NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - As Chattanooga hospitals were ramping up to care for an anticipated surge of coronavirus patients last spring, they were doing so without a critical part of their workforce.
Hospital volunteers - whose roles range from transporting patients to and from their procedure, to cuddling babies in the neonatal intensive care unit to helping patients find their loved ones’ rooms - were relieved of their duties once COVID-19 struck for their own safety and that of patients and staff who remained on site.
But thanks to the long-anticipated arrival of coronavirus vaccines, some volunteers at local hospitals are starting to return to their posts.
CHI Memorial Hospital, which had roughly 400 active volunteers before the pandemic, last week began welcoming volunteers back for the first time in nearly a year. The hospital arranged for volunteers to be vaccinated against COVID-19, and a new policy from CommonSpirit Health - Memorial’s parent company - allows volunteers to return to work one week after receiving their second vaccine dose.
“The night I got my first vaccination, the volunteers were almost in tears - we’re so happy that we can have the vaccination, that we can look forward to going back and being a part of this hospital,” said Joyce Dick, a volunteer at CHI Memorial Hospital.
Dick, who retired from Memorial’s marketing and public relations department in 2010 after 28 years, compiles and writes the hospital’s volunteer newsletter. Although she’s been able to write some from home, much of the joy she gathered from volunteering was lost.
“Not being able to go in to talk to people, have access to them and then having to use different software - it was a struggle for a while,” Dick said. “And I miss the people. Even when I’m not doing the newsletter, I like to go in and just have that contact with people who work there and feel the excitement of the hospital.”
Roy Turley, 93, has been a Memorial volunteer for more than 35 years. His most recent role volunteering in the pharmacy has allowed the hospital to recoup millions in refunds for expired medication from pharmaceutical companies. Roy’s son Mark Turley began following in his father’s footsteps as a volunteer when he retired over eight years ago, and the duo was among the first volunteers who returned last week.
Mark Turley said that although there is some catching up for them to do, luckily the staff has been able to continue most of the work in the Turleys’ absence.
“When we first got back, they surprised us by decorating the office that we work out of, welcoming us back. There were a lot of kind, handwritten notes from the pharmacy staff thanking us for what we do and saying that they were grateful for our return,” Mark Turley said. “I missed the ministry of doing it. Also, it’s been a ministry for (my father).”
A little over 300 volunteers will return to Memorial in the coming months, but some are waiting until March or April, hospital spokesperson Karen Long said.
Erlanger Health System, which has around 600 volunteers, plus an additional 200 in the summer, has kept some of its volunteers at its facilities throughout the pandemic. Currently, about 150 volunteers are on-site at Erlanger, according to spokesperson Blaine Kelley.
“Being a teaching hospital, we’ve had our service-learning volunteers (college students) here the whole time, just following the same strict precautions the rest of our staff were required to,” Kelley said via email. “Additionally, we have had our volunteers at the information desks and gift shop for a while. There are a few positions, such as NICU cuddlers, who are now coming back (in a couple weeks), if they have had both doses of the vaccine and it has been three weeks since the second dose.”
Parkridge Health has 59 volunteers who are still waiting to return to its hospitals, according to spokesperson Michael Ferguson
“We continue to monitor the situation and, while we have not yet resumed the program, we look forward to welcoming our volunteers back to our hospitals,” Ferguson said via email.
For Memorial’s volunteer Dick, being back in the hospital feels like “coming home.”
“The volunteers at Memorial are almost like the face of Memorial - they’re at the information desk, or at the reception desks, in the hospitals. So when people come in, the volunteers are the first people they see,” she said. “Volunteers are helpful in so many, many areas, and they have been so missed.”
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