Volunteer Help

[girlyMD]

GPA: 3.75
MCAT: not yet taken

My only patient experience is from volunteering at nursing homes. Where I live it is not very possible for me to volunteer at a hospital. It is also impossible to find a doctor willing to let someone shadow them, so I have no shadowing hours. Other volunteer hours are from around my college campus, not necessarily medical related. Are nursing homes an acceptable source of volunteering? And how many hours of volunteering does the average matriculant have?

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[confidentandgood]

Volunteering doesn't have to be at a hospital to count as clinical work. A user on here once said that if you can smell the patients, it's clinical. Nursing home volunteering should be fine. Non-clinical work will strengthen your application, so don't worry about non-medical volunteering. It's good to have a respectable amount of both.

Check the SDN search bar for threads on the average amount of volunteering hours.

Have you checked with your college's health center for shadowing opportunities? Any out-of-town doctors willing to let you shadow? You can space these hours out (e.g. 6 hrs/week) so you don't have to travel too often.

 

[DrMikeP]

GPA: 3.75
MCAT: not yet taken

My only patient experience is from volunteering at nursing homes. Where I live it is not very possible for me to volunteer at a hospital. It is also impossible to find a doctor willing to let someone shadow them, so I have no shadowing hours. Other volunteer hours are from around my college campus, not necessarily medical related. Are nursing homes an acceptable source of volunteering? And how many hours of volunteering does the average matriculant have?

Get a job as a scribe. It will allow observation and get you an excellent LOR. Hospice is always a good place to volunteer.