Each year, more than 1,200 volunteers work to support patients, visitors, and staff throughout University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. Jean Reed, associate director ofUI Hospitals and Clinics Volunteer Services, talks about volunteering:
How many volunteer hours take place each year at UI Hospitals and Clinics?
Last year we had nearly 90,000 hours recorded by our hospital volunteers.
If you figured those hours at minimum wage - how much does UI Hospitals and Clinics save each year in volunteer hours?
There's a national organization called The Independent Sector, and they estimate the dollar value of volunteer hours each year and they use figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Using those figures, volunteer contributions at our hospital, last year alone, would be valued at over $1.6 million.
What types of jobs do volunteers perform at UI Hospitals and Clinics?
We have nearly 100 different volunteer positions to choose from at our hospital, so just a ton of choices. Just to give you some examples, volunteers can help with everything from working the circulation desk in our Patients' Library, to delivering flowers or visiting patients.
We have volunteers who support families in our waiting areas in the inpatient and outpatient clinics, as well as contribute in office settings. Some of our most popular spots for community volunteers are actually in our Rooftop Café or our gift shop. In these areas, volunteers help to serve our patients, families, and staff, as well as raise funds to support programs and projects that benefit our patients.
At what age can someone become a volunteer?
To select a regular weekly placement, we accept volunteers age 16 and up. But we do have a junior volunteer program, and that's an eight-week summer program that focuses on exposing students to careers in the health sciences, as well as fostering service values, and we accept students ages 14 to 18 in that program.
Is anyone ever too old to become a volunteer?
I would say some of our positions are less appealing to some age groups than others, but there are certainly no age restrictions. Many of our older volunteers, I think, are especially drawn to our guest relations placements, so our more social placements that provide support to our patients and families.
Do you pick a job for each volunteer - or do they pick a job they want to do?
We work together to identify good matches, based on what the volunteer's interests are and the current needs of our hospital. I can tell you right now, we're especially looking for volunteers interested in greeting and visiting with patients and families here.
We've opened up a new ambulatory surgery center and would like some people-oriented volunteers to help in that area, as well as our cancer clinic and our guest house. But again, we have such a variety here, it's hard to imagine that we wouldn't be able to find a good match, whether you're interested in tutoring, art, children, we just have a lot going on here.
Do volunteers have to put in a certain amount of time each week to become a volunteer?
That varies depending upon the assignment, but we do ask that new volunteers have three hours a week to share with us for at least six months. Obviously, we've got many volunteers who contribute more hours than this and we also have staff who might just volunteer over their lunch hour once a week, but that's kind of our rule-of-thumb.
If someone wanted to lean more about becoming a volunteer, how would they go about getting started?
Just give us a call, 356-2515. We'd love to talk with you about the opportunities that are available here at our hospital. Our volunteers, they're just an amazing group of people and every single one of them has the chance to improve the patient experience here every day. |
