- Image by sixoone via Flickr
If you are feeling lonely, need of friends, or just want something to do, consider volunteering in health care. It’s hard to feel sorry for yourself when you are meeting the needs of others and you can see your problems in comparison to some serious health issues. You don’t have to travel to Haiti or other faraway places; chances are there is a need right in your community hospital.
Hospital volunteers are most visual in the gift shop and information desks, but you can also work in clerical offices, guide visitors, visit patients, do light cleaning, or deliver flowers or medical records within the hospital. In some hospitals, with experience and special training volunteers can also serve as orderlies, deliver medicines and lab specimens, or assist patients under supervision of a nurse or doctor. Health care volunteers today serve in many behind-the-scenes positions that serve both patients and staff. With the high cost of health care, and so many people who lack health insurance, hospitals need to do everything they can to stretch their money. Volunteers fill a need where there are not enough paid personnel.
Traditionally, volunteers have been known as “pink ladies” or “candy stripers” because of the uniforms they wore to distinguish them from medical personnel. Male volunteers wore light blue shirts and dark slacks. Now they generally wear some sort of uniform to distinguish them from the medical personnel who go around in scrubs or lab coats.
Volunteers can be people of any age who want to make a difference in health care. From teenagers interested in the medical field to retirees wanting to volunteer their skills and be of service in their community, volunteers make a world of difference to a hospital. Whatever your life situation, your time and skills are needed in the health care field. If you don’t feel like you have any skills, don’t worry. They will train you. Just show up and sign up, and you will soon be part of a vital community.
