Volunteer work and jobs that help prepare you for medical school during undergrad

I have been getting a lot of questions lately about what kind of volunteer work or work experience might make ones application for medical school really stand out amongst the pool of applicants.

If you are currently studying an undergraduate degree hoping to apply to a graduate medical school in the next few years then the short answer is: NONE

It is a widely misunderstood among undergraduate students, that in order to have a strong application for medical school we need to display activities or have experiences that show we are motivated and extraordinary compared to our peers. This is true in America. Thanks to social media, YouTube and even Greys Anatomy, this process is assumed to be the same here in Australia. It is not. 'Shadowing' is also not something regularly done in Australia and most clinics and surgeries have strict rules that the only observers outside the medical treating team are to be enrolled medical students and theres a pile of paperwork involved.

Unless you are applying for one of the portfolio schools, Notre Dame or Wollongong, then all of the other graduate medical school's will not take any personal information about you into consideration when preparing to give you an interview. Thus if you don't happen to mention the volunteer role or work experience in your interview (and even if you do, the interviewer might never pass the information on), then your future medical school is unlikely to even acknowledge your experience let alone take it into consideration when deciding to give you an offer to their program. That being said those who speak about their personal experiences in the interview do on average do better - this does not need to be about jobs or volunteering however - more on this in another blog to come.

Deakin does give bonuses if you have worked ANY job for 2 years full time or the equivalent of 2 years full time across 4 years, and a seperate bonus for 2 years working as an accredited health professional (nurse, physiology, dietitian etc) - you can only have one of these bonuses at a time unfortunately. For those studying a science degree this isn't very helpful. This is intentional. Research shows that nurses become far better doctors than students from a science degree. Deakin also rewards life experience, (2 year full time work bonus) which again, creates far better medical students and doctors than those coming straight from their undergraduate degree.

So if you are thinking about getting that job or volunteering role to stand out from the crowd in your medical school application, its probably not actually worth it. Medical schools do not always prefer the cookie cutter typical medical student candidate either. More schools are looking at individuals with broader experiences and backgrounds outside medicine that they can bring to the profession and expand it and make it stronger and more innovative - so choose a volunteering role you love not one you think your future medical school might love.

If you have super strong application for a portfolio school (Notre Dame or Wollongong) and are just needing one or two more experiences to complete it, it may be worth considering one of these roles to fill another box. But you need to recognise that your experiences listed in your portfolio receive more points depending on the number of years you have committed to the activity. a one year or a once off activity doesn't usually score too well so get in early if this is your goal. A specific blog on building and presenting portfolio's is yet to come!

If you are looking for experience that will motivate you towards your future career as a doctor, give you more understanding for what medicine involves, make you a more well rounded person while building skills that will serve you throughout medical school and beyond - then YES take that volunteer role or apply for that job - these opportunities are invaluable as long as they don't take away from your GPA or GAMSAT score!

Jobs for undergraduates interested in medical school:

Some of the best jobs to help build your skills around medical terminology and talking to medical staff and patients require no previous experience and its all on the job training so you can apply anytime!

Pharmacy Assistant

I can not recommend becoming a Pharmacy Assistant enough. You do not need any previous experience, there is on the job training that will allow you to develop a Certificate III in Community Pharmacy. This role familiarises you with medications, some drug interactions, knowing what is within your scope and when to ask your senior for patient advice, talking to people about their bowel habits, building the skills to ask the right questions to a patient to help diagnose and prescribe over the counter medications for an array of conditions. When taking this job I never thought it would be helpful for medical school I just thought it would be a great place to work. Not until I began my first PBLs in first year did I realise I had been basically training to think like a doctor since becoming a pharmacy assistant and it allowed me a great platform of knowledge and expertise to grow from. It also makes you really comfortable asking patients awkward questions. For example if a patient comes in asking for the morning after pill you need to ask a series of very personal questions to evaluate if the drug is appropriate for her, things about her mental cycle, her contraception use, sexual partners, types of sex etc. If you can become the kind of person that makes these questions feel safe and easy to discuss with a patient even before medical school, you're way ahead of so many of those who have not had similar experiences. Learning to talk to a patient can be intimidating, you don't want to stuff it up and embarrass yourself or the patient and with medical school being so competitive sometimes working on this skill earlier helps relieves anxiety and makes you feel more prepared. You also learn how to read scripts, pronounce drug names which is handy for presenting patients on ward rounds in later years, and you develop and understanding for so many conditions and what people experience when they are going through them. One of the best part of working in pharmacy is the patient communication. My favourite patients are the elderly coming in for their usual scripts, sometimes this might be their biggest outing of the day/week and they are really keen for a chat. Its nice to hear about how they are going and how they manage their condition(s) and if theres anything else you can do to help them and leave them with a smile because they feel like they are being looked after. I also found that most pharmacies need casual staff making this a really great job for a university student working around your timetable where possible, and the pay is really good considering you need no training to apply! You can even progress and eventually become a pharmacy technician, learning more deeply about medications behind the counter which is a lot of fun and super handy for medical school! This is also a great job to continue through medical school as a source of income and something to keep you sane. Pop in a resume at your local pharmacy or checkout Seek for any openings in your area.

