About Our Volunteer Program
As a volunteer, you enhance the patient experience and increase patient satisfaction—making you an integral part of the hospital's success. In addition to contributing to patient care and building your own personal skills, on the days you volunteer, you’ll receive a meal voucher to our cafeteria. It’s just one way we can thank you for your service.
Time Commitment
Adults must be willing to commit for a minimum of one year. Our teen program has a different set of requirements. Adults must also complete a background check (in Massachusetts, this is called a CORI—Criminal Offender Record).
Department Placements
We offer a wide variety of placements, such as in the Emergency Department (if 18 years or older), Patient Transport, Oncology, Radiology, Day Surgery, medical offices and at information desks as greeters. (Volunteer Services does not place volunteers in research labs.) Some placements require department-specific training. Your orientation will include training in patient privacy and confidentially (HIPAA), fire safety, infection control, and patient transport policies and procedures.
To volunteer in Pediatrics, you must be at least 16 years old. In addition to the regular process to become a volunteer, candidates need to be interviewed by one of the hospital’s child life specialists.
Activities
As a volunteer, you can have a tremendous impact on patient care by providing a warm and welcoming environment for patients and families, while sharing your time, talent and enthusiasm. Staff members are grateful for volunteer assistance and appreciate the way our volunteers’ compassion and dedication enhances the patient experience.
Surgical Waiting Room Assistants: Providing Support & Information
As a volunteer in the surgical waiting room, you’ll act as an ambassador, welcoming patients and introducing them to the nursing staff. You’ll also act as a liaison between the surgical team and the patient's family/friends, providing updates as soon as possible. Ultimately, you will be a source of companionship and guidance, ensuring that the patients and their loved ones are comfortable.
One-on-One Patient Escorts: Providing Guidance & Building Friendships
As a volunteer escort, you’ll provide the valuable service of showing patients around the hospital and bringing them to their appointments, which may be at various clinics throughout the hospital. You’ll introduce the patient to the appropriate medical staff and wait for the patient at each location to escort him/her to the next appointment as soon as s/he is ready. Often, you will have the opportunity to enjoy coffee or lunch with the patient, making the patient's experience at the hospital much more than a routine visit to the doctor.
Magazine/Book Cart: Bringing Reading Material to Patients
As an overseer of the cart, you’ll collect books and magazines to stock the cart and then make rounds to waiting rooms and inpatients throughout the hospital to offer reading selections. You’ll have the opportunity to engage with patients and their loved ones and be a source of distraction from the hospital atmosphere. We encourage volunteers to spend time with patients, assisting with book selection and engaging in conversation that will allow patients to relax and feel at-home.