As I get flashbacks now I really do miss the experience! From helping patients on wards to fundraising for dementia patients my experience of volunteering was amazing. Not only did I have the chance to develop important interpersonal skills; such as communication, listening and observing skills I also had the opportunity to gain first-hand experience of how the multidisciplinary team works; how doctors, nurses and physiotherapists as well as several other healthcare professionals work effectively to ensure patient’s conditions are well managed and cared for. My journey as a medical student definitely had major contributions from everything I had learnt throughout volunteering. I had begun volunteering with the intention of exploring the world of doctors and hospitals and had gained a valuable insight into the realistic aspects of medicine; that commitment is probably the most essential thing required from both a medical student and a healthcare professional. I had also learnt how to stay organized; probably a major attribute for my current studies at university. I saw how valued some patients felt as volunteers and myself offered something as simple as speaking to them. I learnt that communicating with a patient who may not have had much to speak about in hospital is extremely important and can help boost morale; as well as improve your communication skills! The healthcare field is constantly evolving and being in a hospital environment is one of the most valuable experiences one – who is interested in studying medicine and progressing to become a doctor – or any other healthcare profession should definitely take part in. Whether you would like to build a solid opinion on your career path that you wish to progress in, or perhaps, gain a better understanding of a career path you are already interested in- volunteering is essential and will benefit you whilst aiding your journey…
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In 1988 Irene Fox’s husband, Fred, passed away at the Royal Free Hospital, after he developed bronchial cancer. He was only 61. But instead of avoiding the hospital where her husband died, Irene chose to return again and again. Irene, who is 85, said: “I can’t remember who suggested I volunteer here with the charity but at the beginning it just helped me forget about my problems and focus on something else. Now nearly 30 years later I reckon I’m part of the fixtures and fittings at the hospital!” In fact next year it will be exactly 30 years since Irene started volunteering with the Royal Free Charity. Nowadays Irene wheels a trolley around the wards for a couple of hours so people can buy items such as newspapers, snacks and toiletries. The trolley is significantly lighter than when she first started volunteering – it no longer includes a large tea urn. The Royal Free Hospital is also where Irene’s daughter was a student nurse in the 1970s and her son in law was a student doctor. Irene says she has no plans to retire from her volunteering duties. She says: “I honestly don’t know what else I would do if I didn’t come here two afternoons a week. Of course I take holidays and don’t come in if I’m not feeling well but other than that I’m always here. It’s important to me. As long as I’m well enough to carry on doing it I will. “I don’t live far away and I often spot people on the ward who I know by sight from my local neighbourhood, even if not by name. It makes me reflect on how lucky I am to still be up and about and I don’t take that for granted. I feel like if I can help I should.” As well as volunteering at the hospital Irene also volunteers for conservation group Heath Hands on Hampstead Heath once a week. Jenny Todd, head of volunteering at the Royal Free Charity, said: “Irene is an amazing woman and a real inspiration. We are incredibly proud of her deep connections with the hospital and the charity.” Several things happen when you put on the purple Royal Free Charity volunteer shirt, that barely matches anything;
1. You smile more, 2. You are treated with respect, 3. You will have more conversations than you will ever remember, with amazing people who's life experiences you can relate to in many different ways. But it’s not just those these experiences that will make you feel like you’re constantly embraced by a warm hug. It is the people that you meet, not just the patients, but also the staff and visitors, who have fantastic stories to tell and appreciate all the underlying hard work that volunteers do to help the hospital. Even if it restocking the glove boxes or making more tea and coffee. Having the Royal Free experience has made me confident and made me understand how hard it is to keep a hospital running. It makes me feel so grateful that in this country we have such advanced access to free healthcare and the medical environment welcomes everyone to be treated, no matter race, gender or age. It’s not only because I wish to pursue a medical career that I volunteer, but it is the fact that every day is a new experience waiting to happen, that unless you chase it, you may not be part of. As cliche as it sounds volunteering may be giving back to the community but really it is also about