Promoting Volunteer Programs

 

A very pressing issue in the field of healthcare today is the lack of communication between healthcare professionals. Through my experience volunteering and shadowing I have been exposed to the day-to-day activity of doctors, physician assistants, and nurses. These experiences have opened my eyes to the lack of communication between healthcare professionals. This is something that needs to be fixed and hospitals everywhere are taking steps towards fixing the lack of communication but not all hospitals are there yet.

 

As mentioned in my first key insight, I am a volunteer at palmetto health hospital. Volunteers have the ability to greatly increase the communication between the medical professionals with in hospitals. Personally, I have had experiences where a nurse needs to give a message to a doctor but they cannot leave the patient they’re tending to but I am able to go talk to the doctor and tell them what the nurse needs them to hear. Not all hospitals have a volunteering program, mainly because I think it is something that is hard to implement, but once its there it is very effective.

 

Within the next 5 years I hope to be working at a hospital that has a volunteering program, but if they do not I hope to have the ability to start one. In order to do this these are the steps I would follow:

 

1. Verify the need for the new program.

2. Understand the budget of the hospital and look to see where money can be allocated to create the volunteer program.

   1. ​Since the volunteers are not paid, the money would need to be used to pay volunteer directors and other people who organize the program. 

3. Talking to the units within the hospital that may need/want volunteers.

   1. Market the success of volunteer programs at other hospitals. Show the nurses and doctors that volunteers can be a huge help. They can enhance communication between medical professionals and they can allow the nurses and doctors to have more time with the patients. Volunteers can complete tasks such as restocking patient rooms, or utility closets etc. 

4. Market the new program to students or people within the community that would be interested in giving back.

   1. Mainly focus on college students, specifically those that are interested in going into the medical field following graduation. Volunteering will allow them to see first hand what it is like to be in a hospital and around patients.

5. Finally talk to the board of the hospital and present my plan for the volunteer program. 

 

I think my background in volunteering would help me take the right steps and involve the right people to get this program up and running. The impact volunteers are able to have on a hospital is irreplaceable. They are able to do things that the nurses and doctors are not able to do because they are tending to patients. Volunteer programs are able to increase the time doctors and nurses spend with patients, which is the most important and on top of that, they are able to enhance the communication between medical professionals. In the long run increased communication can only lead to positive changes within the hospital.