A lot of students seem to want to put this on their college application. Does it really have any place there? Medical school is four years and a number of big hurdles away.
It takes, what, a couple of phone calls to set up a job shadow and then you spend a day. Anyone can do that and the time demands are nil.
It sounds to me like “Lookit me! I want to be a neurosurgeon!”
Now, if you started volunteering in the hospital and had to spend two or three years directing people to the elevator before you could qualify for a ward position in order to find out what medicine is about…that’s a different thing.
Spend your Saturdays in HS assisting chemo kids? Different thing.
And, do all the wannabes ever consider what the cost is to the physician you are shadowing?
I absolutely agree.
Although there is a handful who genuinely want to help out, plenty of students in my area are desperate to get internships at hospitals and at our local medical school. They make hospital volunteering seem like a bigger deal than it really is and don’t realize that it’s one of the most common ECs.
What annoys me further is that many of these students aren’t even planning on going into medical professions. I just feel that they are taking someone else’s spot and being very insincere.
There is a difference between ‘shadowing’ and hospital volunteering or internships at hospitals and medical schools. The one is, as JustOneDad says, a few hours on one day, maybe a few times with different docs. Hardly worth mentioning unless you are really desperate to fill space. The latter can involve dozens if not hundreds of hours, hard work, and the opportunity to 1) contribute and 2) learn a lot. I don’t begrudge anyone, even those who aren’t future docs, the opportunity to check out the health care industry as a future employers or even just the opportunity to do something that is socially useful. It’s not like these things are in short supply - there are plenty of hospitals, nursing homes, hospice, physical therapy, home health care agencies, clinics, doctors offices and other care providers who would be happy to have some dedicated volunteers who want to make sick peoples’ lives a little better.