Filling staffing cracks with volunteers
Clerical work and guest relations a good fit
In the beginning, the doors of the patient and family resource center at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania were only open four hours a day, five days a week. "We were testing the waters, and I had other job responsibilities," explains Candace Stiklorius, MSN, RN, C, coordinator of the patient and family education center. "It was also a matter of staffing, because we didn’t have volunteers at that point."
The hours of the center were from 10 a.m. to noon and 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., because those were the times most visitors came. However, as the demand for longer hours grew, Stiklorius began to actively recruit volunteers to work at the center. The resource center, in its second year of operation, is now open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. five days a week, with the aid of five volunteers and Stiklorius devoting most of her time to the center.
Yet, even with the volunteers, staffing is difficult because volunteers do not have to show up for a specific shift and they also work the hours that best suit their schedules. For example, some of the volunteers work two hours. Therefore, if there are no volunteers working and Stiklorius is called away, she must put a sign on the door.
Although volunteers can do many tasks that help with the daily operation of a resource center, they can’t answer medical questions. To remedy this problem, Stiklorius wears a pager so volunteers can contact her if they need help when she is away from the site. If she is off campus, she has a colleague from staff development available. It’s important to have staff with medical training available, because visitors often come to the center after they have been given a bad diagnosis and they are upset, she explains.
Volunteers are trained to help visitors find the information they are seeking. In addition to this duty, they help keep the books and other materials in the library straight, do some clerical work, and fill orders for print materials from inpatient units. The storage room at the resource center is used to stock educational pamphlets and instruction sheets used to teach patients at the hospital and in some of the outpatient clinics.
"I am not covered with volunteers at all times, but I am working on it," says Stiklorius.
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