WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:18.800 What about these wheels here? 2 00:00:19.360 --> 00:00:20.440 Well, it's changing. 3 00:00:27.160 --> 00:00:28.620 Well, let's see if it works. 4 00:00:36.300 --> 00:00:42.440 Well, we've got a success here. 5 00:00:43.380 --> 00:00:45.520 Let's see, what should we do here with it? 6 00:00:47.000 --> 00:00:49.220 People seek fulfillment in many ways. 7 00:00:49.220 --> 00:00:56.040 Don, a successful businessman, has found a great deal of satisfaction serving as a hospital volunteer. 8 00:00:59.220 --> 00:01:04.180 The more I cared, volunteering brings fulfillment in a variety of ways. 9 00:01:06.520 --> 00:01:07.380 How's that feel? 10 00:01:08.540 --> 00:01:08.940 Sleepy. 11 00:01:09.160 --> 00:01:12.320 Sleepy? How did you feel getting the, how do you think John felt getting the shot? 12 00:01:14.240 --> 00:01:14.760 Scared. 13 00:01:15.020 --> 00:01:17.460 Scared? Is it all better afterwards? 14 00:01:17.460 --> 00:01:17.940 Yes. 15 00:01:17.940 --> 00:01:19.180 How's he feeling now? 16 00:01:19.560 --> 00:01:19.860 Fine. 17 00:01:20.240 --> 00:01:24.640 Okay. Are you ready for your operation now? To get ready to go up to the operating room? 18 00:01:24.920 --> 00:01:25.240 Yes. 19 00:01:25.560 --> 00:01:26.020 Okay. 20 00:01:28.860 --> 00:01:39.300 She says yes, she would very much like to stay with her child if that's allowed and I've explained to her that the parents can stay here 24 hours a day and they can sleep here and everything. 21 00:01:54.080 --> 00:01:55.200 Thank you. 22 00:01:55.200 --> 00:01:58.680 Thank you, Angela. 23 00:02:00.120 --> 00:02:00.940 Hi, Polly. 24 00:02:01.500 --> 00:02:05.960 That's $4.80, $4.90, $5.00. Would you like a bag? 25 00:02:06.000 --> 00:02:06.820 Oh, no, thank you. 26 00:02:06.820 --> 00:02:08.200 Okay. Thank you. 27 00:02:10.500 --> 00:02:13.540 Everybody just stand around. That's right. 28 00:02:14.320 --> 00:02:17.440 I want to welcome you this morning to our hospital and to our hospital's hospital. 29 00:02:17.440 --> 00:02:19.700 Welcome to our health education program. 30 00:02:20.280 --> 00:02:29.600 In a dark, dark valley nestled among the trees, all of a sudden a storm blew up. 31 00:02:32.380 --> 00:02:36.320 And we were caught in the dark and it began to rain. 32 00:02:38.200 --> 00:02:41.320 We saw lightning and heard thunder. 33 00:02:43.440 --> 00:02:44.840 We screamed. 34 00:02:47.160 --> 00:02:51.380 Okay, Mike, let's start with the first line here. 35 00:02:52.100 --> 00:02:53.000 I like the serious. 36 00:02:53.000 --> 00:02:57.140 Serious, right. You've got that. Let's see. The diagonal word. 37 00:02:57.840 --> 00:02:58.880 Thank you. 38 00:02:59.060 --> 00:03:00.420 Good. That's a long one. 39 00:03:00.420 --> 00:03:05.560 It was the strangest thing they'd ever seen. Well, tell us, boy, what do you mean? 40 00:03:05.920 --> 00:03:09.120 The whole thing said, but it never liked a little weird sucker up. 41 00:03:10.720 --> 00:03:14.100 So I once said, boy, for quite some time, it seemed all right. 42 00:03:14.400 --> 00:03:20.400 For a little while, he'd seen some pretty green thing trying to make it down the road in the rain and lower heat. 43 00:03:20.400 --> 00:03:27.340 An in-depth personal interview prior to a volunteer beginning service helps determine the best placement for that volunteer. 44 00:03:27.340 --> 00:03:29.360 Donnie, have you done volunteer work before? 45 00:03:31.140 --> 00:03:42.520 Well, about three weeks ago I was listening to the radio and there was an appeal for people to drive kidney patients to and from the hospital for dialysis. 46 00:03:43.580 --> 00:03:48.100 And so I picked up the phone and volunteered. And I did it. 47 00:03:48.800 --> 00:03:51.240 What do you like or not like about that experience? 48 00:03:52.720 --> 00:03:56.760 Well, it worked out real well. It was very rewarding. 49 00:03:56.760 --> 00:04:03.200 I transported a couple of people who were very grateful. 50 00:04:03.820 --> 00:04:08.420 It was a life and death situation. And I felt like I was really doing something important. 51 00:04:10.700 --> 00:04:15.040 What do you want to get out of your experience here with us at this point? 52 00:04:16.460 --> 00:04:23.960 Well, I've been out in the business world for about ten years now and I kind of feel like something's missing. 53 00:04:26.220 --> 00:04:31.060 I think I could use people contact that's a little more intimate. 