Gaining experience during your undergraduate career serves two important purposes. It allows you to explore the health care sector to determine if it is a good career path for you, and it enhances your credentials for applying to a professional program. Many programs require that you complete a minimum number of volunteering (healthcare and non-healthcare related), clinical healthcare experience and/or shadowing hours to be considered for admission.  Consult your pre-professional health advisor for more information about gaining the most ideal experience based on your interests and your healthcare field of interest.

Non-Healthcare Related Experience:

• Volunteering with Vulnerable Populations in RVA: This is a list of organizations that support vulnerable populations around the Richmond Area.  Not all organizations will be looking for volunteers all the time. You can also use the exploration websites to search for the ideal opportunity for you. Focus on serving populations that are underserved, underrepresented and or vulnerable populations.  These populations can find themselves most impacted by poor or limited healthcare related services.  As future healthcare providers, it’s important to develop empathy, compassion and the social skills required to communicate across language, socioeconomic, cultural, spiritual and demographic barriers.  To access this resource, you will need to log-in using your @vcu.edu email (NOT @mymail.vcu.edu)
• VCU Campus Learning Center: Become an SI Leader or Tutor
• Mary and Frances Youth Center
• Church Hill Activities & Tutoring
• HandsOn Greater Richmond
• Chesterfield County Public School
• The Greater Richmond ARC
• Office of Undergraduate Research at VCU
• Undergraduate Research: VCU Biology Department
• Undergraduate Research: VCU Chemistry Department
• UMFS: a nonprofit agency that provides a comprehensive array of programs to meet the needs of high-risk children and parents to enable them to overcome challenging circumstances and succeed.

Healthcare Shadowing:

• Healthcare volunteering opportunities:  Find the ideal volunteer opportunities for you.
• Guide: Getting the most out of your health professions shadowing: The key to shadowing is learning about, growing in, and more fully understanding your field of interest.

• School of Dentistry at VCU Shadowing
• VCU Health Shadowing Opportunities/School of Medicine
• VCU Health Pediatric Shadowing Opportunities
• HCA Virginia
• CENTRA Health
• 32 Creative Ways to Gain OT Experience and Diversify Your Resume 

Healthcare Volunteering:

While volunteering in a healthcare setting, focus on: interactions between patients and healthcare providers, observing procedures and understanding why they are occuring, and understanding responsibilities of all healthcare providers

• Bons Secours – Richmond, VA
• CARES Clinic at VCU
• Center for High Blood Pressure
• Cornerstone Therapy Associates
• Cross Over Ministry – Healthcare and Dental Care
• Daily Planet Health Services 
• Health Brigades (formerly the Fan Free Clinic in Richmond)
• River Run Dental Spa
• Sheltering Arms Physical Rehabilitations Centers
• Treehouse Pediatric Therapy
• Virginia Dental Association Foundation – Volunteering programs
• Virginia Free Clinics

Healthcare Jobs:

• Pharmacy Tech Training Programs
• How to become a Pharmacy Technician in Virginia?: Get paid while getting healthcare experience
• Medical Scribe Training Systems
• Scribekick: Become a Scribe
• Scribe America
• EMT/Paramedic Certifications in VA
• Veteran Affairs: http://www.volunteer.va.gov/StudentProgram.asp
  • Laboratory Medicine
  • Medical Admin
  • Occupational Therapy
  • Physical Therapy
  • Pharmacy
  • Patient Escort
  • Nutrition and Food Service
  • Audiology and Speech pathology