Hospital volunteer
Hospital volunteers work without regular pay in a variety of health care settings, usually under the supervision of a nurse. Most hospitals train and supervise volunteers through a specialized non-profit organization called an auxiliary. The director of the auxiliary is usually a paid employee of the hospital.
Duties of hospital volunteers vary widely depending upon the facility. Volunteers may staff reception areas and gift shops; provide administrative backup; help visitors; or transport various small items like flowers, medical records, lab specimens, and drugs from unit to unit. A few hospitals ask their volunteers to help out with janitorial duties, like cleaning beds. This task can be particularly messy, since most people with illness severe enough to justify hospital admission have difficulty regulating their orifices.
Some hospitals keep all their volunteers in one place (a dispersal unit) and assign them to tasks based on real-time labor demand, while other hospitals assign volunteers after training directly to a single unit.
Volunteers' services are of considerable importance to individual patients as well as the health care system in general. Some people volunteer during high school, either out of curiosity about the health care fields or in order to satisfy mandatory community service requirements imposed by some schools. Others volunteer at later stages in their life, particularly after retirement.
A hospital volunteer is sometimes nicknamed a candystriper. This name is derived from the fact that they traditionally wear red and white striped jumpers.
See also