How do you all feel about volunteers???

lovingtheunloved, ASN, RN · May 13, 2006

Hello everyone! I'm very excited that I found this site! (I'm already addicted, weird huh??)....
Anyway.... I'm starting school this fall.... I have 4 pre-reqs to take before I can apply for the RN program. So to help me out I have been volunteering for our local community hospital. I started in April and have worked about 12 hours so far. My question to those of you who are already working.... How do you feel towards volunteers? Are they helpful? A nusiance? Do they seem to be in your way? Do people look down on them? What about CNA's?? Everyone who I've met so far has said "how wonderful the volunteers are..." but the feeling I've gotten from the people around me is that we are more annoying than anything....
I really am doing it more for the experience more than anything.... but it does feel good to be doing something with my free time (I'm a SAHM).... I just feel like when I approach someone at the nurses station... they have better things to do than to ask what I'm there for....:chair:
I've only been in training so far, and once I get on the floor I'll be mostly on my own... so maybe that will make a difference.
I guess I'm just wondering if this is worth my time? TIA!

A good volunteer is worth her weight in gold. Unfortunately most of our volunteers where I work are 16 year old PIAs who tell me how to do my job. (Well, they tell me ONCE. They never make that mistake twice.)

meownsmile, BSN, RN · May 13, 2006

Oh i think it can be. It is nice to have someone to push a patient to the exit when they are discharged, or accomany a staff to help someone in a car when they are discharged.

Keep busy,, although you cant really do anything with the patients you can fill water pitchers, answer lights and get staff for the patient. Sometimes just talk to a patient that is particularly "needy" can give staff a break from the call light going off all the time. Just remember you cant really DO anything regarding patient care.

texas2007, BSN, RN · May 13, 2006

I volunteered in an ICU last summer and to be honest, felt like it was a waste of my time. I obviously couldn't do patient care, or even get near the patients for that matter, so I was stationed at the front desk/nurses station. My sole duty for my 4 hour shift was to press the button to unlock the doors whenever someone needed to come in or leave the unit. It was awful! I would ask if they needed help with ANYTHING and nothing ever needed to be done, so I started bringing homework and magazines (sorry, not staring at the wall for 4 hours) and noticed the bad looks I would get even though there was literally nothing there I could have done to help out, besides pressing the button. I eventually asked to transfer to another unit where I didn't need to bring homework. I learned so much more there and actually felt like I was helping. I think the key to being a successful volunteer is mainly picking the right unit. Good luck!

grentea · May 13, 2006

I agree that the key to having a good time volunteering is to find the right unit. On my rehab unit we would :heartbeat love :heartbeat to have some volunteer helpers. A lot of our patients stay for 2-3 weeks and we try to do activities with them, but we hardly have the time. We used to have a rec therapist but I think with a budget cut, that ended. My patients could really use some company sometimes! Visiting patients who don't get a lot of visitors is always a good thing to do. Playing games with individual patients or a few (if there's a common area) or just talking with a lonely patient would help so much. I know that at my hospital, there was just a new program starting to help patients who can't feed themselves very well. The volunteers will sometimes come up at mealtimes and help to feed those patients. (Not on my floor because it's rehab and the patients have to be able to feed themselves but on the med surg floors.) It's an incredible help because sometimes it can take a long time to feed a patient and feeding really isn't something that should be rushed. I'd be willing to bet that your hospital has some patients like that who need help with eating. You can come over to my hospital any time and volunteer. I'd keep you busy!

allnurses Guide · May 13, 2006

I work nights and would LOVE to have a few volunteers around! Come volunteer at my hospital!

Seriously though... at my hospital, volunteers are only here during the day, and they generally work at information desks and such. During the summer we have teenagers on the floors that pass water pitchers and feed patients and such.

So, I really don't know what it's like to have them around. It would probably be nice. :)

**canoehead, BSN, RN** · May 13, 2006

I have loved volunteers, with only one exception.

Working in OB and discharged a couple with a fetal demise, and the volunteer that came to wheel her to the front door asked, "Where's the baby?" I changed the subject quickly, hoping she'd get the picture, but she kept asking. Remember that no matter what you see there may be more to the story. Confidentiality as a volunteer is just as important as it is for staff.

PamUK · May 13, 2006

We have volunteers at my hospital, and now they are great. Not so at first becasue they were just given free range to do what they wanted and interferred with care, gave advice to patients etc. We put them in an orientation programme now and their duties are spelled out to them. we dont allow them to do anything that a paid member of staff is ther to do. So they escort visitors to ward so they dont get lost or do messages for patients who aren't moble, give cups of tea/coffee that are additional to normal routine... that sort of thing. I find some of them are a bit "precious" about themselves (most of them are wealthy middle aged women who dont do paid work outside the home and want to feel valued) But we also have a paid volunteer coordinator who is excellent about assessing what there skills and personalities are and were best to place them, We also run a simple hand and foot massage service and they just go around the wards adn radiothery treatment areas doing that. They are given full training for that and it is really well evaluated. All in all, I dont find ours a pain nowadays.

Antikigirl, ASN, RN · May 13, 2006

I adore our volunteers, and value them very much! I have never thought of them as a nuisance at all...never never! They work very hard, and care so very much that they donate their own time to do this!!! I LOVE IT!

Congrats and have fun!

justavolunteer · May 13, 2006

I'm a volunteer myself & the reaction I get from the staff has been wonderful!

The nurses love it when they go to give someone a pill & they don't have to make a second trip to get a person water too! I can run errands, stock supplies & such (a lot of little things that don't always get done). The pts. are generally appreciative too.

The poster who mentioned volunteering in the ICU would be exactly I wouldn't want to be an ICU volunteer. Most of the patients are so sick that the only thing they need is skilled care. Not much for a volunteer to help with.

Marie_LPN, RN, LPN, RN · May 13, 2006

We have GREAT volunteers.

Ours have be trained to only ask "do we have everything?" before taking a discharged pt. to their car. This is to avoid the "where's the baby" question.

okapple · May 13, 2006

I was a volunteer at a children's hospital. My job was to bring books and movies around. So I did have patient contact, just not in a patient-care sort of way. The only time I ever felt like I was in the way was when I visited the PICU, where everyone is busy and stressed and has no time for books and movies anyway.

Even though I wasn't doing anything nurse-wise, it was an excellent opportunity to take in the hospital environment. I also learned the value of knocking on doors, washing hands and wearing face masks before walking into immunocompromised patients' rooms. All in all, it was a good experience and I did feel appreciated.

And I got accepted into all nursing schools I applied to, so it must have had some value (: