hi, i will be starting nursing school to become a rn in august but i volunteer at a hospital in virginia beach, va. the reason why i started to volunteer was to gain exposure to the nursing profession and b/c i thought that insteading me spending my time lounging around the house i can be helpful to others.
anyways, i volunteer in the vascular lab. they claimed to the volunteer director that they was in great need for a volunteer so i choose to go there instead of somewhere else. every since i started back in april, i never really have anything to do!! it is so boring there that sometimes i wish i can fall asleep. the techs have around 1 patient per 1-2 hours and sometimes have to do bedside service which leaves me in the office looking at screen savers. the techs doesn't seem too friendly either. basically, the stuff that they wish that they can have help with can only be done by them which is filling the patients charts since they are the one that assess them.
the volunteer cordinatior heard about me having not much to do besides stare at the wall and she placed me on the l&d/mother & baby/nicu floor. let's just say that i never got so many cold looks in my life!! i didn't feel welcomed at all. some of the people didn't even say hi to me. i ended up putting newborn assessment papers together(which i was fine with) and when i was finished with that they had me walk around with a care partner who flat out said that she didn't want me (well, she didn't say it but when the nurse ask her i caught her shaking her head no and the nurse kept telling her to be nice.) she gave me a piece of paper of the room numbers and told me to ask patients if they needed water. we prep a couple of rooms and the rest of the time i just stood over to the side while she played with the computer.
basically what i really want to ask is do most nurses, care partners,etc. have a problem with volunteers. how is it at your hospital? i know that you guys are busy but it doesn't take much to make somebody feel welcome. and if you didn't want volunteers, can't you let the charge nurse know so that she won't be begging the volunteer cordinators for some? i know some days are going to be slow with nothing to do and i understand to not try to be in the way but i just felt like i needed to start this thread!
We have volunteers at the NH where I work. But they are so heavily regulated that they can't do much more (less actually) than a family member/visitor could.
I like the volunteers, most of the time. Most of them are really nice people who enjoy being around the residents, and who like to help me when they can. The volunteers and I get along best when they don't do things they know they are not supposed to do and do not take the residents off the hall before I give them their meds, what ever the shift I am on.
I have had several "volunteers" who have come to observe before they come to work. They often have a lot of questions and need a little more time than the average,"just wanting to bring some light into the world" volunteer. I don't mind that. I enjoy explaining the "why" behind nursing care. I really like teaching.
I do mind when I am really swamped (and you can tell when I am swamped)and they are asking questions that I just flat do not have time to answer or are trying to act like they know everything. That is ANNOYING.
You might consider getting your nurses aid licensure. You would be more likely to get hands on experience, and a little $$ never hurt nobody.
weirdRN, RN
586 Posts
We have volunteers at the NH where I work. But they are so heavily regulated that they can't do much more (less actually) than a family member/visitor could.
I like the volunteers, most of the time. Most of them are really nice people who enjoy being around the residents, and who like to help me when they can. The volunteers and I get along best when they don't do things they know they are not supposed to do and do not take the residents off the hall before I give them their meds, what ever the shift I am on.
I have had several "volunteers" who have come to observe before they come to work. They often have a lot of questions and need a little more time than the average,"just wanting to bring some light into the world" volunteer. I don't mind that. I enjoy explaining the "why" behind nursing care. I really like teaching.
I do mind when I am really swamped (and you can tell when I am swamped)and they are asking questions that I just flat do not have time to answer or are trying to act like they know everything. That is ANNOYING.
You might consider getting your nurses aid licensure. You would be more likely to get hands on experience, and a little $$ never hurt nobody.
Hope everything works out for you!