Your husband’s surgery is scheduled for 7 a.m., check-in at 5:45 a.m. Pre-op is complete and your loved one has been wheeled back for a procedure. Coffee in hand, now you wait. At 30 minutes you anxiously ask for directions to the café for coffee number two because you can’t sit still. At 60 minutes you get an update that all is going well. Two hours in, the doctor lets you know that everything went as expected and your husband is in recovery; someone will let you know when you can go back and see him. Time to enjoy a treat from the café, a bit more at ease, while you can now calmly converse with someone in the waiting room about the weather and the house they’re flipping on HGTV.
Your MRI appointment is at 1 p.m. and you’re done with physical therapy for that shoulder that’s still bothering you. After check-in, you realize you’re 37 minutes early and have time to spare. You spot a fun new jacket in the gift shop you go in to take a look. Now that you have in hand a few cards for upcoming graduations, a snack for after your appointment, a scarf to gift grandma for Mother’s Day, and the new fun jacket that caught your eye in the first place – you’re ready to checkout. You pay the kind woman who helped you pick out the scarf for grandma and stacked your purchases on the counter. Only 10 more minutes until your appointment, you make note of how grateful you are for the gift shop’s distractions.
The holidays are filled with joy, family, gratitude, stress, anxiety, glitter, more family, more gratitude, more stress. Walking into the hospital for your annual check-up is the last thing you were hoping to do before you and the rest of Sheridan go to Wal-Mart and shop for all the gifts and all the meals. But enter the facility, you’re greeted by friendly faces, warm hellos and festive décor that makes it feel like home, not a cold clinical space. It’s festive and cozy and you feel like you’re walking right into your parent’s house, after being away for a while, and every decoration triggers a cherished memory.
The kind person who provided directions to the café, talked with you about the weather, gave updates on your husband’s surgery, and chatted with you on and off is a Sheridan Memorial Hospital volunteer. The lovely woman who helped you pick your grandma’s scarf, distracted you from your ailment and gave you a place to wander when you needed it is a Sheridan Memorial Hospital volunteer. The beautiful décor, the homey feeling that wrapped you up, the holiday spirit that welcomed you to your annual appointment, is cultivated by Sheridan Memorial Hospital volunteers.
At Sheridan Memorial Hospital, our volunteers are the heart of the organization. They are the teammates who show up without traditional pay, without your typical form of benefits and far earlier for a shift or meeting than most. Every act of service given to our hospital by a volunteer is another chance to further our mission of providing excellent patient-centered care to everyone in our community. You do not need to spend a great deal of time at our hospital to see the tremendous difference our volunteers make on the patient experience here.
I find joy in countless interactions with our team of dedicated volunteers. No matter how big or small, their actions make a difference when they share a part of themselves with all of us. They share so much of their time and talents, incredible stories of their past, hysterical moments from their days, and exude dedication and passion in a way that I will always strive for.
The role of volunteer and development coordinator has been a pivotal change in my life and career. It is not just what brought me back home, but also what keeps me here. I am passionate about the work I’m doing and look forward to standing alongside so many incredible humans who feel the same way about serving our community, every single day. Words can only cover so much for all that volunteers do for the patient experience at SMH and throughout our community. However, to all of our SMH volunteers, I want to make sure you know for every kind gesture you make when no one is watching, every selfless action you take that we will ever know about, every warm greeting you give to the patients, families, staff and guests you encounter, and for every ounce of gratitude you deserve, but someone forgot to pass along, thank you.
To learn more about Sheridan Memorial Hospital’s volunteer program, or to share with us an experience you’ve had with our volunteers, contact Jasmine Slater at jasmineslater@sheridanhospital.org or call 307.675.2620.