completely different, but still in medical field), but shadowed one, and realized it's not where I want to be headed.</p>
<p>I'm starting a volunteering position at my local hospital on Monday. They're starting me off in Ortho, then after 3 months, if they like me, they'll put me in my preferred 'floor' which for me is: ICU, ER, or Surgery.</p>
<p>In many ways, hospital volunteering is what you make of it. I'm a nurse and more often than not, I see teenaged volunteers hiding in the lounges watching TV or playing on the computers. I often think how they're cheating themselves out of possible learning experiences. Perhaps they're volunteering due to parental pressure or to rack up required service hours. If you really want to have a learning experience, speak up, get to know the staff and ask questions. Don't be shy. Many of us love to teach, just look for quieter moments, not at change of shift for example.</p>
<p>At the hospital I volunteered at, volunteers were typically assigned to non-medical tasks, such as handing out dinner trays, delivering flowers, or the gift shop. However, they were also very nice about letting you observe procedures if you were assertive about asking.</p>
<p>I'd love to observe a surgical procedure...how do you go about asking someone if you can watch? how long should I have volunteered in order to ask someone?</p>
<p>so, I started my first day on Monday..and so far, okay...They didn't really keep me busy, and told me to just relax (the nurses). I felt guilty just sitting down. I basically filled patients' water glasses, asked them if they needed help when they pressed the "call" button, and then finished my day when a doctor asked me to stuff envelopes (great.)</p>
<p>anybody else have the same experience? does it get better?</p>
<p>i didn't really have an interview for the hospital, but all the interviews I've ever been to (for various things) ask: WHY are you here? WHY do you want to do this? WHAT makes you special from all the other people who want to volunteer here?</p>
<p>from what I've seen, volunteering experiences vary a lot from hospital to hospital. I remember that at this one hospital I volunteered in the ER...and I thought to myself "ER= awesome," but I ended up in ER admitting, which is not the same. I did pretty much nothing. Not even patient contact. I would've loved to even answer patient call buttons and refill water glasses, but no such luck.</p>
<p>I later transferred to the ICU, and during training I learned that the entire task was making coffee and waiting...even the adult volunteer that'd been there for a year didn't do more than that.</p>
<p>As a result of all of this, I've found a hospital that's only a little farther away from me, but looks like it has a volunteer program that realizes that many high school students volunteer to get pre-professional experience, and it looks like they make an effort to help the volunteer learn a little bit about the careers in the department they're assigned to. I haven't started there yet, but it looks promising.</p>
<p>Anyway, my advice from this whole experience of mine is that if you live in an area where you have a choice of hospitals to volunteer at, look around to find the one with the better volunteer program...</p>