extending the bonds of friendship to prove their is still some sanity is left in humanity. Everything that the world portrays should be counteracted by the simple acts of kindness that people can have the opportunity of doing everywhere. Situations will make you laugh, cry, angry, emotional, or even surprised, but it is those situations that made me realise that no matter how big you think the world is, it is bigger. The amount of people out there in this big world who will care to keep us unified is far greater than anything I can imagine. No matter how ill, upset, anxious, happy, excited or even disappointed a person is, they will always be happy to see a person wearing the purple volunteer shirt that barely matches with anything. I started volunteering at the Royal Free Hospital in September 2016 throughout my gap year and have now started medical school at King’s College University a year later. Volunteering at the Royal Free Charity led to me providing a helping hand at many different wards talking to different patients, thus improving my confidence and communication skills. A key skill I learnt was the need to adapt my approach to suit the individuality of each patients situation in order to show empathy. The skills I gained are truly invaluable and I have gone on to use them in everyday life. Later on in the year I started working in the Radiology department at the Royal Free Hospital and I was able to to communicate with patients effectively as I was aware what their concerns meant. As I came to apply to medical school my volunteering allowed to me to write a relevant and insightful personal statement which led to me gaining a place at university and now I am able to use my insight to help with everyday placements I carry out at medical school. Life as a doctor requires you to understand each person is unique (not just a bed number) and needs personalised care. I think that the best place to learn what that means is as a volunteer where you aim to talk to patients, showing interest in their lives, as you are less concerned with the diagnostic and treatment duties of a doctor. I volunteered as a ward assistant at Barnet hospital once a week for six months. My role involved helping staff at meal times and interacting with patients. From this volunteering position, I gained a number of skills such as understanding how important each member of staff is in meeting a patient’s needs, from volunteers to nurses and doctors. I also developed the confidence and ability to communicate sensitively with patients and their families. I had the opportunity to talk to staff about their roles and in turn they found out about my ambition to become a doctor. A nurse took the time to show me a patient with a pacemaker and the equipment used to take blood pressure, blood glucose, pulse and blood saturation. Brad De Abreu, the Young Volunteer Programme Co-ordinator, organised my induction and helped me settle into my volunteering role. He kept in touch with me throughout my volunteering experience and provided positive feedback and encouragement. Brad arranged for me to gain wider experience by spending a couple of weeks volunteering in Accident and Emergency. He also wrote a reference for my medicine application. When it came to writing my personal statement for my UCAS application, I was able to show ongoing interest and commitment to becoming a doctor. I was able to say not just what I had done, but what I had learned from this, such as the importance of team work, communication, sensitivity and confidentiality. At medical school interviews, I was again able to relate my answers back to examples that I had from volunteering. I am now in my first year of studying medicine at King’s College London. I am really grateful that I had the opportunity to volunteer at Barnet hospital; it enabled me to contribute as part of a team to the care of patients and to gain the experience needed to be offered a place to study medicine. I volunteered at the Royal Free Hospital from April till June 2017, this was part of a new traineeship scheme in place to develop work skills and potentially find employment. During this time I had a great experience filled with opportunities to learn about the clinical side of the NHS as well as gain admin experience, this is what I found really great about volunteering as it provided me with a choice of activities to do and get a feel for what I’m interested in, as in all honesty people my age are usually unsure about what they’re into in terms of work. Now that I am employed as an apprentice with the North London Breast Screening Service, I can appreciate how much volunteering helped and assisted me in assessing what kind of role would be right for me as I would have had no clue what working in an administrative NHS environment would be like had I not experienced it through my traineeship. The volunteer department also aim to provide as many short courses (food hygiene/hand hygiene etc.) as possible all in an effort to build up your CV. All in all I would view volunteering as an extremely great way to not only find a potential career but to also gain valuable experience which could be applied to many different job roles.
