What Did I Do?

As a volunteer at the front desk in the main lobby of the East band hospital I had several responsibilities. This was a fairly new position that the volunteer department had put in place when I arrived so it was a learning experience for all of us.  My main job was to be available for any guest or patient who needed information about the building or who needed help getting somewhere.  I would often point people in the direction of something they were looking for, or if necessary, I would walk with them to the place they wanted to get to. Another job I had was to make sure that the wheelchairs in the main lobby did not start to overflow. If there were too many I would wheel them to an area of the hospital that needed them.

Like:  With this position I really like the freedom and the wide variety of things that I did.  There were often little side jobs that I was given and I was able to do different things every week.  I really enjoyed being able to get to know the hospital better. I think that as a result of this volunteer position I realized how much more there is to the hospital than I had ever imagined.  Another part that I enjoyed was getting to know the family and visitor aspect of the hospital better.  I think a lot of times when we think about the hospital all we think of is sick patients and doctors and we forget that there are so many other people affected by sickness and injury then just patients and doctors. I liked being able to interact with guests and being able to help them and hopefully remove a little stress from all that they were dealing with.

Dislikes: Although I did love the visitor and guest interaction aspect of this position, I got to have very little patient contact.  I rarely dealt with patients or doctors and I wish that was something that I could have had a little more of.  When I did get to escort patients to places in the hospital though I found it very rewarding.  Another part of this position that I did not like was the down time that I had. I found myself often times with not much to do.  This is partially because it is a new volunteer position and they are still trying to figure it out completely and it also could have been that I wasn't there at the busiest times.