Sunday, August 15, 2010

Volunteering: Aim for clinical hours

Even if you want to be a community or foodservice dietitian, if you're aiming for an internship clinical (hospital work, or work with patients related to medical nutrition therapy) volunteer or work hours are valued very heavily. This is something I had recommended to me strongly, and one of my biggest regrets from my undergraduate time is not getting clinical experience, in addition to the community and foodservice experience I had.

To get clinical experience, you will likely need to plan ahead. When looking for short term volunteer opportunities I was turned down by two hospitals because I was unable to commit six months or longer to be a volunteer at their facility. So the sooner you look into getting clinical experience the better.

One of the main reasons clinical experience is valued was told to me directly by the director of an internship program: internships want you to have been exposed to a setting in which you worked with ill patients. An internship program does not want to have you quit half way through because you decided you were uncomfortable working with sick people.

While a variety of volunteer and work experience is good, do your best to make getting clinical experience a priority.

No comments:

Post a Comment