I realize that there are a lot of opportunities to volunteer, too many for any one person to really be able to know about them all. I wanted to share some of the ways I’m volunteering, and hope others will share ways they do too. I’m hoping it will give anyone who feels lost about where to start with volunteering a few ideas of ways to volunteer even beyond the medical field!
Right now I:
Assistant Coach a youth sports team
Am training to become a Crisis Counselor with the Crisis Text Line (all online, helps with communication skills, so I think it’s an awesome one for premeds)
Volunteer at Hospice to visit patients
Hand sew dressed and blankets, donate them to girls in need and hospitals.
Run a couch to 5k program for fellow service member spouses.
That’s awesome! Here is my list and let me know if anyone has questions about them:
Volunteer tutor at my college teaching the basics sciences
Surgery front desk volunteer at my local hospital (great for patient interaction and comforting them before, bringing them back for surgery and communicating to nurses)
National Science Olympiad coach, exam writer, and event supervisor (coach high school students on this science competition)
Setting up fundraisers at local Chick Fil A to donate care packages to hospice patients at local hospital
Member of AIChE (American Institute of Chemical Engineers) and do a lot of volunteering through their club (teaching high school students about careers in engineering and STEM, promoting chemical engineering at school)
How do you guys go about volunteering at a hospice in terms of who to approach or the places to apply? It sounds like an amazing experience to me and my personal interests.
@3rah From what I’ve heard hospice volunteering is awesome. I would go to your local hospital’s website and look for volunteering opportunities. Usually, they have hospice volunteering available and from there you can just apply or follow the instructions listed on their webpage.
Let me know if you have trouble finding that and I can look into it more for you, if you would like.
I found out about my hospice volunteering opportunity by calling a home health/hospice company. There are a lot throughout the nation, and they usually have a volunteer coordinator or a manager that gets everything set up. I worked in hospice and it is so rewarding, that’s why I came back to volunteer! I volunteer through Encompass, but again, there are tons of companies, just google ones for your area.