City Rounds

The Collegiate Medical Volunteers program lets young physician-hopefuls get an idea of what it really means to be a doctor.

by Kathleen O'Neil

As a young girl, Sabrina Middleton wanted to be a doctor. And now, after graduating from USC, she is even more intent on applying to medical school.

She gained her determined enthusiasm after she was able to experience what a physician’s work life is really all about. Middleton is one of about 160 college students or graduates in the Collegiate Medical Volunteers program at Los Angeles County+USC Medical Center. The five-year-old program offers the chance to learn first-hand about the daily routine of medical students and physicians.

The program, started by a group of six USC students, has volunteers rotate through pediatrics, obstetrics/gynecology, emergency medicine and internal medicine in the course of a year. In addition to students from USC, current program participants come from UCLA, Occidental College, Mount St. Mary’s College, Harvey Mudd College and UC Irvine, among others. They must volunteer for at least four hours a week and accumulate a total of at least 200 hours.

During their time at the hospital, volunteers shadow doctors and medical students while they attend to their patients, explains Mani Nezhad, program manager of the Collegiate Medical Volunteers and a volunteer himself. In addition, he says, the program participants provide more traditional volunteer services such as moving patients, delivering specimens, providing translation services and retrieving gurneys. But the program’s educational focus is what makes it so valuable to students considering medical careers.

“Both my parents are doctors, so I had insight into clinical experience, but I was oblivious to what goes on in a hospital,” Nezhad says. “The best part is interacting with physicians and seeing what they do.”

Coco Ceja, director of volunteer services at LAC+USC Medical Center, says the program has brought in needed assistance and benefits for both the hospital and the volunteers.

“It’s a mutual gain; our patients get a fresh face and a smile, and the volunteers get to be exposed to medicine from the human side, not just clinical knowledge,” Ceja says. “Seeing how a doctor humbly tells a patient that he has cancer, or carefully encourages a physically challenged patient provides an important education.” Middleton and Nezhad agree.

“During the time I was a volunteer, I saw the compassion of the doctors,” Middleton says. “That was a valuable observation, to see how veteran doctors deal with situations.”

For more information on the Collegiate Medical Volunteers program, visit their Web site at http://www.cmvprogram.com.