Volunteer Service

For my community service this year, I decided to do something different. I knew there were many volunteer opportunities at the hospital so I asked my supervisor if she had any ideas and she pointed me in the direction of Mrs. Sherrie Wall. Mrs. Sherrie helped me coordinate what my volunteer hours will be. We talked about how a hospital doesn’t just run on doctors and nurses alone, it takes a whole team of members to run smoothly. We decided it would be a worthwhile experience for me to see other departments around the hospital and see what they contribute to patient care.

I intended to split my hours evenly, five in one department and 5 in the other but the first day ran a little over so I ended up doing six hours in pharmacy and 4 in physical therapy. I choose to shadow both departments because at one point while deciding my career path, I had intentions of pursuing a job as a pharmacist or as a physical therapist or an occupational therapist, so seeing what they do on a daily basis was a treat for me.

I started off with pharmacy. First I got to see how they restock the Pyxis systems in all the departments in the hospital. Basically they get a form of all the medications that are running low and they stock them back up so we have medications for our patients when we need them. Sometimes if there is an order for a medication that is not in the Pyxis, pharmacy gets called and they bring it right up. Seeing all the different medications they deal with was really neat.

The next day I finished up my hours working with physical therapy. They are their own department at the hospital and they not only see patients in the hospital, but they are also an outpatient clinic and see patients in the community. We went up and saw a patient and I learned more about proper body mechanics and proper technique on transporting a patient from a bed to a chair. After we finished upstairs, we went back to the department and it was teeming with patients. They get everyone in to a room and start working with them. I learned about different cases and the different treatments that go in to getting them well again. Overall it was a new experience and I enjoyed getting to meet new people and learning about the other forms of care that go in to patient care.