I am trying to find a good volunteer opp in NYC. I was wondering if any of you all happened to have any experience with volunteering in NYC, and if so, do you have any suggestions?
thanks!
I am from NYC. You could volunteer at the VA hospitals in any borough. There is a VA hospital located on 23rd street and first avenue in Manhantan. However, you can pick up a New York phone book and turn to the section where all the hospitals are listed. Also, you could google New York hospitals.
T. Adams
It depends on what you want to do.
St. Vincent’s in Manhattan (and possibly the other boroughs as well) has a two year volunteer rotation where you spend about four hours a week in different departments. It sounded excellent, but I never managed to get in.
I’m currently volunteering with the Central Park Medical Unit as an EMT. I wanted something more hands on than your typical volunteer work and it’s really cool. If you’re not an EMT it’s easy enough to find training or there are a few volunteer organizations that train ambulance drivers and dispatchers.
NY Cares (http://www.nycares.org) is great - they supply volunteers to other organizations. It’s mostly not medically related, but there’s a lot of variety, and is great if you have a difficult schedule. I’ve done tons of volunteer work with them.
If you want medical experience, I would just call around to hospitals in your area. When I did this, it seemed like it was a little bit of a pain to get in - lots of wait lists and whatnot, but I’ve heard if you’re willing to volunteer in the sketchier areas, it’s much easier.