Finding the Right Healthcare Volunteer Opportunity

When a healthcare professional considers volunteering there are many questions that runs through their mind. Should I volunteer at home or abroad? What do I want to do exactly? How do I find the right organization?

Volunteering is an exciting opportunity on multiple levels and many nurses, doctors and allied health workers look for a chance to volunteer at some point during their careers.

For healthcare professionals, the world really is their oyster when it comes to volunteering. Skilled healthcare workers are always in demand because there are millions of people that don’t have access to the health services they so desperately need. Finding the right organization can be daunting but if you take the time to really think about what your passions are, what you hope to achieve from your volunteer work, and what your tolerance levels are then you should be able to find the right opportunity for you.

The first step in the process should be identifying what you are passionate about and where you feel your efforts would be best utilized. Take some time and think about what areas you care most about. It’s a good idea to make a ranked list to help you sort out your priorities. Are you passionate about pediatrics? The elderly? AIDS prevention and treatment? Women’s health? Community education? Training locals? There are limitless possibilities.

Finding something that you care deeply about is important and can make your volunteer experience that much more fulfilling but be careful of choosing something too personal. It can make your job very difficult if you are too emotionally involved in the area you choose to volunteer in. You don’t want to make the mistake of burning out emotionally and/or physically. Make sure to take care of yourself so that you can take care of others.

This second step should be taken in conjunction with the first and includes an analysis of your skills and abilities. What specifics areas do you have training in? Do you speak any other languages? How physically fit are you? (This is an important question for those people looking to work in remote areas where they may have to walk long distances or help transport supplies.) Do you have experience dealing with traumatized people from war-torn countries? Do you have experience training or educating others? The answers to these types of questions will leave you with a better understanding of where your skills would be best put to use.

The third step is to question your tolerance level for certain things. This will help you identify the different environments and situations you would be comfortable working in. Some questions you may want to think about include:

1. What risks to my personal safety am I willing to take? The level of risk you are willing to take should extend beyond just volunteering in war-torn or unstable regions but should include an evaluation of environmental risks, such as exposure to tropical disease, working in areas prone to natural disasters, etc.

2. Can I handle dealing with a language barrier? If the answer is no, then you have substantially narrowed your search parameters and your search should be that much easier. If yes, than you have a wealth of options available to you.
3. Am I am able to deal with dramatically different cultures? Be honest with yourself about your limits and, if you answer no, then you should only look to organizations that operate within your own country or countries with cultures similar to your own.

4. Am I able to handle extreme temperature and weather? If not, only look for opportunities in temperate climates.

5. Other things to consider: the hours an organization expects you to work, the costs associated with a particular organization, the conditions of the facilities you would be working in, rural vs. urban environments, food requirements and living arrangements.

The fourth thing you may want to consider is your reason for volunteering. This can greatly affect your choice of organization. Is this purely for altruistic reasons? For travel purposes? Are you looking for an adventure? To challenge yourself? To develop new skills? Meet new people?

Whatever your reason there are certainly organizations out there that will better help you realize your goals. Figuring out your purpose beforehand will only help you identify the right organization for you.

The final step, and probably the most important, is to DO YOUR RESEARCH. Narrow your search down to 5 organizations based on the criteria you’ve established after going through the steps above. Then, delve deep into each organization’s vision, past missions, requirements, costs, pros and cons, etc. Do your best to find testimonials, ratings and recommendations on the web so that you can hear what other people’s experiences have been with a particular organization. Also, if you volunteer with one organization and it isn’t the experience you were looking for, don’t give up, just re-evaluate and start the process again. You’ll find what you’re looking for.

“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.”
~Anne Frank

CHECK OUT:
peoplemenders' volunteer organization listings
Our YouTube video series on Healthcare Volunteer Experiences

The Devil's Advocate Makes the Case for Drug Legalization

There is always a lot of controversy surrounding the topic of drug legalization and recent events in California have stirred up the debate again as the movement to legalize marijuana gains momentum.

A lot of people are afraid of drugs. Stories of drug-related crime, overdoses, promising people who die too young and families torn apart by addiction are common and, let’s be honest, make for more compelling news and reality shows than people who dabble in drugs and are unaffected. This is not to say that these stories aren’t true, but one has to wonder how representative they are of what’s happening in the real world. So considering this media bias towards sensationalism and toeing the line when it comes to government policy and the USA’s “War on Drugs” this entry is going to serve as a platform for the devil’s advocate to look at the issue from the other side.

It’s important to recognize how our views of certain drugs change over time. For example, alcohol was once considered a virulent and evil drug that had the potential to instigate the breakdown of society. Now, of course, our views have changed. We know that alcohol is basically an unhealthy habit that, when taken in excess, causes people to make bad choices, potentially get violent and occasionally die from drinking too much. However, we also know that it causes people to relax in social situations, dance the night away and encourage normally stoic men to declare their love for one another. Moderation is the difference between having a great time and making a fool of yourself, or, worst case scenario, ending up in the hospital.

This is not to say that as time goes on our society becomes more and more permissive. The recent decline in the popularity of cigarettes demonstrates that, with continued education on the harmful effects of a drug, our attitudes can change and, as that drug becomes less socially acceptable, our habits change with them.

