Many tasks for volunteers at hospitals

Aug. 2—Having a large volunteer staff is essential to the smooth working of both Geisinger Medical Center and Evangelical Community Hospital, said hospital administrators.

"We have had quite a ride during the pandemic," said Tina McDowell, director of Geisinger Volunteer Services.

Pre-COVID, in 2018 and 2019, Geisinger had about 750 to 1,000 volunteers systemwide.

"In 2020," McDowell said, "because of COVID, we were down to less than 400 volunteers. 2021 was our leanest year, where we had just a quarter of the pre-COVID volunteers.

"A large percentage of our volunteers are older, and because of the age range of a lot of our volunteers, some of them have health concerns," she said. "We lost a number of volunteers because of their health concerns with COVID."

McDowell and her team are working on bringing back volunteers, "and we are on the rise," she said. "We are on track to have more volunteers this year than we did last year and we are approaching the numbers of 2020, the year before COVID hit."

Geisinger has made changes to its programming and introduced new volunteer opportunities.

"We make sure that we treat our volunteers well," she said.

The organization now offers specific training for volunteers that includes all COVID-related information, like how to properly wear a mask and how to properly sanitize your hands.

Variety of roles

Geisinger uses volunteers in all kinds of ways, pretty much anything that doesn't require a license — like doctors, nurses and advanced practitioners, she said.

"They will assist patients passing water, or just socializing. They will check in with patients to see if they need anything," McDowell continued. "We have folks doing way-finding; folks stocking supplies; helping with deliveries and supply chain. We have every job imaginable to help make our organization run. We have volunteers in almost every department."

When people talk about volunteers, some think of the "candy stripers of the past," she said, where young people helped out in hospitals.

"We have had volunteers at Geisinger probably since the organization began, and they are still a vital part of our organization," McDowell said.

Evangelical Community Hospital has about 60 volunteers, according to Anna Marie Wuerthner, patient experience specialist.

Prepandemic, that number was 150 to 175, she said.

"They were ranging anywhere from the age of 14 up," Wuerthner said. "We did have high school volunteers, and they came in in waves. Some volunteered for a short time, others longer and more consistently. I would say on average we had probably about 120 consistently coming in every week to volunteer."

Some probably feared COVID, some didn't want to be vaccinated or wear masks. Others aged out of the program, she said.

"We did have a lot of changes within our volunteer program" Wuerthner said. "We had to. Everything shut down for almost a year so we had to as a staff figure out how to do things without volunteers.

"Due to COVID, things are not the way they used to be."

Hospital navigation

Wuerthner said volunteers are mainly located at the two main entrances to the hospital.

They act as way-finders, working with guest service representatives to provide customer service and help patients navigate the facility.

"They will be the ones that will be able to walk them or wheel them to their destinations because we want our guest service reps to stay at their desk," Wuerthner said. "So volunteers get to provide a little more customer service and TLC for our patients."

There are volunteers who work in Evangelical's imaging waiting room as a liaison between patients and staff to ensure that things stay flowing and moving as patients get into their individual waiting areas, depending on the service they are getting in there, Wuerthner said.

"We have pet therapy volunteers and about 15 pet therapy dogs right now, who make rounds throughout the hospital visiting patients as well as staff. and they were vital during the pandemic, especially for our staff just bringing a sense of calm amidst the chaos."

Evangelical also has some clerical volunteers. Office support in various administrative offices and clinical offices. They make files, scan paperwork.

"We have a handful of spiritual care volunteers who work alongside our Chaplain," she said.

Why they volunteerPat Flynn and Elaine Swartzentruber are volunteers at Geisinger.

Swartzentruber is a retired nurse.

"I received my training at Geisinger many years ago," she said. "In my retirement, I felt a yearning to come back to the hospital again. That's why I chose Geisinger to volunteer."

Swartzentruber has been volunteering at Geisinger since 2010, she said.

Flynn is a greetings specialist at Geisinger.

"I worked with elementary students for more than 30 years," she said. "So when I retired I wanted to give back in a way that was different than my career. Just to have something where I am able to meet people and provide a service that makes me personally content, as well as helping others, like I did all my career."

Flynn has been in the area since the 1980s and has been volunteering with Geisinger since 2018, and is now back after taking a year off due to COVID.

Geisinger has been her main hospital since then, she said.

"I respect the doctors here, nurses, and the entire administration," Flynn said. "I feel very proud to come on Tuesdays. I also have made new friends and that has been wonderful for me."

Prior to COVID, Swartzentruber was a volunteer in the Ronald McDonald family room.

"I enjoyed that tremendously because I had an opportunity to interact with the families of the children that were in the hospital, just to provide encouragement," she said. "I helped prepare snacks for them so they could have a time of refreshment."

That stopped for her because of the pandemic.

Upon her return as a volunteer, she "goes around the hospital doing errands," she said. "Delivering flowers to patients, delivering specimens to the laboratory. I enjoy that tremendously because it gives me a lot of exercise. It is quite a distance from the Foss Clinic to the laboratory.

"As a senior citizen it provides opportunity for exercise," she said.

Geisinger has been recruiting volunteers from colleges and different populations in general.

For those interested in volunteering at Geisinger, visit Geisinger.org/volunteer.

To volunteer at Evangelical go to: www.evanhospital.com/volunteer or call 570-522-2144.