Benefits of volunteering at a hospital while in nursing school

[fatrabbit]

So, I start nursing school in September and have been looking at local hospitals to volunteer at. I was wondering if having a year or two of volunteer work makes a difference when applying for externships or new grad positions/residency programs. What other benefits are there from volunteering-- experience, interpersonal skills, etc?

Also, would you think that volunteering at a hospice, clinic, or other medical center will be beneficial if I can't find a place at a hospital?

[Norepinephrine]

I've found that getting experience any time you can is very helpful. You'll learn a lot, and you'll make connections. I volunteered at two hospitals for a few years, and it's already opened doors for me. I have connections at several hospitals now, when I had none going in (I'm still in nursing school). Also, the experience is fantastic. It's often very rewarding, and you'll find that having some familiarity with hospital units will help you in clinical.

[sunflowerr]

I've been volunteering at a hospital, and it has been really beneficial for me. I've greatly improved my interpersonal skills and increased my confidence because of having to talk to so many different patients. I'm generally a shy person and it has helped me become more comfortable introducing myself to people and starting conversations with strangers. I've also learned a lot of basic things like how to properly make a hospital bed, how to move the bed up and down, wheelchair safety, how to turn off the bed/chair alarms (I work on a floor with many high fall risk patients), etc. I've gotten experience discharging patients and helping them into their cars, refilling ice packs, setting up patient rooms with their little supply buckets (soap, tissues, tooth brush, menu, etc), and even used a mouth swab with mouth moisturizer to moisten a lady's mouth who was unable to do it herself once. For the most part, I get people water, ginger ale, supplies, help them out with ordering food on the phone, set up their TV, help them get more comfortable, and have conversations with them. It's mainly simple things, but just having experience helping patients has made me more motivated to do well in nursing school.

One time a physical therapist even asked me to come into the staircase with her, where she was helping a patient walk up and down the stairs post-surgery to build up his strength, and she needed someone else to be there because she's not allowed to be alone with a patient for liability reasons. So I was able to see a physical therapist working with a patient, which was really interesting. You can get a lot of exposure to different things. I've also been there for a code red on my floor, which I thought was something amazing to experience (fire isn't amazing haha, but it was interesting seeing the code procedure). The unit doors started automatically closing, and I helped the nurses close the patients' doors. Thankfully it was a false alarm, but it was nice being able to experience a situation like that.

Volunteering looks good on applications for school and you might be able to get a letter of recommendation from the volunteer coordinator or someone else. Overall, it's an incredible experience and you'll have a lot of interesting (some funny, others rewarding, some possibly strange, and maybe even aggravating) experiences with patients. So I say go for it!