No experience, Graduatre, Double Major

[Kimd18]

so I graduated from high school in may 2012 I was in my school's nursing program. I took HSTE 1 and HSTE 2. My senior year of high school for the course I chose to end the career pathway with General Medicine, so I took three years total of nursing in hs. My teacher said we were focusing on getting medical assistant certificate in General Med class but somehow later on in my first semester I had asked her about it and she said she had changed her mind about taking 100 + students to clinicals every week...she did not follow the standards for the class. & she had told me she spoke to the board of education about it & they said it was ok? Idk what happened but the whole class did not know about it or focused too much on that. I ended up being CPR certified through American Heart Association in Gen Med and that was it. I was an officer (historian/news reporter) of HOSA. I am attending a private college in August 2012 & will double major in Nursing and Psychology. I would like to start off somewhere in healthcare with no experience to get direct patient care but it seems like Human Resources are too busy to contact me or call me back. I would also like to know about volunteer opportunities out there & how I should get started! Please someone give me advice or tips? I have a resume already but I'm building it up in college

[taytay05]

It is very difficult to obtain a volunteer position anywhere, especially in healthcare. I called the hospital and asked to speak to volunteer services and they were able to set up an orientation over the phone. If this does not work, then visit the hospital volunteer services in person so they know you are committed. They probably won't ask for your resume, but bring it in case. They may have an orientation already fully booked for the next month which happened to me so go early in the school year before more months are booked. Also, they probably wants you to get your flu shots which are very cheap or free at a local/school clinic. For my position, I also had to have tb tests, but they provided those free at the hospital. I also received an offer to volunteer at a hospice. I found this opportunity by going to the site volunteermatch.com and going to their special search mode and checking healthcare. Any position you find will require tb, which they usually do, and a background check which may take around 2-3 weeks to go through. The orientation and the background check can obviously delay the process so try to send out emails and talk to people as early as possible so that you can start volunteering early in the semester. I try to do this also because my school has a deadline for including hours for that semester on your transcript. Good luck.

[lovedijah]

Most hospitals have a website with information about volunteering. Either that or I have flat out googled, "places to volunteer in (city)" and tons of stuff comes up.

Have you considered taking a CNA course?