luknotluck Posted January 5, 2016 Share Posted January 5, 2016 Hi, I'm new here and this has always bothered me. I actually have a lot of experience in hospitals as a volunteer with on-hand patient care, but I can never find PA shadowing or volunteering opportunities. I live in the SoCal area and I was wondering how do I go about finding volunteer opportunities where I can shadow a PA? I'm really interested in family care if that's any help. Also, can I just email PAs around the area and ask if they are willing to take on volunteers? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dndandrea Posted January 5, 2016 Share Posted January 5, 2016 Hi, I'm new here and this has always bothered me. I actually have a lot of experience in hospitals as a volunteer with on-hand patient care, but I can never find PA shadowing or volunteering opportunities. I live in the SoCal area and I was wondering how do I go about finding volunteer opportunities where I can shadow a PA? I'm really interested in family care if that's any help. Also, can I just email PAs around the area and ask if they are willing to take on volunteers? Do you work at a hospital, or do you have more opportunities to volunteer with on-hands patient care? While you're there, you should communicate with the employees and ask them if a PA works there. Talk to the PA personally about your interest to become a PA and that you'd like to observe him/her in the future when it's convenient for him/her. If not, do any of your friends, family, or family members have any relationship with anyone in the medical field? Have them talk with their co-workers and ask the PA they work with or know if you can observe them. It's really about who you know... That's the easy way at least... Otherwise, you just have to go into a hospital/office with some confidence and ask if you could speak to the PA or have his/her contact information with regards to observing/shadowing them. Tell them you already have some on-hands experience in the hospital and that you're very interested in their career. Worse case scenario, look up some private practices in your local area. Look at their page with the physicians, PAs, and NPs. Sometimes these places will put up a work email for each clinician. Try contacting them by email. I worked in a hospital plus I know plenty of people who work in other hospitals/offices. It wasn't difficult for me to find people to shadow. The majority of the people I came across love having people shadow them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luknotluck Posted January 6, 2016 Author Share Posted January 6, 2016 Alright, thanks for the advice. I'll start asking around in the hospital that I work at right now. Thank you so much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glorious_Ignoramus Posted January 7, 2016 Share Posted January 7, 2016 3 words come to mind: 1. Networking 2. Networking 3. Networking Don't for get to network. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rajeneharris Posted January 8, 2016 Share Posted January 8, 2016 Glorious couldn't be more right. Its like getting into PA School it only takes just one. I went to my college's mentor//intern//find a job site and found a doctor who wanted to mentor someone I volunteered in a heart beat (this was my first year in school keep in mind.) I showed up and had nothing to offer new previous skills or anything. But he owned many practices in the area and told me that if I was willing to get some kind of certification he would be able to find somewhere for me and mentor me. It was great advice at the time because it gave me the momentum to go and do something for myself while still having someone in my corner at such an early start. I"ve also connected with a few PA's on linked'in who now help me when they can. So YES networking is your best friend! (I've just started volunteering at a hospital so we'll see how that works out too!) (sorry for the long post and horrid grammar I'm at work) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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