In theory, volunteering is defined as an activity which is desired from most active and able bodied individuals. It is in general considered a humane activity in the society’s best interests. Volunteering often involves in provision of aid and service benefiting society’s vulnerable segments (humans, animals and the like).
Volunteer work is often done for a noble cause and volunteers hardly take any monetary reward. They often do such work for benefiting societies and communities. For students wishing to study medicine, volunteer work comes in handy for them.
A hospital, clinic, healthcare service provider, another clinical setup or a healthcare related activity is a worthwhile place volunteering in. Medical students learn empathy in volunteering and understand the world from a diverse angle. This also helps them prepare well for medicine and healthcare on a whole.
What can volunteering activities do for students in clinical sciences?
Students of medicine learn empathy in terms of helping humans and animals. This empathy further helps them provide the best medical care ever, especially that which has a special human touch. This helps patients feel much better and also helps physicians understand patients in a whole new way.
Volunteering hours are a cause of concern because not all medical schools have the same criteria. A lot of medical schools are concerned with the kind and quality of medical activity the student was involved in.
Medical schools across the America have a preference for students volunteering in medical setups. Such helps them to be practically prepared for the clinical sciences programs which involved practical training. At times, students have volunteered in a healthcare or medical setup but have often worked in procurement and administration instead of the healthcare aspect.
Conventional wisdom reveals benchmark for volunteering hours to be around 100 hours and this wisdom is viewed differently by most medical schools around the globe these days.
How exactly should students be volunteering?
Medical setups and healthcare camps are places where medical students should be volunteering and learn about them from top to bottom. Instruments, machines, surgery are among the things they must learn so they can helpful to the healthcare professionals around them (physicians included).
The admissions committees of most medical schools always take into check the intellectual knowledge the student has as well as their practical knowledge. They want to make sure that the student is aware of what medicine is, what it like is to work in a healthcare institution and how to interact with colleagues and patients.
Professionalism develops in time when students are learning the theoretical and practical aspects of medicine itself. They learn when they volunteer and work in healthcare setups. Admissions committees often try determining the practical experience of a student in practical terms
It is based mostly on what kind of choices the students make. Instead of just saying they worked at a clinic part time, they should provide details of their volunteering experience.
Benefits of volunteering
Volunteering helps students lift the burden of guilt out of the heart. It leaves a satisfying after effect and has other many benefits too. When students work in volunteering activities at home or overseas, they will have a very good experience.
Volunteering helps students in the following ways:
Students feel satisfied
Volunteering helps students catch a remarkable experience. It helps them obtain a sense of pride and achievement. The work done is fulfilling and students’ actions help create a positive difference & effect in the lives they have improved.
Students obtain prized experience
Volunteering gives students the opportunity to acquire new skills, test their current skills, study new languages and recognize new cultures. They also get to test their intelligence, and can get a chance to be involved in activities they adore.
Students learn life from a new perspective
A new perspective of life is what students learn when they are volunteering. Learning new languages, meeting new people, understanding a new culture and the like are the positives they learn from volunteering.
Students become more positive about life
Volunteering in a healthcare setup helps students become positive. They also encourage positivity in the lives of those they help. Not only are the satisfied and complete, they also achieve something that is worth more than material gains.