The days of the candy striper, those red-and-white-clad teenagers who became an iconic, pop-culture symbol, may be all but over but the need for what they did – serve as volunteers who helped ration the valuable time and attention of doctors and other staff – remains.
Luckily, at least at local hospitals, the pool of those willing to fill the uniform – figuratively speaking – also stands strong.
“[Volunteers] serve a very important role [at hospitals]. Whatever is needed, they’re usually able to do,” said Lynn Foster, coordinator of volunteers at Memorial Hospital in Pawtucket.
Foster has run Memorial’s program for 11 years and said the hospital has relied on students and other young adults to supplement its volunteer pool – also, as in most other hospitals, comprised of retired adults and the part-time or underemployed – since the candy striper days.
They do it for a variety of reasons, including school requirements, educational advancement and, just as commonly, a good, old-fashioned sense of civic duty.
“They’re very motivated,” Foster said. “It’s surprising how they work this into their busy schedule.”
High-school students are seen at the hospital mostly during summer. There are typically about 30 such students per season.
At Landmark Medical Center, in Woonsocket, where Carolyn Dery has been volunteer-services coordinator for the last five years, there are about 80 high school volunteers. When her 25 or so college students are added in, young adults make up about half of her total volunteer base.
“Honestly, I see most of the kids who come to me wanting to do it because they have a medical interest,” Dery said. “They aren’t quite sure what they want to do post-high school and they come to see what is available and where they might fit in.”
Of course, high school volunteers – most of whom are under 18 – are limited in services they can provide.
Other tasks can include assisting with special clerical projects and menu preparation or performing wheelchair transportations.
“We definitely have roles where there is interaction with patients, so I think just by the nature of being in that environment they get a feel for what it’s like,” said Adrianne Walsh, manager of volunteer services for Rhode Island Hospital and Hasbro Children’s Hospital, both in Providence and under the Lifespan health system. “And they interact with medical staff as well.”
Walsh manages some 1,000 volunteers in her system. About 600 of those are students, roughly one-third of whom are in high school.
Her high school summer program is at capacity this year.
“Of course, we do get a good amount [who are filling graduation requirements] and some of them have to do a senior project,” Walsh said.
Rhode Island does not have a state-mandated volunteer requirement but, according to the department of education, many districts and individual schools have instituted programs at those levels.
Middletown Public Schools, for instance, requires that students perform 20 hours of approved community service for graduation. East Providence High School graduates must perform six hours of such service for each year they are there.
Johnson & Wales University in Providence just this past winter announced that its once-mandatory Community Service Learned no longer will be required for graduation beginning with this fall’s incoming class, though civic engagement, the university said, will continue to be “embedded in classes and co-curricular activities.”
In addition to time at local hospitals, Brown University Alpert Medical School students also participate in HealthLeads, in which student volunteers at Hasbro Children’s work on ensuring families gain access to social services, said David Orenstein, science news officer.
Most of Walsh’s college volunteers come from Brown’s medical school in Providence and many of them are putting in hours beyond what is required for clinical-based classes for which Lifespan hospitals are a major affiliate.
Those students are usually placed, as they are at other hospitals, in the emergency department, where in addition to helping keep patients comfortable they can assist in some hands-on patient care, including stretcher transport and helping with triage charts.
Foster said emergency-department volunteering gives students studying to become nurses, doctors or physician assistants practical experience in a noninstructional atmosphere, even if it doesn’t involve direct patient care.
“It’s very flexible because their schedule changes and [we’re] able to accommodate that,” she said. “It just increases their knowledge of a hospital.”
Sometimes, the volunteer stint provides enough education for the student to realize they are on the right career track.
Foster said she had one student volunteer all through high school, perform her clinicals at Memorial during college and then work there for a time as a nurse.
“The most gratifying pat of the job is when we get those calls or emails at the end of the summer when they come in and say, ‘I’ve made the right decision and I’ve loved my experience here,’ ” Walsh said. •