Medical Secretary/Receptionist

Again many (not all) medical secretary/reception jobs require no previous training and will train you on the job. Working in a GP or specialist office is a great way to see how the world of medicine works from both a doctor and a patient perspective. You learn the world of medicare, PBS, bulk billing and private health insurance which will really help you when you're a doctor in the future (yet to find out if this is ever taught in medical school). You might even learn the hospital computer programs you will end up using as an intern and beyond later in your career! If you really think you want to pursue a specific specialty its a great idea to apply to work in one of the clinics and really get a hands on feel for what a day in the life of the specialist looks like. You might be surprised to find out that the life of a surgeon is heavily glamorised thanks for medical tv series and it's not quite as much sex in store rooms and rare interesting cases only you can solve, as you might think. If you do enjoy the look of the specialty however, this is also a fantastic resource for referee's in your future. Should you become close with your consultants they might be able to help you with securing you a spot on a training program down the track and be like a mentor to you. I learned how to have a lot of conversations with patients about their various conditions, triage them to the correct doctor within the correct time frame, order any investigations they might require prior to their appointment, work with allied health and other clinics to secure past medical history relevant for the specialist to consider when seeing the patient as well as council patients on upcoming surgery and ongoing recovery afterwards. I leaned how to set up a new practice, how to order everything you need to run your own clinic and essentially after becoming a practice manager can now run my own private practice one day in the future. Skills I will be very thankful for in about a decade or so!

Misc. jobs also highly recommended for experience in the field and building skills/contacts:

There are many other jobs highly recommended such as becoming an orderly who assists in moving patients around the hospital. You become very familiar with the lay out of hospitals, procedures patients have in hospitals, the staff and specialist. Similarly doing a course to become a theatre technician should you be in love with theatre is again a great option to get exposure and meet great contacts in your field of interest. For those who have completed a science degree there is no shortage of rep opportunities for all kinds of medical devices also used in clinics or theatre that you can become an expert in and teach the surgeons how to use during their operations - this also pays incredibly well from what I've heard, and you get very close with some of the most prestigious surgeons in the country!

Volunteering roles for undergraduate's interested in medical school:

St John's Ambulance

This is such a fantastic and fulfilling volunteer role. You get lots of training in various types of first aid. You get free tickets to all the best sporting games and music festivals in the country that you can volunteer at. Importantly you get a taste of real emergency work and how to remain calm in all kinds of medical crisis's. A lot of the time it will be dealing with asthma, cuts on foots and burns at public events. But occasionally you'll have a stroke patient or heart attack and need to use a defibrillator and save a life. This opportunity again helps with your patient communication skills, triaging skills, problem solving and treatment knowledge. It puts you well ahead for you BLS requirements for medical school and you'll be helping everybody resuscitate their simulated patients to the tune of "staying alive". This is a heavy time commitment however as their are usually weekly training requirements and a minimum hours of volunteer work in order to stay perficient so you will need to way this up with your hours of study and work to see if it will fit in your life. MANY paramedic, science and nursing students are part of this organisation however. It's a great way to meet like minded volunteers and get some exposure to helping people in need of medical assistance.

EDcare Box Hill Hospital

This was a role I very much enjoyed and im sure there are similar opportunities at many other hospitals. Box Hill Hospital runs an EDcare program in which you can volunteer a few hours a week in the ED and follow doctors around and help them where ever you can, talk with patients in the waiting room, helping calm panicked children and parents, sit with patients in treatment rooms who might otherwise be scared and alone waiting for family to arrive. Being a source of comfort for these patients is incredibly rewarding. The exposure to what its like in an ED is also very eye opening. Definitely not as fast paced as it seems in ER. Not as many ridiculous cases either. The most intense thing I saw on one of my shifts was an assumed homeless gentleman come in quite disheveled and upset unable to use his left leg properly dragging it in an pooling a yellow liquid behind it. He claimed a pharmacist had just injected him with something and he was having an allergic reaction. But upon inspection it appeared his entire leg had become gangrenous from what we assume to be long term untreated diabetic ulcers, sadly he had to have the limb amputated. The smell of this mans poor leg was unforgettable. Patients in the waiting room began to vomit from the oder and we wanted to stand near the vomit because that smelled so much better in comparison. Not quite an episode of ER, but unforgettable to say the least. It was also a good learning opportunity. Asking patients about how their condition was going (many patients are happy to have a chat with you) and then going home and researching those conditions was really helpful. Having a face to the conditions in a textbook make them much more real and easy to remember. This role really motivated me to keep going with my medical school applications even when I failed again and again. I could see working in a hospital was where I felt I belonged. Helping these patients was what I was meant to do. This helped push me and keep me going when things got tough.

The Royal Children's Hospital also takes a lot of volunteers and has an excellent program! Many hospitals have a volunteer section on their website if you're keen to get involved!

Medical school interviews

I'll be sure to do a blog specifically on medical school interviews soon, but just to tie in with jobs and volunteering - ALWAYS bring these experiences up in your interview! In any way you can! If the interview questions asks you specifically for times you've worked in a team this is the perfect opportunity to show the interviewer who you are as a person, the experiences you have had that make you who you are, and why you are a good candidate to have at their school as a future doctor. If the question is lest specific and more ethical for example you can still use this as an example to show who you are as a person by saying something like "if this were a patient in my clinic... or my hospital... or someone I see in my volunteer capacity it would make me want to... etc etc"

In summary

These are just a few example of the jobs and volunteer opportunities you can take as a springboard of idea's for you to think about! If you have any other suggestions or stories of your experiences please comment below!! And remember - do these experiences for yourself because you're interested in them and they bring something incredible to your life - not for your medical school application, because that is just a waste.

Em x