54 00:04:33.780 --> 00:04:36.620 And I think that I've got something to give. 55 00:04:38.060 --> 00:04:39.340 What else do you want from us? 56 00:04:41.580 --> 00:04:47.980 I guess in the last couple of years I've discovered something about myself that I'm pretty much growth oriented. 57 00:04:47.980 --> 00:04:54.580 And I guess I see the hospital as a potential for growth for myself. 58 00:04:56.100 --> 00:05:07.800 And I guess somewhere in the back of my mind I also have this fantasy about continuing to do the real estate work that I've been doing kind of on a part-time basis 59 00:05:07.800 --> 00:05:13.260 and maybe getting involved in teaching and working with kids on a full-time basis. 60 00:05:14.600 --> 00:05:18.620 And I just kind of think now's the time. 61 00:05:20.820 --> 00:05:22.300 Okay, let's find the work. 62 00:05:24.740 --> 00:05:31.500 I feel like I have something to give. I'm not sure why. It feels like it's something that I'd like to do. 63 00:05:32.080 --> 00:05:39.060 If there is a need for someone like me to get involved in some program here in the hospital, that that would satisfy a need of mine. 64 00:05:40.260 --> 00:05:47.360 The basic philosophy of volunteer service is that we provide volunteers to staff who have specifically asked for them. 65 00:05:47.700 --> 00:05:54.020 Then they're also undertaking a commitment to volunteers to train, to support people once they're providing service. 66 00:05:54.560 --> 00:06:00.020 We in turn then ask for a commitment from volunteers that we want you to gain, we want staff to gain. 67 00:06:02.060 --> 00:06:09.000 We found that orientation is helpful to new volunteers to acquaint them with the general hospital setup. 68 00:06:10.360 --> 00:06:16.680 It's different. Orientation is different from the training that you receive from staff in that orientation is generally focused 69 00:06:16.680 --> 00:06:22.580 as opposed to the training which is very specifically geared to the things you need to know for the service you're providing. 70 00:06:24.880 --> 00:06:27.860 You've all been here about three or four weeks now. 71 00:06:28.760 --> 00:06:34.000 And what I'd like to ask you now is what you've gotten out of your volunteer service. 72 00:06:35.020 --> 00:06:39.640 I'm currently working for my certification in music therapy at DePaul University. 73 00:06:40.420 --> 00:06:52.480 And having the opportunity to do field work here at the hospital has really brought the theory that I'm learning over at the school 74 00:06:52.480 --> 00:06:56.360 to actual experience. And it's been incredible. 75 00:06:57.680 --> 00:07:01.280 It's interesting to know that this hospital is interested in all children. 76 00:07:01.720 --> 00:07:04.600 Children in the hospital and children out of the hospital. 77 00:07:05.000 --> 00:07:14.600 So I am freeing the staff by doing their hospital education for children, for school children who come in to learn about the hospital 78 00:07:14.600 --> 00:07:17.480 and about health care and health careers. 79 00:07:18.240 --> 00:07:25.760 One of the things that really stands out, I've come to really learn to appreciate the kids and respect them as individuals. 80 00:07:26.600 --> 00:07:31.220 And I work in a large, you know, in a big bank and I come from a large family. 81 00:07:31.320 --> 00:07:35.460 And to me this is really, it's really, it's been great just to know that. 82 00:07:36.620 --> 00:07:42.620 Every Friday night when I leave this hospital after two or two and a half hours of volunteer work with these children, 83 00:07:42.620 --> 00:07:55.640 I feel unbelievably good. They are so brave and so gutsy that it makes me wonder as an adult could I be in the same position as they. 84 00:07:56.360 --> 00:08:00.740 I love what I'm doing, I feel good, and I would have it no other way. 85 00:08:01.260 --> 00:08:04.380 I found that I've become a very important part of the staff team. 86 00:08:04.380 --> 00:08:13.380 I spend time with not just the patients and their families, but I provide support for the staff members as well. 87 00:08:13.720 --> 00:08:17.460 And there are many times when they provide support for me when I need it. 88 00:08:18.260 --> 00:08:22.700 The compensation that I receive is far greater than can be measured. 89 00:08:22.900 --> 00:08:24.620 The kids would respond very negatively. 90 00:08:25.100 --> 00:08:31.940 And part of what he needs is someone who can in a positive way educate him that you don't do it this way, you do it that way. 91 00:08:31.940 --> 00:08:37.640 And sometimes it's just that he doesn't know because he's not had that kind of experience. 