Patients in Emergency Department receiving more hands-on support from volunteers
Upgraded training prepares volunteers to help in a wider range of situations
When Caroline Fei reports for her shift as a volunteer in the JGH Emergency Department (ED), she’s ready for just about any kind of response from patients: Usually, it’s words of thanks and smiles of gratitude—but the possibility of having a shoe hurled at her can’t be ruled out.
Ms. Fei recalls an incident not long ago, when the sound of a commotion prompted her to hurry to one of the department’s waiting rooms. A woman was yelling and gesturing wildly, possibly due to stress or the side-effects of medication.
In the triage area of the JGH Emergency Department, Kayla Feola (right) explains to volunteers how to help newly arrived patients who may not be familiar with the registration process. (Click to enlarge.)
As others in the waiting room glanced about nervously, the woman removed her shoe and looked as if she might fling it at Ms. Fei. The threat was not carried out and the woman was calmed by members of staff, but the incident impressed upon Ms. Fei the breadth of the experiences she could expect in the ED.
Since then, along with routine tasks, she has watched as sophisticated technology was used to perform chest compressions on a man in cardiac arrest. She was even present when, despite the best efforts of staff, a patient’s life could not be saved.
While the fast-paced and often unpredictable nature of the ED might not suit everyone, it’s the most sought-after department among volunteers, says Marko Obradovic, Chief of Volunteer Services for the JGH and CIUSSS West-Central Montreal.
To better equip volunteers to handle these kinds of situations in Quebec’s busiest ED, substantially upgraded training has been introduced, including an hour‑long seminar and a tour of key areas of the department.
The desire to volunteer in the ED is especially high among those in their late teens and early 20s, including Ms. Fei, a 20-year-old McGill University student. Almost all are aiming for a career in health care and are eager to acquire a sense of the real-world demands they might regularly face some day.
Volunteers: A familiar presence
For more than 25 years, volunteers in their distinctive blue jackets have been a familiar presence in the ED. However, with the steady evolution of emergency care—along with changes in patient demographics and growing pressures on the public healthcare system—a need has arisen for volunteers to play a more active role in supporting patients.
As has always been the case, volunteers can’t actually participate in patient care, says Kayla Feola, the Interim Assistant Head Nurse of the ED, who leads the new training sessions.
However, she explains, they are now being more strongly encouraged to keep an eye peeled for anyone who might need something—food, a drink, a blanket, a wheelchair, basic information—and to make every effort to provide it to them.
At the same time, volunteers continue their traditional (and significant) behind-the-scenes responsibilities in helping to prepare patients’ medical charts.
This approach is directly related to the emphasis that the JGH and the CIUSSS place on patient-centred care and on an approach known as Care Everywhere.
Thus, regardless of the location in the ED—triage, a waiting room, an examining room—the goal is to give patients an experience of superior quality.
You can be a volunteer!
As a volunteer, you’ll bring comfort and hope to users of health care and social services, while helping to lighten the workload of grateful staff. Plus you’ll bring out the best in yourself!
To find out more about volunteering at the JGH or in any of the facilities of CIUSSS West-Central Montreal, visit the website of the Department of Volunteer Services or contact the department by email.
This means volunteers have to be better prepared than ever. At a training session in late March, Ms. Feola guided 15 of them on a tour of the areas where they would be stationed most often: triage, the RAZ (Rapid Assessment Zone), patient registration, and the pods (where patients’ private rooms are grouped around the work stations of ED staff).
Essential advice was also provided by Ms. Feola during a presentation in an ED conference room. Among the subjects raised:
- Q: What reply should be given to a patient who wants to know how much longer he or she has to wait? A: In order not to raise false hopes, it’s best to provide a general answer (e.g., “Not too much longer”) instead of specifying the number of minutes.
- Q: What should be done if a patient becomes extremely angry or belligerent? A: Notify Security and a supervisor.
- Q: Can a patient eat while waiting to see a doctor? A: Yes, unless they’ve been told not to. However, patients must not leave the hospital. Also, if they don’t want to miss their turn with the doctor, they should hurry back from wherever in the hospital they’re going for their snack.
Even “veterans” in the group welcomed the opportunity to receive additional training. After six months as an ED volunteer, Alexander Lam, a 17-year-old Vanier student who hopes to become a dentist, said he was “eager to learn more about the hospital, since some parts of it are still a little blurry to me. Anything that builds my confidence is a big help.”
Hands-on support with a human touch
Until now, ED volunteers have received adequate preparation, says Cindy Mayberger, a Coordinator in the Department of Volunteer Services, but there was not enough consistency in the subjects that were covered.
“In the past, a number of volunteers told us they wanted more detail and hands-on experience with the patients,” Ms. Mayberger says. “I think we’ve met those objectives and, ultimately, it’s the patients who benefit.”
Veronica Mancilla Esquivel, a long-standing volunteer in the JGH Emergency Department, assists staff by preparing and filing patients’ charts.
Mr. Obradovic adds that since the human touch is such a crucial element of good health care, it was only natural for the ED volunteers to be given more opportunities to provide it. “In this way, they also strengthen their relationship with staff and they become valued members of the healthcare team.”
The most experienced of those at the March session was Veronica Mancilla Esquivel, 52, who started volunteering at the JGH in 2006, not long after immigrating from Mexico. After seven years in Geriatrics, she transferred to Hope & Cope’s program in Palliative Care, and then switched to the Emergency Department in 2017.
Even with nearly two decades of volunteering under her belt, Ms. Mancilla Esquivel says her time in the ED training session was well spent, since “you always learn something useful and important when you get formal training.”
Equally important, Ms. Mancilla Esquivel is hoping her presence will serve as an example and an inspiration to the younger people in the group. Ideally, she says, they will make volunteering an ongoing part of their lives and not let it slide after a relatively short time.
Her association with the JGH began after a visit for a health problem in 2006, followed by a wish to express her gratitude by serving as a volunteer.
Having been raised in a family “where people care and we always give,” Ms. Mancilla Esquivel has broadened her horizons and, at various times, has volunteered for such organizations as UNICEF, Amnesty International, and the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue of Montreal.
“I get the most wonderful feeling when I meet someone in a hallway in the Emergency Department or elsewhere in the hospital, and that person says to their friend, ‘This is the lady who did so much to help me.’
“Being a volunteer is a basic part of my life. Without it, I wouldn’t be me.”
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