Importance of hospital experience in applying to med school?

[Guest paperweight]

Hey,

 

Does it hurt me to not have ANY experience volunteering in a hospital environment when I apply to medical school?

 

I have a variety of ongoing activities that I love, from running social justice events to coaching youth sports to motivational speaking for youth. However, I'm concerned that medical schools will question why I never attempted to volunteer in a hopsital environment as I aspire to work at a hopsital someday.

 

I have actually been shadowing a surgeon at a hospital this past year, and absolutely love the hospital environment. BUT, from the opportunities I hear available at local hospitals (working at a desk, filing, answering phone calls, stocking shelves), they are not appealing to me whatsoever, and I find that I am learning much more about the healthcare environment simply by observing and learning from the surgeon I shadow.

 

With this in mind..... does it really matter if I have no experience volunteering in a hospital? Any success stories of applicants who never volunteered at a hospital in their life?

 

Thanks in advance.

[Guest peachy]

I have actually been shadowing a surgeon at a hospital this past year, and absolutely love the hospital environment.

That's plenty. Relax, it's fine.

[Guest scrubbed]

Hello,

 

This recent thread has some good thoughts in the issue and in particular this post.

 

Quote:

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IMHO I don`t think medical schools are looking for specific "healthcare" volunteer experience. They probably are more looking for community involvement, what interests you, and also just that you have experience interacting with various kinds of people.

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Yeah. People who think they need "healthcare volunteer experience" are conflating two requirements of the admissions process: first, the ability to show that you have thoroughly thought through what it means to be a physician, and have some experiences that show you what that involves, and second, showing that you have some interest in being involved in and in contributing to your community.

 

It sounds like you have some good experience with community involvement and some releveant health care experience that would probably give you a good take on the life of a physician more than the hospital volunteering experiences.

 

Mnay people have gotten in without hospital volunteering experience.

 

Best wishes with your application.

[Guest HP]

Ditto Peachy, you're set as long as you have some kind of exposure to a medical/health environment.

 

EDIT (again): Lurker is right, it's not like your application will be shredded if you don't have any experience with the field, it's just that nobody on an adcom can possibly see it as a deficit/weakness if you have something.

[Guest Lurkergonepublic]

Personally I think the shadowing experience is much more medically relevant than most volunteer positions. People like hospital+volunteer cuz it kills two stones (med experience+community service), but if you have both separately that's no problem. And despite the rumours people can get in without medical experience too.

[Guest leviathan]

There are lots of volunteer positions in the hospital where you can actually help patients out...look around if you're interested.

 

That said, you don't need any healthcare experience if you don't want. You do need to prove that you can make an informed decision that medicine is the right career for you; however, lots of hospital volunteer positions won't even allow you to do that.

[Guest Maelswarm]

I didn't have any hospital volunteering experience, and virtually no volunteering experience either.

 

It doesn't matter as long as you make it up in other areas.

[Guest no wai]

Same here... I've never did any hospital volunteering nor had any clinical exposure through any other means and I was accepted as a 3rd year applicant.

 

For sure the volunteering would have helped but it's by no means necessary.

[Guest rubberoduck]

the point of hospital volunteering is not to fit a certain premedstudent profile. The point is to get a feeling of the work environment so you can express your interest more sincerely and with evidence to support your passion in medicine. In addition by volunteering your time, you demonstrate altruism and a dedication toward your community - an important characteristic for a future physician. This is not to say that you can't get in without hospital volunteering; you can specialize in the clinical research rather than patient interaction.

 

Having outlined the goal of doing hospital volunteering, namely, exposure and altruism, I suggest that you choose your hospital volunteering work carefully. Many hospitals make their volunteers do menial work like filing, which I find distasteful and disrespectful to our intellectual capacity, not to mention dousing whatever passion and interest we have for the profession.

 

In conclusion, the choice to volunteer is yours. Manage your time, if you have the extra time, then volunteering is a great way to discover whether or not you're suitable for doing medicine. However, if you're research-oriented and would like to specialize in clinical research, then you will emphasize your research background and passion in your application, and the volunteer experience would not be an important factor (so why waste your time doing it?)

 

PS. I don't recommend following in people's footsteps, whether they did volunteering or not. your goal as a pre-med is, in my opinion, to discover where your true passion lies, and that requires delving into the field and experiencing first-hand what your future career is like. Keep that in mind and you will not go wrong.