April marked National Volunteer Month, but the volunteers who help patients at America's research hospital are celebrated year-round.
"We have approximately 80 volunteers right now, and we're still growing," says volunteer coordinator Marcus Means, a Clinical Center program analyst.
Ranging from post-bacs to retirees, NIH Clinical Center volunteers assist patients in departments throughout the hospital, including Admissions, Phlebotomy, Radiology, the OR, Recreational Therapy, the Patient Library, and Safra Lodge, among others.
Recent college graduate Langston Locke works four-hour shifts in the Clinical Center's Department of Laboratory Medicine Phlebotomy Service. Among other duties, Locke registers patients, checks that their patient ID matches what's on file, and ensures that required paperwork is properly completed before appointments.
Locke hopes to attend an MD-PhD program in the future and says the benefits of volunteering at the Clinical Center are many. Top of the list: gaining first-hand experience interacting with patients while serving others, a longstanding value.
Elizabeth Price joined the Clinical Center nursing staff in 1971, retired in 2013, and began volunteering at the clinical research hospital a year later. The University of Pennsylvania graduate works in Admissions every Wednesday, where she greets patients, escorts them to appointments, and is always available to chat and offer a kind word.
The spry 79-year-old says she enjoys the opportunity to assist first-time visitors to NIH and visit with former patients and colleagues. The gratitude patients express is "priceless," Price says, adding that she is inspired by a Biblical passage from Paul's Epistle to the Galatians: While we have time, let us do good.
"I've grown to appreciate that more than ever during these past few years [as] a volunteer," she says.
Means says volunteers are a force-multiplier for Clinical Center staff. "The hospital wouldn't work without them," he says, noting that volunteers undergo a rigorous vetting process.
"We want to make sure that our volunteers are able to sustain the highest level of customer service, because people love coming to NIH," he says. "Because NIH helps so many people, we don't want our volunteers to have a negative impact on the mission of NIH."
- Sean Markey