Volunteering as a student nurse

[EaglesWings21, ASN, RN]

Tomorrow is my first day volunteering as a student nurse in a downtown hospital. I took a tour a few weeks ago and it is crazy!! Does anyone have any words of wisdom to share with me? I cannot do any sort of patient care but I don't want to get in anybody's way answering call lights!

[Nurseinthemaking20]

I'm volunteering too. It can be slightly frustrating because everytime I come I ask what can I do to help, but everyone is so busy they seem like they don't even want to be bothered by me. It's like hello, I'm here to help!

[xoemmylouox, ASN, RN]

It depends what dept you are volunteering at. When I was a student I was in the ER. I helped turn around rooms. Sticking, cleaning, taking warm blankets to patients when staff asked, etc. it was a huge help to them.

[ChristineN, BSN, RN]

I'm volunteering too. It can be slightly frustrating because everytime I come I ask what can I do to help but everyone is so busy they seem like they don't even want to be bothered by me. It's like hello, I'm here to help![/quote']

The nurses may not be utilizing you because there may be very little within your scope that you can do. At my hospital, volunteer's skills are very limited. They can spend time with pts, play with peds, get water/snacks for pts (after checking with nurse), transport pts to procedures, answer phones, and run errands. The amount of actual pt care most volunteers get is very little because of how restrictive our policies are.