Today is my first volunteering shift in the month of November! It is the 4th today. I have a pretty good understanding of where many departments are now. My favorite department is “POPS” otherwise known as Pediatrics Outpatient Surgery. I have always loved children so this is no surprise to me.

I got a normal call today or at least that’s what I thought it would be. It said it needed a bariatric wheelchair under the “Requirements” description. I didn’t know what it was so I asked one of the senior volunteers and she said it was an extra large size wheelchair for larger patients. Since she has also gotten the same call she took me to the transport services offices to go see if they had one of the chairs. The senior volunteer reassured me that I can always step out of the room and ask for assistance from one of the nurses if I need to. She of course was also there if I needed help as well.

We then went to the patient’s room and got the patient into the wheelchair as usual. I went to move the wheelchair and I couldn’t. A small part of me panicked because I didn’t want to make the patient embarrassed by me having to step out and ask for help. It turns out I forgot to unlock the wheels and I moved the patient just fine and the rest of the way to the patient’s car went smoothly.

Another call I got that day was actually the same call another escort got too. We confused and figured it was why it said I was the primary and she was the secondary transport. We both went up to the call which was at the Mother Baby unit. When we got there a transport services employee was there and he asked if we were here for that certain patient. We said we were both there for that patient. He asked if we wanted him to take the patient or if we would. We said we would since he hadn’t been on his lunchbreak yet.

It turned out that the mother only needed one escort because the husband was pushing the mother and her newborn in one wheelchair and I pushed another wheelchair with their bags, flowers and balloons.

A few weeks ago we discussed our experiences and what we need to do to make ourselves good candidates for medical school. It is pretty easy to make that connection to my volunteering to that. I am volunteering not only for my AHS class but also to be competitive for medical school. I am going to continue volunteering next semester as well. I would like to volunteer in a position that is more hands on with patients though.

 

 

 

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