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Discussion

Help a volunteer?

Hi! Sorry to horn in, but I'm a pre nursing student who is very interested in ER nursing so I volunteered at my local hospital's ER. However, I'm having some issues, and I'm trying to determine what I should do-am I being a problem, or am I just in a toxic place? Any insight appreciated.

My job as a volunteer is to keep the patients in the waiting room happy as well as buzz visitors back. I love the patients and have had a lot of great experiences with them. However, my problems seem to be with the staff.

1. Policies. The policies and their enforcement seems to change daily depending who is on shift. Sometimes I am expected to be a stickler for all policies. Sometimes I am to be flexible and make my best judgement. I have been yelled at for doing things that would have been perfectly acceptable on a previous shift. (Example: no visitors under 18 is the policy. One shift, the policy is flexible, as long as the nurse in charge of the patient says its ok. Next shift, head nurse yells at me for letting 13 year old back even though nurse in charge of patient said it was ok.)

2. How to treat patients. The hospital staff seems overly jaded when it comes to patients, and expects me to be that way too. Example: frequent flier in wheelchair in waiting room says he needs help going to the bathroom. I inform staff, and staff proceeds to mock patient and tell me he doesn't need help. I inform staff I don't feel comfortable telling patient to pee himself, but they ignore me. I wheel patient to desk so he talk to staff, staff gets sarcastic with me: "Thank you SO MUCH for bringing this problem to my attention!" They state sarcastically.

I could go on with several examples, but it has gotten to the point where I feel sick before the start of my volunteer shifts. I just want to help the patients and help the staff, but the staff is making me feel very unwelcome, and I am wondering if the just wouldn't rather have me not there?

Am I doing things wrong or is this just an impossible situation I should get out of?

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    You will find any place you work, in any environment, you're going to get that.

    If you really want to work in the ER, you have to toughen up.

    I get that now, as an employee, different strokes for different folks.

    My shift, they let anyone back any time. The next shift, they want permission from the pts nurse before any visitors. I show the people to the ER phone and have them call back.

    There is a lot of manipulation by patients. It's not ur job to figure out who's manipulating and who's not. It's also not on you if a pt says they need help, you tell a licensed staff person and then they fall trying to do it themselves.

    I would never tell a patient to pee themselves, but I would let them know you notified the appropriate people and they will assist as soon as they can.

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