Hi my name is Ike. I'm from North London and studying to be a doctor at Imperial College London. I started volunteering with the Royal Free Volunteering team when I was 18 and honestly it was a one of the best decisions I made; the friends you make are for life and you feel like you’re genuinely making a difference to the lives of the people you help. Whilst volunteering I made some invaluable connections and met some truly inspirational characters. Not only that but volunteering prepares you for the real world of work and can provide you with different pathways into work, as it did for myself. Being a volunteer for Royal Free Hospital has been one of the best and most eye-opening experiences of my life. What made me join the volunteers’ team was my future aspiration to pursue a career in medicine. Volunteering for RFH has enabled me to develop and improve some essential skills, such as my communication and organisation skills, and test my commitment. Coming to London from Greece, I had certain things in mind that I wanted to introduce to my new life, one of them being volunteering. I am a true believer of the human ability to grow every day by having a positive impact on others. The hospital environment was one of the places I could meet amazing patients and staff and get a good idea of how things work within the NHS. My first priority was to ensure that patients have someone around to talk to while being in the hospital. I, soon, realised that all it takes for someone to feel more comfortable in any unpleasant hospital environment is a smile, a warm cup of tea or coffee and a chat, when no one else is around. It all started with a summer placement, after which I decided to keep volunteering during term-time. Combining my university responsibilities and volunteering for RFH, as well as for another health-oriented organization, would mean a very demanding and busy schedule. The excitement and satisfaction I was getting after each and every day of my summer placement was what made me stick to it. All volunteers and staff in the volunteers’ office have made this experience exceed my expectations. It is always nice to have something as satisfying to look forward during my busy university life. Antonia is also a volunteer with St Johns Ambulance. We are happy to announce that Radio Enfield will be joining the Royal Free family and sit within The Royal Free Charity. The station will be rebranded “Royal Free Radio” and be available to patients to listen to through the bedside consoles at the Royal Free, Chase Farm & North Middlesex. There will be an official launch of Royal Free Radio at Chase Farm, where they are based, with a timeline celebrating their 47 year history. The radio station promotes events, news and activities taking place within the hospitals as well as providing music, quizzes and request programmes and will be a voice to patients at their bedside. In May 1970 a group of friends set up a local hospital radio station funded by local discos, fetes, road shows and grants. They started with seven volunteers - all school friends who mostly met through the North London Tape and Hi-Fi Club. In the 70's patients only had access to Radios 2 and 4 and initially Radio Enfield broadcast for just 2 hours a week on a Sunday evening on the Radio 2 channel. The small team of volunteers handled all sorts of tasks - programme presenting, engineering, request collecting, fund raising and so on. Today, thirty to forty volunteers help out on the station so that it can play for twenty four hours all day, every day and new members are always welcome. There is a vast range of “pop” music available but the programme presenters also play classical, country and western, ballet and jazz as well as interviewing local dignitaries, health experts and celebrities. The hospital radio station has evolved with modern technology and is developing an App for volunteers to take requests from patients on the wards. We will soon be looking for volunteers to help with gathering requests here at the Royal Free. There will be a great selection of music available as well as chat shows with useful tips for patients, comedy shows and quizzes. The main priority of Royal Free Radio will be to take people’s minds off being in hospital and hopefully to have a little bit of fun too. For more information please check royalfreeradio.co.uk Volunteering at Barnet Hospital for the summer placement has been a very unique experience to say the least. Before I describe my experience I’ll explain the reason why I wanted to volunteer in the first place. Volunteering in my opinion is a great way to actively make a difference in the community. Volunteering is something everyone should do because it can, directly or indirectly, improve aspects of one’s self confidence, empathy and open mindedness. Volunteering at a hospital is a bigger bonus as you get lots of people from different socio-economic backgrounds together and are able to listen to their stories! The voluntary placement included various tasks that we completed throughout the day. Handing out newspapers to patients on different wards, distributing teas/coffees, SatNav guiding, helping lunch staff to give out patient’s food and drawing with patients – to name a few things we did each day. Everyday entailed new activities which made this summer placement so fun. What I have learned through volunteering is that ‘every little helps.’ No matter how small a task may appear, it always helps the patients, staff and hospital as a whole. Personally, what makes me so motivated to volunteer is when you hear the patients say ‘thank you for your help.’ Apart from simply volunteering, we are involved in fundraising for the Barnet Hospital Charity. Money raised is allocated to equipment that is needed for different wards or departments. To finish off, volunteering is a humbling experience which more people should experience. Doing something like volunteering allows you to be more selfless and aware of others. Put simply, it’s a truly great thing to do! |