Hospital Volunteering Options

So I have some options to choose from when I volunteer:

(1) I could help at the Information Desk, directing or escorting people to certain areas of the hospital and answering questions. This one doesn't appeal to me as much and probably wouldn't get me much credit in the eyes of the admissions people, though who knows.
(2) Gift shop. Again, not much appeal there.
(3) Cuddler program, help out in the neonatal intensive care unit, be a "gentle, loving presence" and hold premature infants. This one appeals to me, and would give me some patient contact, though not a wide variety of patient contact.
(4) Hostess cart. Serve coffee and tea to visitors. Not much appeal there.
(5) Emergency department. Provide support and compassionate care to patients and their families. Probably the best choice for a pre-health student in my mind. Sounds more taxing to me than the cuddler program but maybe I could do some of both.
(6) Special Projects. Helping with blood drives, making baby hats for the NICU, helping with clerical needs, delivering newspapers and flowers, making welcoming cards, etc. I could probably do some of this but it doesn't sound like a whole lot of patient contact.
(7) Evening Shift. Doesn't specify what they do but also might be a good choice.

When I interview I will probably tell them I am interested in both the emergency department and the cuddler program and see what happens from there. Maybe I can try out all of the various types of volunteer services.

Turning to Volunteer Work

About a week and a half ago now, I applied for another job, working front desk at an assisted living home. One of my walking buddies who works there let me know that the part time position was opening up, and I hoped that having that personal connection would get me an in, but apparently it didn't.

So I'm coming up on the end of March already (gasp! it's already the 23rd). If I want to show that I have some medical experience before the nursing school application process begins I need to get on that now, regardless of having an actual paid job in the field or not. It also is starting to seem like volunteer work may be necessary to get a foot in the door to a paid job. There was another opening at United Blood Services in the last couple of weeks but they specified that you could have no other time commitments (strike 1 against me, I'm a part time student) and that you needed a minimum of 6 months previous medical experience. No luck there for me.

One of the local hospitals has a formal volunteer program set up. I figure if I apply now, and I get lucky in terms of the whole orientation process going through in a timely manner (which it might not), it still will be quite a push to get 200 hours done by July 1st. If they do the scheduling like the humane society I used to volunteer with did it (all online, sign up for whatever shifts you want that are available), I could easily do 40ish hours over spring break, but they might not do it that way at all. We'll see.

I am going to go to the hospital and pick up an application tonight.

The nursing school I am applying to gives more credit in the application process for hours *worked* than for hours *volunteered* but there's not much I can do about that at this point other than keep applying, and in the mean time I should start the volunteer as a backup.

...and further frustration.

Yesterday I got a call from one of the elderly care facilities I applied to work for as a caregiver. They asked me if I could come in for an interview in the next few days. I was scheduled to work this afternoon but I thought, hey, why not... this is going to be my lucky break that starts turning things around! (when did I start considering the opportunity to help old people with hygiene a "lucky break"?)

So I took the afternoon off work -- I probably would have anyway, as I'm really not feeling well, came down with bronchitis last weekend. But I did my best to scrape myself together, went to my lab class in the morning, and was planning to go for my interview at 3.

However, on my way home from campus to change into my interview clothes and pretty up, I got a second call from them saying they had already found someone, and not to bother coming in after all.

This is so frustrating :(

There is another community college teaching position up. It's full time, somewhat outside of my subject area, and though it doesn't say so in the posting, according to my lab instructor they are looking for someone to be full time in "north county" which is about an hour from where I live. I don't see doing that commute 5 days per week, even if I could land the job.

I had to take some money out of my retirement savings this month to cover rent. I'm hoping the IRS won't charge me 10% off the top for an early distribution because I am an (over) half time student.

I haven't done that cardiac arrhythmia class yet, still... I'm just feeling kind of hopeless. Maybe that should be my goal for this weekend so I can start applying for tech monitor jobs at hospitals, too.