LLUAHSC SCOPE Summer 2001

Faithful volunteers
Volunteers offer of themselves to improve lives of patients, staff at Medical Center & Children's Hospital

[SCOPE, Summer 2001]

Bob Pettit brings puppets and stuffed toys with him to his volunteer job at the information desk. He often uses the toys to make children smile.

They smile and greet, pray with and comfort guests, fold towels, rock babies, do secretarial work, sew pillows, crochet afghans, and bring their pets to visit patients. And at the end of the day, many would say that they gain far more than they give.

This group of nearly 1,500 volunteers faithfully serves patients and staff at Loma Linda University Medical Center & Children's Hospital. Many are retired, but some are high school and college students who take time from school, jobs, and homework to help others. In fact, the group collectively donated more than 200,000 hours in 2000.

"Volunteerism is people reaching out with their individual talents, skills, and interests to help our hospital meet needs, solve problems, and assist our patients and guests," says Denise B. Winter, director, volunteer services/information desks. "In the 17 years I have been employed with the volunteer services department, I have had the privilege to meet and develop friendships with some of the most giving and caring people. I have been amazed at the devotion they have for their volunteer endeavors. Their selfless interaction with our hospital is an inspirational witness of the goodness of mankind. One volunteer summed it up by saying, ‘The essence of life is connecting significantly with others.

I do that by volunteering.'"

Since the volunteer services department opened in 1958, volunteers have provided 2,267,621 hours, or approximately $34,898,687 of service to the Medical Center and Children's Hospital. Volunteers assist staff and patients in approximately 85 programs.

"Often the services of volunteers are taken for granted. But at Loma Linda, their dedicated, compassionate, and skilled services are highly valued and appreciated and make a direct contribution to the care patients and their families receive on a daily basis," says B. Lyn Behrens, MBBS, president and CEO of the Medical Center.

The following four volunteer stories are a small sample of the many dedicated people who serve here every day.

Bob Pettit

LLUMC information desk

Adults know him for his friendly smile. Children know him for his puppets.

One can often find Bob Pettit volunteering at the Medical Center information desk, entertaining children with his puppets. Mr. Pettit will readily admit that he loves to make people laugh. But it is the challenge of making a child laugh that prompts him to bring his puppets with him when he comes in to volunteer.

"Children walk into this big room and it's noisy and you can see they're petrified," Mr. Pettit says. "[This is] something [I do] to make them feel at ease.

"One day I had a Furby™, and there was a little girl having a procedure and she was just scared to death," Mr. Pettit continues. "I gave her the Furby and she started playing with it--and they did the whole procedure and she didn't know."

The big children get scared, too, Mr. Pettit says. He laughs and jokes with them to help them relax.

"I just try to make it feel like a pleasant place to come in to and get their mind off of whatever is going on," he explains.

Before he was a volunteer, Bob Pettit was a salesman for 50 years. It was his love of people and his desire to give back to the hospital that took care of him after his heart attack that inspired him to begin volunteering four years ago.

Since that time, Mr. Pettit has also volunteered at the Jerry L. Pettis Memorial VA Medical Center in Loma Linda, driven the courtesy van, and worked in dispatch.

He also volunteers in the community as a citizen volunteer patrol with the Redlands Police Department once a week. He sits on the board of directors for a drug and alcohol recovery home in San Bernardino, as well.

"It's my therapy--I enjoy it," he says of volunteering. "I just have a good time with it. Once I leave here, I feel good."

Opal Taylor

LLUCH volunteer services office

O. Taylor
Opal Taylor is a natural at rocking babies. She spends three hours a week in the neonatal intensive care unit holding babies who need comforting.

As Opal Taylor knows, volunteers are needed in more areas than those dedicated to patient care. She volunteers to help other volunteers.

For two years, Ms. Taylor has been a volunteer receptionist and secretary in the Children's Hospital volunteer services office.

Ms. Taylor, like many other volunteers, loves the job because of the people she meets. Whether it's her supervisors in the volunteer office or the volunteers of all ages who come in, Ms. Taylor enjoys interacting with all of them.

As part of her job, Ms. Taylor keeps track of the many volunteer records and helps set up volunteer training for various departments. "I love my job; I love my bosses," she enthuses. "It's a great place to work."

Ms. Taylor began her volunteer career by making afghans to donate to the Medical Center. She soon became a volunteer in the diversional therapy department.

"So I went on the floors and took afghans and whatever the people needed and just talked to the patients," she says. "Patient contact was fun."

Ms. Taylor agrees with other volunteers that she gains as much, if not more, than what she gives.

