Volunteering.

I thought I might share what it is like to volunteer at the children's hospital where I go.  When I first signed up, it was much like applying for a job.  I had to fill out an application.  I had to have a criminal background check.  I didn't have to have a physical, but I did have to get some shots, a flu shot, a TB test and a whooping cough shot (which I think was optional, but the hospital paid for it and I apparently needed it, so I got it.).   Then I had to attend a general training/orientation session and list areas in the hospital where I might want to work and given a smock and ID.   I was assigned to the NICU which was my first choice and then I had to attend a NICU training session, which lasted maybe an hour, with a few discussions of what to do and a tour.  Next was my first day volunteering.  I felt a bit lost, but there was another volunteer who showed me a few things, where the linens and supplies are kept in case I would be fetching them and things like that.  The nurses have shown me a few things along the way like how to swaddle a baby, which is a trick I wish I had known 21 years ago (feeling old!), but my first baby was colicky and this might have helped. 

So now when I go, I know where things are and I really enjoy being helpful.  I'm getting to know the nurses.  I go in and wash and hand-sanitize, walk into the ward itself and listen for crying.  If a baby is crying that's where I go.  Sometimes their parents have them and sometimes they are crying because they are being disturbed by having their medicine or a diaper change, etc., but if not, I put on a gown and hand-sanitize again and sometimes then put on gloves.  There are rules about glove use which change depending on how many infants are in that particular ward, so I have to find out what the current rule is when I get there.  Then my first thing I do is start talking to the baby.  Some of them will stop crying and listen while I'm getting on my gown and sanitizing my hands.  Secondly, I find the pacifier and insert it and begin to adjust the swaddle situation.  Sometimes being talked to, re-pacified and re-swaddled is all it takes and the little one drifts back to sleep.  With others though, I do pick them up and sit with them in a rocking chair.  Some of the babies in our unit have health issues, most are simply a little premature and trying to grow and gain so they can go home, a few are born drug-addicted, (Those are the ones who need the volunteers the most.  They are so needy of someone to hold them, to help them stay calm) and some are just ready for their next bottle and don't want to wait.

After 4 hours of fetching supplies and giving out cuddles to tiny, tiny people, I come home each week worn out, but it is so worth it.