Since I have been back at school, I felt like it was important to start volunteering at a local hospital. Let me tell you this is no easy task. Volunteer services and human resources are the most impossible places to get a hold of and they never call back.

Well, once I finally got through to people, I have decided to volunteer in the oncology department of the Johns Hopkins Hospital. I have my interview next week to find out where exactly I will be working and what I will be doing. It will be a very exciting thing for me because the last time I volunteered in a hospital was during high school. I was a patient visitor, in which I would talk with patients directly out of surgery to make them feel better and also long-term patients without any family. A very rewarding experience and I met some great people along the way.

I chose the oncology department because it is the field in medicine that I want to go into. It seems like a good idea, kind of like an internship, to see the environment I would be working in for my future.

I also considered working in an emergency room, which I may do during the summer because during the first few years after medical school, it will be working on call, in the ER and a high stress environment. It would be wise to learn to deal with it before it actually hits.

I cannot wait to start volunteering and trying to make a difference in people’s health.