What do your volunteers do?

Specialties PICU

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Specializes in Burn/Trauma PCU.

I'm doing my prerequisite classes right now to get into nursing classes, and I'd like to volunteer at the hospital nearby, which happens to have a fantastic peds and PICU department. Right now, that's where I'd eventually like to work (PICU) and I'd love to volunteer there, if I can.

What I'd love to know from all you wonderful PICU nurses is, what sorts of things do the volunteers on your floor do?

Thanks! :)

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Specializes in Paed Ortho, PICU, CTICU, Paeds Retrieval.

Volunteers? I don't think I've seen those in the UK. What do they do?

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Specializes in Nurse Anesthetist.

Volunteers are generally not permitted in a high level/acuity PICU. The kids are too sick to even be touched too much. BUT, that said. Every once in a while we will have a kid who could be held or played with and they have no parent that visits. (Beleive it or not)

So holding, rocking and playing with the kids helps alot. You will learn a lot from the nurses if you let them know that you want to learn. She can teach you about that specific pt.

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Specializes in NICU, Infection Control.

NICUs in some hospitals have volunteers who hold convalescing infants, premies and newborns who were sick and are now stable, but too sick to go home. Parents can't be there all the time, so this is a valuable service for the babies.

Check w/local hospitals for volunteer opportunities. Also, remember that the nurses may not be able to discuss too much about a specific pt because of patient confidentiality.

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Volunteers? I don't think I've seen those in the UK. What do they do?

Volunteers are people who work for organizations, without pay.

Most volunteers work for non-profit agencies.

I was a volunteer at my Local Veteran's Administration Hospital when I was a teenager.

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Specializes in Paed Ortho, PICU, CTICU, Paeds Retrieval.
Volunteers are people who work for organizations, without pay.

Most volunteers work for non-profit agencies.

I was a volunteer at my Local Veteran's Administration Hospital when I was a teenager.

:rotfl: :rotfl: I didn't mean to look for a definition of a volunteer, I simply meant that I didn't know what a volunteer would do on a PICU!! Apologies for the poorly worded post :rotfl: :rotfl:

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Specializes in NICU, PICU, PCVICU and peds oncology.

Volunteers? What volunteers? I know our hospital has them because there are signs up all over the place praising the important work they do. But I wouldn't recognize one if I tripped over her. One of the most helpful things volunteers can do for the PICU setting is to look after the families. As in helping them find their way around the hospital and its environs, making sure they get away for breaks, providing them with magazines and other distractions, finding them a pillow and blanket if they just can't bear to leave but are out on their feet and just being there for support. These very important tasks are often neglected because the nurses just don't have the resources to do their jobs AND this too. Good luck!

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I volunteer in the NICU with the babies that are well enough to be held and bottle fed. I LOVE IT~

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I volunteer in the NICU with the babies that are well enough to be held and bottle fed. I LOVE IT~

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