Spreading Smiles

As a volunteer I try to make it my priority to put smiles on the patients' faces but today it seemed like they were the ones making me smile. While distributing waters to each patient I was stopped at first by a man who had complimented my positive attitude and stated that my overall presence made his day. Then after I finished delivering waters to patients I went to the nurses station to see if there was anything else I could assist with. One of the nurses told me that a man in room 13 wanted some company so I stopped by to visit him and he had me there longer than I expected. He was very happy to converse with me about a number of different topics ranging from career paths to history and politics, and even about tattoos and crazy hair colors. We talked on and on for over an hour and by the time I looked up at the clock it was already time for me to leave. I enjoyed talking with him and it seemed he enjoyed having me there as well. With that being said, I found that spending time with patients will not only make them happy but will also make you smile as well.

Patient Care Assistant

Yesterday was quite eventful as I was stopped by multiple patients during my usual water run. As I went from room to room one patient stopped me as he wanted to talk to me. After talking with him for a little while I continued distributing waters and was stopped once again by a patient who needed assistance drinking her water. After having helped her, I asked if she needed me to do anything else for her and she asked if I could feed her. Unsure if I was allowed to as a volunteer, I went down to the nurses station to let the nurses know she needed help being fed as this was a task for a Patient Care Assistant (PCA). With permission from the patient's nurse and PCA I fed the patient her soup and engaged in a bit of conversation with her. While doing so, the patient in the next bed over had asked me if I could help her get up out of bed. I took one quick glance at her and noticed that the nurses had strapped her in bed as she was not allowed to get up. It was clear that she was to stay in bed so I assured her that if she needed anything else she could use the button on her remote to call the nurses station. I then returned to feeding her neighbor and as I was about to leave I asked if she needed anything else then proceeded to finish distributing waters. In completing these tasks I learned a lot about Patient Care Assistants.

Busy Bee

Usually on Tuesdays the Outpatient Lab is rather slow but more recently I found myself running back and forth receiving and delivering specimen throughout the lab. Upon arrival there had already been bags of specimen waiting to be scanned into the computer and more on its way as there were no extra tubes in the lab; they were all sent out to different areas of the hospital. So I immediately got to work and began scanning and organizing the samples to be delivered to their designated areas within the lab. But each time I made my way to go deliver them, it seemed that more tubes would arrive containing even more specimen waiting to be scanned into the computer. It is essential that the specimen with the "STAT" labels be scanned and delivered immediately as opposed to those that are just "routine" samples; and for the most part all these samples were labeled "STAT" so I had to move quickly.

The Messenger

This week in Phillips 3 East I found that a lot of patients tend to mistake me for a Nurse or even a Patient Care Assistant and ask me to do tasks I am not equipped to do. While I am usually out distributing waters on the floor, It seem more as if I was a messenger. I am usually asked to assist a patient or call for someone who can assist them. In this case I must inform the patient that I am not authorized to perform these tasks and will call for their nurse or patient care assistant upon returning to the nurses station. A lot of times I find myself walking back and forth from patient rooms to the Nurses Station to inform the Nurses and PCA's what each patient needs.