In Need of Good Experience for Health Care Education?

Question: Where to get good experience for health care education? I will either be working at a local clinic where ever I serve, or help educate the public on good Hygiene, or Aids awareness. Any suggestions will be appreciated.

Answer1:

Don't sweat it, you're halfway there. Of my group in 2008 about 12 volunteers were HE. Of those, two were actual health professionals, a retired physical therapist and a registered nurse. The remainder were simply interested in health promotion and education. To my knowledge they had exactly zero prior health industry volunteering experience. Their work was mainly to give presentations and awareness campaigns to teenagers and school groups about proper hand washing, no smoking, AIDS, sexual health, tooth cleaning, and personal hygiene.

The best things for you to be studying up on are project management and grass roots mobilization. Learn to be a solid public speaker. Read about basic psychology and sociology. Dig into examples of how teachers motivate children and you'll find almost all of it applies to groups of adults as well. Basically, if you prepare for small children you can't go wrong.

It won't be like American jobs where you can just give someone an assignment and they complete it, either good or bad. Most people I worked with wouldn't take an initiative without me being present as the excuse, "the American wants this done." Your job will be to constantly be supportive and maintain positive leadership.

This applies to every sector of the Peace Corps by the way, not just Health.

Source(s):

The book "Only Bees Die" and my life in the Peace Corps. RPCV Albania '08-'09.

Answer2:

I qualified to be a health volunteer by virture of having Red Cross certification. Don't stress yourself out over qualifying.

The suggestion to volunteer at a hospital is excellent, though you should keep in mind that as a PCV it's not likely you'll be working in health in that kind of hands-on capacity. You'll be teaching and trying to educate people, so really, what you should be after is simply sharpening your communicating and leadership skills.

Maybe you can try the Red Cross -- become certified in CPR and First Aid and then consider teaching classes. I have gone into schools with the disaster planning program at my local chapter, but there are other opportunities out there, too.

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