Marijuana too has received its fair share of unjust criticism. Who can forget the display of fear-mongering and unintentional hilarity in old American propaganda films like Reefer Madness? Click here to check out a classic scene from that particular movie.

These types of films were distributed to scare the public and it worked. These videos seem ridiculous to most of us now but some of the notions they propagated are still alive and well. Check out this blurb about “killer weed” on Fox News.

We all know that it’s possible to die from consuming too much alcohol but in all my research I was unable to find any evidence that there have been any deaths from an “overdose” of marijuana (this does not include accidents, whether in a vehicle or otherwise). Even the DEA or Drug Enforcement Administration’s 1988 report on the “Matter of Rescheduling Marijuana” concludes that, “Simply stated, researchers have been unable to give (test) animals enough marijuana to induce death …In practical terms, marijuana cannot induce a lethal response as a result of drug-related toxicity”.

In terms of other illegal drugs, we really don’t know how addictive they actually are, though there are some studies that compare the addictive properties of different drugs (see graph below). As you can see Nicotine and Cocaine have equivalent ratings when each of their ratings are added up.

Source: Jack E. Henningfield, PhD, for the National Institute of Drug Abuse, Reported by Philip J. Hilts, New York Times, Aug. 2, 1994 "Is Nicotine Addictive? It Depends on Whose Criteria You Use." Source Website


Of course we all know that drugs are addictive on some level, whether it is physical, habitual or emotional, but it’s hard to know how the majority of people would respond to them. A commonly held belief is that most users become addicts. Now let’s say for a minute that that is actually true. Is that because of the incredibly addictive nature of the drug or is it because many habitual users have addictive tendencies and are most likely in negative personal situations that can push them towards excessive drug use? It is hard to say how well-adjusted, happy, healthy people would react to the same drugs. Would they become instantly addicted as we are often led to believe? Or would they be able to dabble in these drugs in moderation for social purposes on an occasional basis? There just isn’t enough information one way or another to make a definitive statement.

Now, with the question of addiction remaining just that, a question, let’s look at what some of the other possible outcomes of drug legalization could be. If drugs were legalized there would be little else for organized crime to do beyond arms deals and prostitution. All of the gang-related drug violence would cease to exist. There would be nothing to fight over. Of course opponents of legalization would point out that a black market for harder and cheaper drugs could still crop up after legalization. That may be true, for a while, but if you think about when prohibition ended and fast forward to today, is there a rampant black market for the sale of alcohol? Not really. Sure, some people buy for minors but people aren’t setting up distilleries in their basements and selling bottles of absinthe in alleys. What’s the reason? I imagine it is because the majority of people don’t actually want to break the law.If they can get it legally and for a reasonable price, most will.

Beyond the potential for reduced crime there could be huge benefits from regulating these substances. The first would be quality. The drugs could be processed to be less intense and without any of the unusual and dangerous “additives” that the current producers of illegal drugs have no scruples about mixing into their product. Furthermore, these drugs would be produced in a safe manner; no more homes exploding because of a meth lab in the attic. To quote Tom Ammiano, a California State Assemblyman, “prohibition is chaos and regulation is control”.

In the past many of the drugs that are now illegal were used for medicinal purposes and in some cases still are. Heroin can be used to control severe pain, while cocaine can be used as a local anaesthetic. Cocaine used to be sold over-the-counter in tonics, as a toothache medication and, of course, we all know that it was an ingredient in the original Coca-Cola. Legalization would allow the medical community to fully explore the potential benefits of these drugs.  

Another bonus is the potential revenue source from taxing the heck out of these new products. Taxing makes it less appealing to make a habit out of using these drugs and the additional revenue could go towards prevention and education. Perhaps the additional money would be best spent on social services for the most vulnerable members of society, who are the most likely candidates for, not only drug use, but, more seriously, drug abuse.

On a global scale, the legalization of drugs would have a huge impact. Cross border drug crime would cease to be a problem and poorer countries would stop being penalized and pushed around on the global stage for their roles in the drug trade. In Afghanistan for example, how much easier would the war effort there be if all of the problems with poppy farming became a non-issue? Instead of inflicting our morality on people who have very few options for making a living, and subsequently driving them into the arms of the very people we hoped to “liberate” them from, we might actually gain their trust and support. America’s “War on Drugs” would be over and those precious resources could be put to better use. Not to mention the fact that resentment in South American countries over the intrusion and meddling of the DEA in their domestic affairs would finally have the chance to cool.

The DEA states that “legalization would result in an unacceptably high number of drug-addicted Americans”. That sort of statement leads many people to believe that making drugs legal will lead to mass addiction rates because everyone will try them, and, of course, be instantly hooked. To those people I have only one question, would you try them? Because I don’t really see myself stepping up to the counter at 7-Eleven and saying “You know what? I was just popping in for a Kit Kat but let’s throw in that package of heroin while you’re at it”. Just because it’s legal doesn’t mean everyone will try it and just because some people will try it doesn’t mean they will all like it. Furthermore, out of the ones that do like it, we really don’t know how many will become truly addicted.

The devil’s advocate rests. Defenders of the status quo are now called to make their case.