As others have hinted at I would forget the hospital (it looks like they have other things on their mind) and try your local free clinic. I have volunteered at several local free clinic here in San Francisco and my experpience has been fantastic. I would offer that it is a good idea to “sell” yourself to prospective volunteer posts (i.e., treat it like a very serious job). Tell them you are willing to anything (they usually love help filing - there are plenty of pre-meds who want to shadow a doc but few who want to file). You’d be surprised that after about a months of filing once a week they will move you to whatever post you would like. I have gotten so great clinical exposure by volunteering in the community health setting. As an added bonus I have met some the most wonderful altruistic providers in the city and some of the wonderful patients. Good luck.
Man, that sounds kind of crazy to charge people to volunteer… I feel kind of lucky to get the gig I got. I just started at a hospital ER, and the volunteer department was pretty good about getting me in there.
I have only been in there one night, but they didn’t have someone to show me the ropes, which was kind of a bummer. I felt like I was just in there trying to stay out of people’s way.
Sorry to ramble… IMO you should be able to find somewhere without paying 
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Thank you for your suggestions but unfortunately in my neck of the woods there is only one free clinic in the area and it is an hour drive one way for me! I did however go in person last week to the hospital and I am now a volunteer!!! The big “hold-up” was the number of junior volunteers they already have filling up the schedule. Since I was looking for “odd” hours anyways (I am looking for graveyard hours because during the day I am home with my two children) in the emergency room I was able to “sign on”. The Manager of Volunteers said once the fall season comes around and the “juniors” go back to high school then there will be more room for me to rearrange my schedule if I want at that time.
Allright!!!, Good for you, smhamlin4!!! Persistance paid off!
I knew it would work out for you!
Vita
Thank you so much Vita for the support and encouragement. I am excited and trying to keep in control of myself (don’t want to lose my head 
The members of this site are incredible and so supportive I can’t imagine going through this journey without people such as yourself helping me along the way!
I am just starting the frustrating process of trying to volunteer. Lucky for me I live in Chicago, with many many hospitals and etc to choose from… So now I’m trying to decide the best place to volunteer. I really wanted to try Planned Parenthood, but they never got back to me. Neither did several neighborhood hospitals. So my question is: are nursing homes acceptable places to volunteer? Are the duties I’d be responsible for there considered “patient contact” to adcoms? Or should I stick with the more obviously medical places like clinics and hospitals? It seems to me that nursing homes might really need people, and and all hours of the day… I can only volunteer at night.
Any insight into this would be appreciated. i know I need to get started on this ASAP. and the advice to go in person sounds good, but i work M-F 8-5, the times when the offices are open…
One option you might not have thought of:
Americorps which has part time and summer opportunities a search for part time “health” category volunteer positions today brought up 45 options, and almost all offer an “education award” at the end of your service period and some offer stipends as well. It’s a pretty good option.
https://recruit.cns.gov/quicksearchform.asp
What you get out of your volunteer experience - both personally and as a resume enhancement - really depends on what you bring into it. There are a couple of things AdComs are looking for that can be achieved with appropriate volunteer experience. One is exposure to health care - if you haven’t had other HC experience, this is how to get it. It really doesn’t matter exactly WHAT as long as the venue gives you some idea of what working in the health care field is like. A second goal is to establish that you really do “want to help people,” which premeds are (in)famous for saying - it’s a case of "put your money where your mouth is."
Note that your volunteer experience DOES NOT have to achieve both of these things. You may have a health care background - someone switching from nursing to medicine doesn’t need to volunteer in the ER. Or you may have an extensive volunteer background in the community in which case I’d recommend that your health care exposure be achieved via shadowing or other method of working alongside a doctor to see what they do all day.
Back to the question, though - I think nursing home work would be EXTREMELY rewarding both from a volunteer and health care exposure point of view - at least the patient’s perspective on health care. One thing you won’t see is the doctor’s role in nursing home care, unless your timing is just right - and so that’s one thing to consider in terms of your health care exposure.
Hope that helps.
Mary
Its been a few years, but when I went to Med school at Loyola, Oak Park had a biweekly medical clinic for the homeless. The name of the organization was Tri-Village PADS. Med students worked side by side with docs… perhaps your services would be welcome. The homeless shelter itself also sought out non-medical volunteers to help with dinners in the evening and such. It would be a great opportunity to serve, learn, and work side by side with current med students. You’d have the opportunity to pick their brains about the process of getting into med school and be bolstering your CV at the same time.
Also, give Loyola Medical Center a try. It’s reasonably close to downtown and had a multitude of volunteer opportunities available. Maureen Feuchtmann (think I spelled it correctly) was the lady in charge of student ministry at Stritch and might be able to help you with your search for volunteer activities. It would be an advantage to volunteer with an organization that has a medical school as you would become familiar with some of the faces; this would be a plus when applying for med school.
Good luck and let us know how you make out.
Based upon my own experience, I think Pentsuxtube’s advice is good. NGO and non-profit agencies and student-affiliated groups that provide services to underserved populations (minorities, migrants, homeless, working poor) are always looking for volunteers to supplement their workforce. Most have limited budgets and in order to make ends meet rely upon donated time and services of health professionals ans non-professionals. In order to utilize the experience and expertise of professionals, many organizations have hours of operation at times when these professionals are off their day job, i.e. in the evening and on weekends. For many years I volunteered at a homeless clinic that was open only evenings and weekends. The same is true of many ERs.
Do a websearch of “free clinics” in the Chicago area. Or check out this listing of Illinois free clinics: http://www.fcglr.net/directory/Illinois/il-home.htm
And don’t give up. As far as getting “into the door” emphasize your motivation and how through your volunteering you can free up time and resources for other purposes. Let them know what you can do for them, not simply what they can do for you. This strategy has helped me get volunteer gigs positions.