I’m finishing up an EMT class and will be done in less than a month. Yikes!
Emergency department employees where I volunteer have said that I need to put in an application for a tech position. Most likely, with no experience so far, I’d be over on the less critical side with a nurse practitioner and wouldn’t work with doctors for a while, until I get some experience.
I also have a connection with a county EMS and would be on a 911 service.
Either way, I doubt I’ll be a volunteer with the hospital 
I’m worried about not volunteering in regards to my application. I need to get full time hours at school and with having to work full time, there is no time for volunteer work.
I’ve been at the hospital for a total of six months (3 in ICU and 3 in the ED).
I’d be excited about working at the hospital since I’d be able to build a relationship with some of the doctors (LOR’s as well as for advice) and work more closely with them enabling me to see what it’s like for an emergency physician. I’m not sure I could do the same riding on an ambulance. However, riding on an ambulance could provide great experience as well (ooh da pretty lights 
lol!) as I’m a little more independant and make decisions on patient care.
What to do?
I think you missunderstand volunteering, it’s not to just gain medical experience it’s also giving your time freely to others. You could go into other volunteering areas, but an easy area I know of is Hospice, they are always looking for volunteers, theres inpatient and outpatient( in the Home) settings. But any volunteering will show your commitment to Mankind. Good Luck
I enjoyed volunteering at the hospital since I could freely give time while gaining experience. It was kind of a ‘best bang for your buck’ thing.
I used to volunteer for an organization which had nothing to do with medicine (even before deciding to go to medical school) and enjoyed it (picking potatos, blue berries, distributing them to food shelters, etc), but they do things only four times a year.
My struggle is proving my ‘giving of free time’. There wasn’t any one director, so to speak, and then now, I won’t have much time to give
Seems like you have volunteered, there is no set amount out there, If you are really busy then I wouldn’t worry. 
To echo what whuds said, volunteering is looked for on a med school application because it shows that you care about being involved in your community. Lots of people do medical-type volunteering because they can kill two birds with one stone, as it were - some sort of hands-on medical experience AND given freely. But you absolutely do NOT have to do this. The key is that everybody applying to med school says he or she wants to be a doctor “to help people.” If that is truly a motivating factor in your life you shoulda helped a few people along the way… checking out your volunteer background is a way for schools to see if you mean what you say.
On my application I listed my lengthy experience as a volunteer Leader for La Leche League (breastfeeding mothers’ support group), my involvement in Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts with my kids, church volunteering, and my various team manager positions for my kids’ sports teams. My recollection is that I was asked about my gig as a hockey team manager.
As far as LORs go, please don’t forget that you will need some academic letters. Docs you’re working alongside of in the ER will not be able to provide this. You’ve gotta have someone who can vouch for your academic abilities.
Mary
Perhaps I should better clarify my question…
Which job would provide the best experience and exposure (keeping in mind that I chose to be an EMT to see if I actually like medicine and can handle it):
ER Tech?
911 Service?
Oh sorry I misunderstood, Uh I think IMO EMT 911, ER techs are not very independent where EMTs are in the field dealing with the stress and such. 
Yeah the EMT 911 sounds fairly good to me. 
Hope it all works out. Even though I work for a hospital sytem, it is hard to get clinical experience due to regulations. About all I have gained ‘on the job’ is getting to see a lot of cardiology studies, etc.
Have you enjoyed the EMT training?
There are pros and cons to both. How much “experience” each one will give you is hard to predict, based on what kind of responsibilities those organizations allow you to have.
If you don’t have any hospital experience (sorry - i didn’t read the whole thread and don’t remember what you said about that), then the ED Tech would probably allow you more access to the docs and the ability to interact with them. This might not only provide you access to the ED docs, but also other docs in the hospital that you might want to “shadow”. Since you will be a hospital employee, it will be easier for you to shadow other docs in the hospital because you will have already done all their privacy training and etc. This could be very important in interview land, because when I interviewed they wanted to know that I had talked to/shadowed docs (despite my several years as an EMT) and knew what a doctor’s job/life was like. Its hard to tell what they will let you do as a Tech in a particular hospital. In general, I have seen though, that if they think you have the aptitude and you are enthusiastic about doing anything and everything they ask you to do, they will often teach you more and more things and let you do more and more things. This is especially true in hospitals that are very busy or are short-staffed with nurses.
911 - I would explore that a little further. Is the 911 service you would be working for an ALS (paramedic) service? If so, you may be surprised at how little you actually get to do. EMS varies widely in terms of what EMT-Basics are allowed to do. In some services, EMT’s are only allowed to drive and paramedics do all the care. This is especially true if you work two man crews. If it is a situation where you work three man crews, then your odds of getting to be in the back on calls and learn/help goes up tremendously. If your paramedics like you and trust your skills, you will be amazed at what they will teach you and what you will learn. It varies widely from hospital to hospital how much opportunity you will have to interact with the docs as a street EMT. I’ve worked out of some hospitals where you had lots of time to interact with the docs, and if you didn’t have to leave for another call right away, they would let you watch/help with procedures. Other hospitals, the docs want the EMT’s out of their way as soon as possible and aren’t all that open to you.
911 can be a lot of fun and a great experience. Both 911 and ED tech will offer you great clinical experiences. In terms of applying to medical school, I would probably give the edge to ED tech - because you will be able to gain a much better perspective of what a physician deals with. Its hard to predict the quality of either experience. I know you are short on time, but I would probably go for the ED tech job and see if you can squeeze in a few hours a week or so volunteering or working part-time for an EMS system. That would give you the best of both worlds.
Good luck!