Volunteer Hours??

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Hello,

I am planning to switch careers from substitute teaching to nursing. When, I finish the nursing program, if I get accepted, I will not have any hospital experience. Is it a good idea to start volunteering now? Otherwise, I won't really have any medical background to put on my resume. Although, I volunteered a long time ago at a hospital's child care and occupational therapy department. I don't remember the dates, though....:confused:

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The question is more whether you will get into nursing school unless you have some healthcare experience--that's the reason to start volunteering now. You will get the experience you need for getting a nursing job while you're in school--depending on how hard it is to get a job in your area, it may be vital to work as a student nurse extern once you're in school; but otherwise, no one will care much about what you did before nursing school, once you've graduated and passed the NCLEX.

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Thanks for your response Wendy79. It isn't a requirement to get into the accelerated program I am applying for. Their requirements are only prenursing courses and the teas exam.

Out of curiousity, do you know if RNs get paid more if they have two bachelor degrees?

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Specializes in Telemetry.

Volunteers at hospitals can't always do actual clinical things, anyways. The ones at mine mainly run the gift shop and stuff envelopes. So becoming a volunteer might not actually give you any clinical experience.

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I volunteer at Sutters ER departement and when the nurses found out that I was starting school in Jan, they started letting me shadow them for my 4 hour shifts. I have seen so much and learned so much already that I think it would be good for you to volunteer. When you apply just tell them that you dont want to work gift shop or anything like that, but that you want to work with patients.

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Is your accelerated program impacted? At many colleges, even if healthcare experience isn't required, you get more "points" for it and have a better chance of getting in.

No, having two bachelor's degrees won't do a thing for you in nursing in and of itself. If your previous degree is in education and you have a teacher's credential, you'll have increased school health opportunities. And there are other majors, such as biology or chem or psychology, that might help you if you're going to do research some day. But when you get out of school and start applying for jobs, no one is going to care.

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Hello Wendy 79,

As of now, the program isn't impacted and when we submit our applications we only show our nursing core prereq classes and teas exam scores. The program is made for people who received Bachelors in another area other than nursing. They don't require any resume or extra info. The point system to get in is based on the prereq courses, teas exam, and gpa.

If I can juggle my time with studies and work, I may volunteer to expose myself more.

Thank you, again for your ideas.

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