Getting In: Shadowing and Volunteering

     My last post covered direct patient care experience, which is required for most PA programs. While some schools only consider direct patient care as acceptable for their medical experience requirements, some school also accept shadowing and/or volunteering hours. In fact, some schools are beginning to require shadowing hours because they believe it gives prospective PA students a better understanding of what a PA does and even find it more helpful than direct patient care. When it comes to volunteering, schools differ widely on whether or not they will accept such hours for the prior medical experience requirement, but such hours always look good and demonstrate a commitment to serving one's community. So let's tackle both topics, starting with shadowing. 

     Shadowing is a wonderful opportunity to really learn what life as a PA looks like on a day-to-day basis. If you can shadow multiple PAs or doctors, it's also a good chance to compare different specialties and see what attracts you before you even start school. However, actually getting the chance to shadow a PA or doctor can be more difficult than one would think. Many hospitals and private offices are willing to let high school students do job shadows, but this often changes once these students turn 18 and become legal adults. After this, those same medical offices often require that any shadowing opportunities be arranged through a university or college. Some hospitals will only offer shadowing opportunities to students at schools with which they already have prior agreements and will not allow students from other schools to shadow. I learned this the hard way. My college in MA certainly had no agreements with any of the hospitals back in OR, but without a car it was rather difficult to arrange anything with any of the hospitals close to school. there were some hospitals near my home who said there might be a possibility that I could shadow a PA with them, but finding the right person to contact and actually getting through to them was also rather difficult. In short, it was a lesson in frustration. Despite all this, I was able to get at least some shadowing hours, though perhaps not through the most conventional methods. 

St. Josefskrankenhaus

     The first was to shadow a friend of mine who is a PA. While I was limited in the number of hours I could shadow him for, any experience was beneficial and shadowing him really did give me a much better understanding of what a primary care PA does. Having a friend on the inside also meant that the process of going through all the necessary steps to be allowed to shadow went much smoother than when I tried to do things by myself. If anyone is looking to shadow a PA, I'd suggest that they see any friends within a hospital or medical office who can help them find the right people to contact or help arrange things. The second way I was able to get shadowing hours was when I studied abroad. I was a German major during my undergrad so I spent a semester in Heidelberg during my junior year. My language partner there was finishing her last years of medical school and she was able to contact some of the hospitals in the area to see if I could come shadow for a day. I hadn't believed that it could be so easy since I'd experienced so much frustration back home, but Germany is a different country. I got to spend an entite day shadowing multiple doctors in Internal Medicine and Cardiology at St. Josefskrankenhaus (apparently I have a knack for ending up at hospitals named for St. Joseph). The doctors let me go through patient's charts, help examine and interview patients, and, if I'd been trained at the time, would have even let me help with phlebotomy. I even got to wear a white coat and look legit. At the end of the day, the hospital offered to let me intern there, but, unfortunately, my semester was almost up by this time and I was leaving a week later. Obviously, having an internship in Germany is not a viable option for all prospective PA students, but I would encourage anyone trying to get shadowing hours to pursue any avenues open to them. 

Keeping track of visitors to the Birth Center

     When it comes to volunteering, there are generally more options readily available than shadowing, though even volunteering positions can be tricky to get. I found that quite a few hospitals require that people who volunteer must be able to commit to at least a year of service. This is because it takes time to train new volunteers and it is also nice for the staff to actually get a chance to know some of the volunteers, which is difficult when they change every few months. I was lucky enough to volunteer at a community hospital near me, the one described in my Snippets from the ED post. Originally I just volunteered there during the summers, but I've been able to do more there while at home this last year. I began by volunteering at the Front Desk. There I helped patients find their way around the hospital and transported those who needed help, but since my shift was 6am-12pm, there were often not many patients and I did a lot of reading. Last fall I left the Front Desk and worked for a while at the Birth Center. There I was a bit of a "Baby Bouncer" since it was my job to make sure that only authorized people went into the Birth Center and no one left with a baby when they should not have. It was a fun position, and allowed me to see lots of babies and get my EMT homework done, but eventually I had to give it up to work a bit more. Luckily I still had my position in the Emergency Department. 

      I started volunteering in the ED shortly after I began at the Front Desk. I'd wanted to start there right away but the department manager wanted to speak to me ahead of time and make sure I knew what I was getting myself into. He therefore described, in elaborate detail, all the sights, sounds and smells I might encounter while volunteering there. I was undeterred, and probably just more intrigued by the time he gave his approval for me to begin. I began volunteering on Tuesday mornings because there was an opening, but I eventually realized that not much happens in the ED at that time. It was primarily people who really should have visited an Urgent Care, or people who had gotten dizzy and fallen down. It was a good environment to learn in though, and soon I added a Friday evening shift. I was able to see a bit more then, but my duties remained the same. My primary job was stocking, which meant that, as they opened, I would visit each patient room and make sure that the carts were fully supplied and throughout the night I would check the bathrooms and specialized carts as well. I also ran samples to the lab, which trumped any restocking duties I had at the time since it was more important to get those samples taken care of quickly. Some nights I barely had any samples to run, whereas other nights I seemed to be going every ten minutes. Between restocking and running samples I'd do other tasks like cleaning rooms, answering patients' calls, getting warm blankets/water/food for patients, and just generally acting as a liaison between the patients and their care providers. 

One of our more difficult patients (who was being
especially uncooperative and wouldn't let the doctors
do what they needed to in order to make a diagnosis)
left us this message one night.

     I became friends with the ED techs, nurses and doctors during my time volunteering at the hospital. Whenever things were quiet we'd have time to chat a bit, which I loved. By the end of my time there most knew that I was planning to be a PA and that I am a licensed EMT, so I would occasionally be asked to come to patients' rooms to help or observe. That was always the most fun for me, even when the patients were mean, frustrated, or just smelly. It was sometimes difficult to deal with those patients, but it was always helpful to remember that many were not exactly acting like they normally would. After all, if they were in the ED, there was usually something seriously amiss. Of course, no matter what you did, there were always some patients who would be irrationally upset. All in all, even the difficult patients were good for character building.

     If you're considering volunteering, I would do it, even if most PA programs don't count volunteering as part of the medical experience requirement. I saw so many different conditions, learned so many new terms, and really just got a good idea of how hospitals are run through my time volunteering. If you're having a problem with hospitals that have a service length requirement that you can't meet, I'd suggest speaking personally to the person in charge of the volunteering department. They often can help you figure something out.