Getting Started - Hospital Volunteering

Anyone thinking about doing Medicine at University should know that Voluntary Work in a hospital or care home and shadowing of a GP or Consultant is basically compulsory to apply.
It shows universities about your dedication to Medicine, and also that you have some understanding of what the career entails, and if you really want to pursue it. However this can be difficult to arrange, and everyone advises you arrange it for during your AS's. Also it gives you something to put on your personal statement and something to talk about in that dreaded medicine interview :).

So today I rang up my local NHS Trust to ask about volunteering, and it turns out they have a very good programme for 16-25 year olds which starts recruiting from the first week of September.
I'm actually quite excited about this, and really hoping I get a place. It should give me a lot more experience on the wards and of the sorts of things I might have to become use to if I become a Doctor, such as people facing depression and death and very difficult social situations.
I often find with hospitals that the people you see there are always at their most vulnerable... or perhaps their most defensive, and that hospitals contain every emotion on the spectrum. This takes some getting use too, and I think any experience you can get is invaluable.
There are different posts you can apply for, some working with patients with cancer and with the palliative care team. Others include helping with busy outpatient clinics and organising Admin etc. Some are more care based, such as helping patients with eating and befriending them if they are lonely. All very good work :). I wonder if I'll get that sense of satisfaction from helping people that everyone talks about.
Another opportunity I found was to work with the "League of Friends" (I don't live near Oxford, they just have a description of their work), however they mainly work in the cafes and pushing trolleys round the wards and as I want more medical based experience I decided it wasn't for me, even though the kind woman down the phone tried a good job at convincing me to join.

So now it's just waiting till September!!