RAPID RESPONSE VOLUNTEER AT UCH
At UCLH giving your time helps make a big difference to our patient’s lives. Having volunteers enables us to do more, whether that is time to spend with patients, or helping give our teams extra capacity. Volunteers are vital in helping the Trust deliver the highest quality healthcare as possible to our many patients. Volunteering is also an excellent opportunity for people to give back to their local hospital and to help make a real difference.
Need within the hospital is constantly changing with different requests for volunteer support coming in all the time. As such, we are looking for volunteers who are entirely flexible in which role they undertake and adaptable to move roles in line with changing ward and patient need
Rapid Response Volunteers (RRV) enable us to respond to this need whether it is a request from the wards to pick up medication from the pharmacy so a patient can be discharged, or a need to give extra support to a patient with dementia who needs to attend several appointments in different departments. You will also be providing mealtime support on the wards, and helping with our Discharge Team.
As such this role provides a great opportunity to make an impact to wards and their patients in line with their changing needs.
This role would suit anyone who is proactive, adaptable, outgoing and good with people.
BENEFITS OF THE ROLE
- Experience volunteering at one of the most prestigious NHS Trusts in the UK
- Experience of providing crucial support and customer service to some of the most vulnerable people
- Ability to gain experience and insight into working within the healthcare sector, including an excellent opportunity for those considering a career in health services or in customer service support roles.
- Volunteering with a committed, knowledgeable and caring team of staff and volunteers
- Induction and ongoing training and development
- References (on request, after 6 months/half the minimum volunteering period)
- Out of pocket expenses are covered in line with our policy (currently travel is covered to the value of £8.90 per day)
MAIN DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
- Reporting in to Voluntary Services on arrival
- Being easily contactable by carrying the RRV mobile phone
- Checking in with the Nurse in Charge as needed
- Fulfilling priority shopping requests for patients (food requests and those enabling discharge). Completing shopping forms with patients.
- Completing Friends and Family surveys which seeks feedback about the hospital stay
- Picking up medication for patients
- Escorting patients to other parts of the hospital, as directed by the Nurse in Charge/senior staff
- Providing non priority wheelchair portering e.g. taking patients from ED to the main hospital
- Helping new volunteers settle in
- Covering for other ward or outpatient volunteers who aren’t in, enabling us to provide a more consistent service
- Topping up patients’ water jugs (either take some fresh water jugs around on the trolley or refill from the cooler/beverage bay as required)
- Proactively befriending patients, their relatives and visitors
- Taking around the morning/afternoon free papers
- Promoting activities that help relieve boredom
- Promoting other volunteer services including the volunteer complementary therapy services, shopping service and patient library
Boundaries of the role
- Volunteers are not involved in any clinical duties or the manual handling of patients
- Volunteers must not provide any assisted feeding to patients unless they have attended the specific training
- Volunteers must not take patients’ bank cards to take out money or pay for goods on their behalf.
- Patients can only be taken off the ward/hospital site with the permission of the nurse in charge and after completion of a risk assessment e.g. inpatients being accompanied outside/to the shops or escorting outpatients home
- Patients can be taken in wheelchairs after volunteers have had wheelchair training
- Volunteers must not give out personal contact details (phone numbers, social media, email etc.)
- Volunteers must not go inside rooms which are strict contact precautions or respiratory
