Pre-med students find benefits in volunteering

LSA sophomore Christina Dikareza is just one of many pre-med students who volunteer at University Hospitals every year.

"I was sick of chem and math and all of those awful courses. I needed something to remind me of my goals," Dikareza said.

Although volunteering looks good on a medical school application, Dikareza and others said they have learned the experience is worth more valuable than an academic edge.

"I became a lot more aware of how stressful it is to be a doctor," said LSA senior Charmaine Cardozo, who volunteered in Mott's Children's Hospital, part of the University Hospitals Systems, in 1997. "Quite a few kids passed away and you learn how to deal with that."

LSA senior Ami Shah said volunteering actually helped her decide future plans.

"I was debating whether or not to do medicine. Volunteering was the biggest thing that helped me decide," Shah said.

Beverly Smith, coordinator for volunteer services at University Hospitals said the experience can change students.

"There is value career-wise in seeing how people handle illness," Smith said. Volunteers "watch families struggle when a situation happens. They see how they go on. They see how they can offer support.

"Once in med school, there's so much to learn," she said. "You really have to devote so much time to learning about disease and medicine. There's no time to learn about people. Volunteering allows for that."

Many future medical students come in with expectations about the excitement of working in the hospital, Smith said. But many quickly discover that life at the hospital is not always a scene out of ER or Chicago Hope.

"Pre-med students come in and want to work in something like (the operating room) right away," Smith said. "Because of the nature of volunteer work, they can't because of liability."

Working the 8 p.m. to midnight shift, Dikareza was a first hand observer of how unglamorous hospital work can be.

"I answered call lines to get patients something to drink or something to eat. I moved patients from room to room. I restocked closets and reorganized the medicine room," Dikareza said.

Shah said she was also awakened to the realities of the job.

"I was a lot more naive about the hospital atmosphere before I came. It's a lot more than ER on TV. It's real. You have to take precautions ... You have to be careful for your own safety so you don't catch anything," Shah said.

But some said they learned that the individual who reaches beyond boundaries of duty can learn the most.

"You have to create it for yourself," Dikareza said. "There are hundreds of pre-med students who want to volunteer so you're going to get the crappiest jobs. You have to ask questions. You have to follow people around."

When volunteers get to know patients and ask questions, some learn more than they could from any text book.

"I remember one volunteer who was working in the trauma burn center. He was washing a patient's hair and it started to fall out. It was such an experience for him to see what was happening to this patient," Smith said.

Talking with patients who are facing death can affect students beyond the professional realm, Dikareza said.

"You talk with them and walk out of the room and the nurse tells you they have one week to live," Dikareza said. "It really hits you how you have to enjoy life and how much there is to be done."

Shah said her most amazing experiences were with the children at Mott's.

"To see kids five to seven years old with cancer and see how much life they had in them," Shah said. "Seeing little kids knowing what they knew, that day could be their very last, it was amazing."

Some feel volunteering is becoming a prerequisite in the modern world.

"Our society as a whole expects that you are more than a worker. Employees and medical schools are interested if you volunteered because then they know if you like it. They know you've been in the medical setting. They know you understand what it's all about," Smith said.

Students who want to volunteer are urged to contact Volunteer Services when they register for a term.

"Sometimes volunteer work is not as time consuming as people think. Volunteers usually work about four hours a week for three semesters," Smith said.

Those interested in more information may call UMH Volunteer Services at 936-4327 for more information.

09-25-98