In-depth health related volunteer opportunities???

[Guest RXK]

Hello,

 

i'm an undergraduate student in toronto, who has been volunteering at a hospital for several years. my experience at the hospital has been partly paperwork and patient/family interaction and not a lot of clinical exposure. so, i was wondering if anyone could suggest some organizations that allow their volunteers to get more involved. also, i have heard that volunteering with st. john's ambulance is a great opportunity to get some in-depth health related experience. and, if anyone could elaborate on their duties with this organization, that would be very helpful!

 

 

Thanks,

 

RXK

[Guest Kirsteen]

Hi there,

 

Volunteering with Planned Parenthood of Toronto (PPT) can certainly offer you some clinical exposure. I've been a volunteer sexual and reproductive health counselor with PPT at the Bay Centre for Birth Control (affiliated with Sunnybrook & Women's College Hospitals) for over five years. There, we work within a team of doctors and nurses to provide care to women of all ages. We counsel clients (and often their partners too) on birth control options, decision-making surrounding pregnancy, and we also perform pregnancy tests, etc. We chart our observations and interactions just as the nurses and physicians do (and wade through the affiliated paperwork). Overall, it's been an excellent opportunity to not only observe, but also function, within the clinical realm.

 

One caveat: becoming a fully-fledged volunteer counselor can be a relatively lengthy process. When I interviewed they were only conducting selection interviews and training sessions twice per year. I applied about seven months prior to being selected for an interview. Training was around 13 weeks in duration, and at the end of it we began by being involved in observational counseling, and then co-counseling, before we went it on our own. At the end of all this though, was to be found a very satisfying and worthwhile experience.

 

Cheers,

Kirsteen

[Guest DonaldKaufman]

At the Planned Parenthood Metro Clinic (PPMC) in Halifax, you can volunteer as a clinical assistant, which doesn't require nearly as lengthy an orientation period as becoming a full-fledged consellor does, and you still get lots of clinicial exposure. The clinical assistant positions are pretty hard to come by in September though, when all of the students roll back into town and are looking for volunteer opportunities. Our PPMC clinic also has a phone-answering position available to volunteers once they have done the clinical assistant thing for awhile and have gotten a feel for the place. The phone thing might sound dry, but you get a really wide variety of calls. It's a great walk-in, community, primary care experience. I just finished volunteering there this week.

Another caveat: PP stresses that it is a gay and lesbian friendly, pro-choice environment (abortions aren't performed at the clinic, but we do offer referals for them should someone choose to go that route), so if this organizational philosophy conflicts with your moral/ethical leanings, then it might not be a good fit for you. I just thought I'd mention that, since I have a friend who mentioned that they wouldn't want to volunteer there for those reasons.