When do I volunteer

Nontraditional Premed Discussion
1

I will be pursuing to complete my undergrad starting next month. I have about 40 credits already. And will be going in the evenings. I know that volunteering in the medical field is a must while working toward my undergrad. Is that right and what is a good area to look into?


Thanks.

2

What is your passion? What drives you?


When you answer that, look for a volunteer activity to support that desire otherwise, your interest in volunteering to just volunteer for application purposes may not last.

3

I guess what I meant to ask is do you need to work or volunteer in the medical field while doing your undergrad if you plan on attending medical school. My passion is to help people as well as health & nutrition. I want to be a Family doctor or work in the ER. I have volunteered in the past with NY Cares and a few other organizations but I was under the impression that I had to get my feet wet by getting into the medical field to some capacity while going to school.


Thanks

4

What I have read is to shadow some different doctors to see what their daily lives are like, ask questions, etc. That experience is then notated on your application OR answered in an interview.


In my case, I have a plethora of volunteer activities that I’m involved in that do a range of things from service to people, sick kids, and rescue dogs. If I’m asked to explain any shadowing experience, or experience with physicians’ real lives, a personal relationship will more than likely suffice as I lived the physician on-call life, etc. That said, I’m also planning on following a pediatric oncologist around in a few months after I finish my first semester back in school.


Hope that helps from my perspective. I’d encourage you to do a search on the forum for “shadowing” and “volunteer” to see what others have said. It’s all been discussed at quite length.


Welcome, btw!

5

Thanks very much for that. Yeah, I was going to ask what “shadowing” was. I will do the search.

6
  • tiznow0621 Said:
I guess what I meant to ask is do you need to work or volunteer in the medical field while doing your undergrad if you plan on attending medical school. My passion is to help people as well as health & nutrition. I want to be a Family doctor or work in the ER. I have volunteered in the past with NY Cares and a few other organizations but I was under the impression that I had to get my feet wet by getting into the medical field to some capacity while going to school.

Thanks



Volunteering in a medical field is often advocated because you are basically killing two birds with one stone: community service and medical experience. For traditional pre-meds (conventional-age college students), this is a natural experience because they've not usually had extensive or substantive community service in other venues.

But for OPMs who've gotten involved in other community service activities, medical volunteering is NOT required by any means. As I see it, the point of having some sort of experience in a medical venue (whether it's employment, volunteering or shadowing) is so that you know what you are getting into. Whether you're 20 or 50, AdComs want to be assured that you are not applying for a position on House, M.D. or ER - in other words, you have some idea of what the medical system is like, and you've developed some insights on the experience from the vantage point of a prospective provider AND a patient/consumer.

So if you have a good volunteer portfolio, stick with that and search out some other ways to get your necessary medical experience. Good luck!

Mary