volunteering in hopital

[metalgirl70]

Opps! I had a typo of hospital in my title! Sorry!

I am currently working on my prerequisites for nursing school. Since I aleady have a bachelor's degree in marketing, I was hoping to get accepted tothe BSN program at Sacramento State.

Sac state is on the merit system and it awards more points if you either have worked or volunteered in a health care center that is 'multi-cultural'. I already work in a non health related job and I need to keep that job in the interim since it pays my bills, keeps a roof over my head, and puts food the the table. I would like to volunteer though in a hospital so I could get some exposure and also be eligible to win the extra points Sac State awards for working / volunteering in a health care center.

What kind of volunteer work can I do with no credentials? My mom who is a nurse at a hospital got me an application for volunteering, but the positions listed are stuff like working in the gift shop and other stuff like that, very non clinical stuff.

Thanks!

[BonnieSc]

I think at all the area hospitals they do have volunteers who work with patients--the website for Mercy General, for instance, shows opportunities in medical-surgical, nursery, etc. The ER at UC Davis is a great place to volunteer as you get to see a lot of different things. (Actual duties mostly involve cleaning beds and changing linen--not too exciting, but very necessary and helpful.) I'd also recommend looking into volunteering for Child Life at any hospital if you're at all interested in pediatrics--the volunteer's job, basically, is to play with the sick kids and their siblings. That's also a really important role.