Pre-Nursing Volunteer

[lhatee]

Hi,

I am planning on going to nursing school next year. In preparation for this I wanted to do some volunteer work at San Diego Hospitals. I feel this will be a great way to learn about the profession and also get some experience as to what to expect in a hospital setting. I noticed Scripps Mercy has a pre-nursing volunteer program - does anyone know if there are other hospitals offering something like this? Any advice on what type of volunteer activity would give me the best learning opportunity? Although, I am open to all volunteer positions but if given the preference would like to focus on an area that would have some patient contact.

Thank you all for your advice in advance!

[NPs4health]

Hi there,

in response to your question, most volunteers I've seen at major hospitals do not have much direct patient contact. This is probably because of patient confidentiality. When I was a pre nursing student, I volunteered at the hospital ER and wasn't allowed to do much other than give towels and water to patients because none of the patients or doctors wanted me in the rooms. Then when I finally went to newborn nursery where the babies didn't mind me watching them, but even then I was doing mainly observation. There are other volunteer opportunities where you can go to Children's hospitals and play with the sick children.

What kind of nursing are you interested in? I've also seen that the local community clinics for the underpriveleged population are more relaxed about patient privacy because they want all the help they can get. If you volunteer at those places you may be able to sit in on patient assessments and procedures. Good Luck!

[lhatee]

Thank you so much for the advice. The community clinics sound perfect and I am sure they can use any help they can get. I don't really mind doing the grunt work at this stage.

Thank you again.

Lhatee

[NPs4health]

You're welcome! Let me know if you've got any other questions regarding nursing or nursing school. I'd be happy to help.

[Asherah, BSN, RN]

Hi,

I am planning on going to nursing school next year. In preparation for this I wanted to do some volunteer work at San Diego Hospitals. I feel this will be a great way to learn about the profession and also get some experience as to what to expect in a hospital setting. I noticed Scripps Mercy has a pre-nursing volunteer program - does anyone know if there are other hospitals offering something like this? Any advice on what type of volunteer activity would give me the best learning opportunity? Although, I am open to all volunteer positions but if given the preference would like to focus on an area that would have some patient contact.

Thank you all for your advice in advance!

I'm not sure how far you would be willing to travel, but the CCE internship that I participated in via COPE Health Solutions allowed me to gather a lot of experience with patients and specific nursing roles in Telemetry, ICU, ER and the OR. I did my volunteer work at St. Mary's Medical Center in Long Beach, but they also are affiliated with a hospital in Escondido. This program is designed for pre-nursing and pre-med students and I felt I gained a lot of insight from the time spent.

http://copehealthsolutions.org/hwt/cce.html

[Goldenatom]

I was surprised that Georgetown put such an emphasis on volunteer experience. At University of Maryland they flat out said, "We don't care what you do before you enter our program."

Having volunteered for a while, I can understand why U of M feels that way.