Volunteering

[bmaden01]

I recently graduated with my bachelors in psychology this past May while also being on the Pre-PA track and have completed the necessary pre-requisite courses. I’m currently taking a gap year to gain patient care experience before applying to schools and have started working as a patient care technician at my local hospital. I also decided to take additional courses during my gap year to further increase my GPA. 

I noticed that a lot of programs prefer and sometimes recommend doing volunteer work on the side. I also was interested in doing it myself to make my application better. I decided on volunteering at my local food bank to sort and pack the boxes however I’m wondering if a volunteer job like this is good enough for PA school? Do schools prefer volunteer work that’s more relevant to the profession? My dad thinks I should find something with more substance and is more meaningful and I’m stuck on which direction I should take. 

[ssPAS]

Volunteering is about showing that you are aware of, care about, and have gotten involved in your community. I think non-medical volunteering is a great way to show more of what you care about and a way for a program to get to know you. It’s a potential differentiator.

If you don’t have as much patient care experience and you want to show your dedication to and knowledge of the medical world, medical volunteering may be a better choice. But if you are a traditional (hard science or physiology major), have strong PCE, and are otherwise looking a bit “cookie cutter”, use your volunteering not as another item to check off your list but as an outlet. Be well rounded. These stories and connections will make you a better provider. And they’ll give you interesting perspective and stories to tell in class when we’re talking about social determinants of health, etc.

The food bank sounds like a great place to volunteer! If you have an opportunity to talk to other volunteers and people who use their services even better. Cherry on top is if you think there could be an opportunity to take on some leadership role there but it’s not required to start!

Schools don’t think some volunteering isn’t good enough unless it’s clear that you only did it to check off some small number of hours to up your chances of getting into school. Be able to say why you chose to do this (what are you willing to/excited to give?) and what you got out of it. You might not know that yet but listen to the part of you that chose this and follow it.

[JohnDelagarza]

On 1/13/2024 at 10:23 PM, ssPAS said:

Volunteering is about showing that you are aware of, care about, and have gotten involved in your community. I think non-medical volunteering is a great way to show more of what you care about and a way for a program to get to know you. It’s a potential differentiator.

If you don’t have as much patient care experience and you want to show your dedication to and knowledge of the medical world, medical volunteering may be a better choice. But if you are a traditional (hard science or physiology major), have strong PCE, and are otherwise looking a bit “cookie cutter”, use your volunteering not as another item to check off your list but as an outlet. Be well rounded. These stories and connections will make you a better provider. And they’ll give you interesting perspective and stories to tell in class when we’re talking about social determinants of health, etc.

The food bank sounds like a great place to volunteer! If you have an opportunity to talk to other volunteers and people who use their services even better. Cherry on top is if you think there could be an opportunity to take on some leadership role there but it’s not required to start!

Schools don’t think some volunteering isn’t good enough unless it’s clear that you only did it to check off some small number of hours to up your chances of getting into school. Be able to say why you chose to do this (what are you willing to/excited to give?) and what you got out of it. You might not know that yet but listen to the part of you that chose this and follow it.

Thanks for the advice, I appreciate you for taking the time to write it.