92 00:08:38.800 --> 00:08:40.840 That's one I think we can begin providing. 93 00:08:41.600 --> 00:08:46.500 We believe that the end of your service is as important as the beginning of your service here. 94 00:08:46.720 --> 00:08:52.660 So that we do ask that you spend some time at the conclusion of your service to give us an exit interview. 95 00:08:56.440 --> 00:08:59.480 Don left volunteer service to pursue a career change. 96 00:08:59.480 --> 00:09:05.340 Before he left, he complied with the volunteer director's request and met for an exit interview. 97 00:09:05.860 --> 00:09:08.480 How do you keep a healthy perspective about this place? 98 00:09:09.020 --> 00:09:19.020 I found myself surrounded by people who really cared, really sensitive people, the staff people. 99 00:09:20.760 --> 00:09:22.180 I made a lot of friends. 100 00:09:23.680 --> 00:09:28.340 A volunteer's termination is as important as far as I'm concerned as their beginning. 101 00:09:28.340 --> 00:09:32.400 And I think that you've handled your ending here very responsibly. 102 00:09:33.100 --> 00:09:36.660 I felt that I was an important part of what went on. 103 00:09:37.260 --> 00:09:38.320 I got a lot out of it. 104 00:09:38.420 --> 00:09:42.240 I felt like I was part of a support network. 105 00:09:44.200 --> 00:09:46.660 You know, I mentioned the feeling of caring. 106 00:09:47.960 --> 00:09:53.520 I gave what I could not just to the patients but to the parents and to the staff people as well. 107 00:09:53.520 --> 00:10:03.240 The support that I provided a parent, maybe just listening, I kind of felt that that ultimately benefited the kids. 108 00:10:03.540 --> 00:10:09.120 And people were there who cared about me, I guess, because they sensed that I cared about them. 109 00:10:10.680 --> 00:10:17.820 When we first talked down, we talked about the belief that I have that volunteers need to give as well as to get. 110 00:10:18.300 --> 00:10:22.020 And you have talked today a lot about the things that you've gotten. 111 00:10:22.020 --> 00:10:25.240 What, during your time here, have you been giving? 112 00:10:26.640 --> 00:10:29.960 I guess really all I had to give was myself, my time. 113 00:10:31.620 --> 00:10:35.820 And I didn't have to do anything in particular just to be there. 114 00:10:37.580 --> 00:10:43.540 It's one thing to talk about giving and getting, and it's another thing to really feel it. 115 00:10:44.020 --> 00:10:45.020 What makes a good day? 116 00:10:45.020 --> 00:10:53.420 Maybe touching someone who's alone, who's in a room and bored and coming in and helping them to smile, 117 00:10:53.500 --> 00:11:01.440 helping them to get through maybe a shot or a little pain, playing a game with them, you can't measure it. 118 00:11:01.680 --> 00:11:02.660 It's wonderful. 119 00:11:04.680 --> 00:11:10.480 It's awful hard to express in words what my experience here has meant. 120 00:11:10.480 --> 00:11:16.400 For it to have helped me to make a career change certainly would indicate that it was important to me. 121 00:11:16.480 --> 00:11:19.400 Important doesn't really say enough. 122 00:11:19.880 --> 00:11:23.120 It was one of the most important things that I've ever done. 123 00:11:23.740 --> 00:11:34.420 Dealing with people's pain, dealing with people's happiness, life and death situations, it was in many ways overwhelming. 124 00:11:34.420 --> 00:11:40.160 If you were able to spend some time with a new volunteer and give that person some advice, what would it be? 125 00:11:41.420 --> 00:11:50.380 I think when I started I had expectations of going out and conquering the world, and I found myself trying too hard. 126 00:11:50.880 --> 00:11:53.860 And when I realized that there was only so much that I could do, 127 00:11:54.240 --> 00:11:58.280 I backed off a little bit and found that I had more to give by not trying so hard. 128 00:11:58.280 --> 00:12:07.540 And so it really became easy because it just became a matter of being myself, doing what felt right. 129 00:12:08.620 --> 00:12:11.380 What support systems do you think were helpful to you? 130 00:12:11.780 --> 00:12:19.620 There is a genuine feeling of caring that exists on the floor. 131 00:12:22.520 --> 00:12:25.180 And I really felt that people cared about me. 132 00:12:25.180 --> 00:12:26.920 I genuinely cared about them. 133 00:12:28.200 --> 00:12:35.040 And it's like I said before, the more I gave, the more I got back, and the more I cared, the more people cared about me.