What about these wheels here? Well, it's changing.
Well, let's see if it works.
Well, we've got a success here.
Let's see, what should we do here with it? People seek fulfillment in many ways.
Don, a successful businessman, has found a great deal of satisfaction serving as a hospital volunteer.
The more I cared, volunteering brings fulfillment in a variety of ways.
How's that feel? Sleepy.
Sleepy? How did you feel getting the, how do you think John felt getting the shot? Scared.
Scared? Is it all better afterwards? Yes.
How's he feeling now? Fine.
Okay.
Are you ready for your operation now? To get ready to go up to the operating room? Yes.
Okay.
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.
Thank you.
Thank you, Angela.
Hi, Polly.
That's $4 .80, $4 .90, $5 .00.
Would you like a bag? Oh, no, thank you.
Okay.
Thank you.
Everybody just stand around.
That's right.
I want to welcome you this morning to our hospital and to our hospital's hospital.
Welcome to our health education program.
In a dark, dark valley nestled among the trees, all of a sudden a storm blew up.
And we were caught in the dark and it began to rain.
We saw lightning and heard thunder.
We screamed.
Okay, Mike, let's start with the first line here.
I like the serious.
Serious, right.
You've got that.
Let's see.
The diagonal word.
Thank you.
Good.
That's a long one.
It was the strangest thing they'd ever seen.
Well, tell us, boy, what do you mean? The whole thing said, but it never liked a little weird sucker up.
So I once said, boy, for quite some time, it seemed all right.
For a little while, he'd seen some pretty green thing trying to make it down the road in the rain and lower heat.
An in -depth personal interview prior to a volunteer beginning service helps determine the best placement for that volunteer.
Donnie, have you done volunteer work before? 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.
And so I picked up the phone and volunteered.
And I did it.
What do you like or not like about that experience? Well, it worked out real well.
It was very rewarding.
I transported a couple of people who were very grateful.
It was a life and death situation.
And I felt like I was really doing something important.
What do you want to get out of your experience here with us at this point? Well, I've been out in the business world for about ten years now and I kind of feel like something's missing.
I think I could use people contact that's a little more intimate.
And I think that I've got something to give.
What else do you want from us? I guess in the last couple of years I've discovered something about myself that I'm pretty much growth oriented.
And I guess I see the hospital as a potential for growth for myself.
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 and maybe getting involved in teaching and working with kids on a full -time basis.
And I just kind of think now's the time.
Okay, let's find the work.
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.
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.
The basic philosophy of volunteer service is that we provide volunteers to staff who have specifically asked for them.
Then they're also undertaking a commitment to volunteers to train, to support people once they're providing service.
We in turn then ask for a commitment from volunteers that we want you to gain, we want staff to gain.
We found that orientation is helpful to new volunteers to acquaint them with the general hospital setup.
It's different.
Orientation is different from the training that you receive from staff in that orientation is generally focused as opposed to the training which is very specifically geared to the things you need to know for the service you're providing.
You've all been here about three or four weeks now.
And what I'd like to ask you now is what you've gotten out of your volunteer service.
I'm currently working for my certification in music therapy at DePaul University.
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 to actual experience.
And it's been incredible.
It's interesting to know that this hospital is interested in all children.
Children in the hospital and children out of the hospital.
So I am freeing the staff by doing their hospital education for children, for school children who come in to learn about the hospital and about health care and health careers.
One of the things that really stands out, I've come to really learn to appreciate the kids and respect them as individuals.
And I work in a large, you know, in a big bank and I come from a large family.
And to me this is really, it's really, it's been great just to know that.
Every Friday night when I leave this hospital after two or two and a half hours of volunteer work with these children, 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.
I love what I'm doing, I feel good, and I would have it no other way.
I found that I've become a very important part of the staff team.
I spend time with not just the patients and their families, but I provide support for the staff members as well.
And there are many times when they provide support for me when I need it.
The compensation that I receive is far greater than can be measured.
The kids would respond very negatively.
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.
And sometimes it's just that he doesn't know because he's not had that kind of experience.
That's one I think we can begin providing.
We believe that the end of your service is as important as the beginning of your service here.
So that we do ask that you spend some time at the conclusion of your service to give us an exit interview.
Don left volunteer service to pursue a career change.
Before he left, he complied with the volunteer director's request and met for an exit interview.
How do you keep a healthy perspective about this place? I found myself surrounded by people who really cared, really sensitive people, the staff people.
I made a lot of friends.
A volunteer's termination is as important as far as I'm concerned as their beginning.
And I think that you've handled your ending here very responsibly.
I felt that I was an important part of what went on.
I got a lot out of it.
I felt like I was part of a support network.
You know, I mentioned the feeling of caring.
I gave what I could not just to the patients but to the parents and to the staff people as well.
The support that I provided a parent, maybe just listening, I kind of felt that that ultimately benefited the kids.
And people were there who cared about me, I guess, because they sensed that I cared about them.
When we first talked down, we talked about the belief that I have that volunteers need to give as well as to get.
And you have talked today a lot about the things that you've gotten.
What, during your time here, have you been giving? I guess really all I had to give was myself, my time.
And I didn't have to do anything in particular just to be there.
It's one thing to talk about giving and getting, and it's another thing to really feel it.
What makes a good day? Maybe touching someone who's alone, who's in a room and bored and coming in and helping them to smile, helping them to get through maybe a shot or a little pain, playing a game with them, you can't measure it.
It's wonderful.
It's awful hard to express in words what my experience here has meant.
For it to have helped me to make a career change certainly would indicate that it was important to me.
Important doesn't really say enough.
It was one of the most important things that I've ever done.
Dealing with people's pain, dealing with people's happiness, life and death situations, it was in many ways overwhelming.
If you were able to spend some time with a new volunteer and give that person some advice, what would it be? I think when I started I had expectations of going out and conquering the world, and I found myself trying too hard.
And when I realized that there was only so much that I could do, I backed off a little bit and found that I had more to give by not trying so hard.
And so it really became easy because it just became a matter of being myself, doing what felt right.
What support systems do you think were helpful to you? There is a genuine feeling of caring that exists on the floor.
And I really felt that people cared about me.
I genuinely cared about them.
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.