"I get the satisfaction of working with people," Ms. Taylor says. "I love people, and I love working with people. The volunteers who come in here--it's just fun to meet [them] and say ‘hi.'"

Ms. Taylor also volunteers once a week with the Snuggler program. Snugglers give one-on-one attention to Children's Hospital patients of all ages.

"[One day], there was a little, little boy, and he was screaming," Ms. Taylor recalls. "I rocked him and bounced him up and down and he finally quieted. When the child life specialist put him back in his bed, he was cooing and happy. That's a real satisfaction when you know that you're working for those nurses and helping them out. They are so busy."

Joan Klinge

Surgery waiting area

J. Klinge
As part of her job as a hostess at the surgery waiting area, Joan Klinge talks with surgeons and recovery room personnel, then gives updates to patients' families.

It has been 20 years since Joan Klinge began volunteering at the Medical Center. She began by escorting patients to their rooms for the admitting department, but soon trained to work as a surgery waiting area hostess.

"It's rewarding," Mrs. Klinge says. "You don't feel sorry for yourself when you hear about things that are happening to other people. You can make people feel good. I've passed the stage in life where playing bridge is rewarding."

She volunteered sporadically for a while, taking time off when her husband retired and to raise a grandchild. Then, when her husband died, she returned to a regular volunteer schedule.

"It saved me. Getting back was just the best thing that happened," she says. "It gave me something to do. That's important, to be busy, believe me."

As a surgery hostess, Mrs. Klinge assists families of people having surgery or angiograms. The physicians call her with updates or come down to speak with the families. The surgery host/hostess also receives a phone call when the patient enters the recovery room, and when he or she leaves recovery.

Mrs. Klinge has been volunteering at the surgery desk long enough to have stored up many interesting stories.

"When we were over by the chaplains' office, I was a witness to a wedding in the chapel," she recalls. "A man was in the hospital for Guillain-Barre syndrome, and his fiancee flew out from Boston and

[they decided] they had to get married right away. One of the chaplains was going to perform the wedding and looked around and there was no one available--and there I was, sitting at the desk with the little pink coat on. I went in and witnessed the wedding."

She also recalls her first introduction to the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

"When I was trained years ago..., I had one day of training on the history of the Adventist Church and I'm not a Seventh-day Adventist. Oh, it was most fascinating. I just loved it."

Over the years, Mrs. Klinge has come to feel a special fondness for the Medical Center and the friends she's made here.

"I love the people I meet here," she says. "[They're] the nicest people I've ever met in my life."

Michelle Moore

LLUMC volunteer services office

Armster/Moore
Volunteers Maurice Armster (left) and Michelle Moore talk about the volunteer schedule.

Most teenagers complain that their lack of a driver license and car keep them from trips to the mall or to the beach.

With both of her parents working in health care at the Medical Center, Michelle Moore has been interested in volunteering since she was 14. But lack of transportation, a common complaint among teenagers, kept her from volunteering before this year.

Ms. Moore is a senior at Redlands East Valley High School and has been a volunteer in the Medical Center volunteer services office since September, 2000.

In addition to volunteering, her class load this past school year included five advanced placement courses.

Ms. Moore volunteers for two hours twice a week, but would have donated more time if it weren't for her course load. Her dad works in respiratory care and her mom works in gynecology and obstetrics.

When she is here, Ms. Moore does basic office work--keeping the files in order, typing up various volunteer program information on the computer, and making phone calls.

"I really like being somewhere I can be useful," Ms. Moore says. "It's nice to know that I can come in here and do something that, [while] maybe it doesn't make a difference in a lot of people's lives, it makes a difference in somebody's life that I'm here. And I'm doing something useful. I'm not just sitting at home doing nothing."

A value greater than money

There are many volunteers just like these who impact the Medical Center and Children's Hospital on a daily basis. Their contributions are immeasurable.

"The generosity of spirit, thoughtful consideration, and sharing by our hospital volunteers is of a value greater than money," Ms. Winter says. "A volunteer who offers a helping hand, a caring gesture, or a smile can sometimes mean the difference between a positive impression of our facility and a negative one. A volunteer provides the special touches and additional concern which extends the services of our professionals.

"Our volunteers are extremely generous, both in time and talents. They provide services for special projects and last minute needs. Whether they are crocheting blankets at home or pushing patients in wheelchairs, they donate with a willingness and compassion that is invaluable. Counting hours and assigning a monetary value to those hours cannot begin to describe the expression of joy of a patient who receives a handmade heart pillow or a cuddly blanket!"

[SCOPE, Summer 2001]