Clinical Center Volunteer Program Provides Extra Dimension of Support

Episode # 41
Uploaded: June 25, 2010
Running Time: 6:02

SCHMALFELDT: From the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, this is CLINICAL CENTER RADIO.

Anthropologist Margaret Meade once said, "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." There are small groups of thoughtful citizens helping to make a difference all over the Clinical Center, but there is one special group that has been providing an extra dimension of support and quality care to patients, visitors, and their families. They are the Clinical Center volunteer program volunteers. Clinical Center Volunteer Coordinator Courtney Duncan explains.

DUNCAN: What we do have are those that are geared towards adding an additional level to what the staff can provide. Helping folks get to and from appointments, this building is always hard to navigate when you aren't familiar with the area. So giving someone a personal escort is always nice. We offer services like our coffee cart which seems simple to some folks at first but it means a lot to our patients when they are waiting in phlebotomy, when they are waiting in the clinic area just to have a nice friendly volunteer come by and say, "Hey would you like a cup of coffee, a cookie?" Just something to sort of brighten their day is what we're trying to do.

SCHMALFELDT: Last year the volunteer program was restructured to focus more on the needs of the Clinical Center versus the needs of the potential volunteer. In the past, applicants would name their area of interest and the program would try to plug them into specific positions, based on the volunteer's choice. Now the program identifies areas of need, writes up specific position descriptions with the help of staff, and matches applicant skills and personality. One unique group of volunteer program participants are post-baccalaureate Intramural Research Training Assistants, or IRTAs. These special volunteers spend a year or two at NIH between their undergraduate studies and pursuit of an advanced degree. For those with plans to apply to medical school, the Clinical Center Volunteer Program offers patient care-experience which gives IRTAs not only an opportunity to develop skills not found in a textbook but allows those who are working in administrative capacities or laboratories the opportunity to humanize translational research.

DUNCAN: So when IRTAS come to me, the first thing they say is "I want patient interaction," that's why they come.  Because they are getting the hands on research piece of it and what they want is they want to experience what it is like for a patient to be here. So I am looking for people who have, you know good personalities who can interact easily with patients, engage the patient in conversation, somebody who is friendly, somebody who works independently, someone who can just respond well in an emergency if needed, because we are in a hospital so people always need to remember that emergencies can happen. So those are the types of skills that we're looking for so really it falls under the umbrella of customer service, I think it benefits the Clinical Center because then we have more people providing customer service to patients whether it is just a five minute conversation while walking somebody back to the units.

SCHMALFELDT: The two main placement areas for IRTAs are recreation therapy jobs, like supervised assistance in the playroom, and patient ambassador roles, such as transporting patients to appointments. In addition, the Volunteer Program offers opportunities throughout the hospital for language interpreters, clerical support, family friend positions, and other clinical support positions.

DUNCAN: They might be thinking that they are going to get something different like, "Oh I'm going to see what it's like, how doctors and nurses interact with patients." But I really think that what they take away is a solid understanding of what it's like to be a patient. Because they help navigate patients through some of the appointments and I think that from the outside you don't realize how confusing that can be, or how frustrating that can be, time consuming that can be. I think that that's what they take away. I think they can see, Ok you're coming into this huge organization, you're scared about what's going to happen you don't know what your MRI is going to show and they can see that, they walk with them basically on that path.

SCHMALFELDT: For more information or to learn how you could apply to the volunteer program visit www.cc.nih.gov/volunteers. For other information about the NIH Clinical Center, including news about the medical research going on here every day, log on to http://clinicalcenter.nih.gov. From America's Clinical Research Hospital, this has been CLINICAL CENTER RADIO. In Bethesda, Maryland, I'm Nicole Martino at the National Institutes of Health, an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services.

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