Well, this moved along quickly (Much faster than I thought it would- TB test, background check, orientation & interview all completed in under a month)!
Today was my training day as a volunteer at the new ER. It seems a bit more… strict than the last Emergency Department where I used to volunteer. Because it’s a higher volume, higher level trauma center teaching hospital, it makes sense that they have to keep a tighter reign on the volunteers. This could be a bummer, because it means I’ll get to do less stuff (no more helping nurses take samples, put in IVs and foleys), however they do have ER Technicians, which I’m hoping to become… Hopefully I can befriend a few of the ER Techs, learn those ropes and perhaps even network my way in eventually.
The vibe I got was you basically go in, put your face down and do the work for about two or three months and not really bother anyone, and then once they get a feel for you, you can start kind of asking questions, making yourself a bit more known, observing treatments and doing a bit more. It seems like they get a lot of volunteers who just come in, do it for two or five months, and then leave… so I could see why the high turnover is a big disincentive for the nurses and physicians to want to make an investment in getting to know the volunteers. Hopefully after a while if I make it known that I’m a student, relatively intelligent and hardworking, and eager to learn I can find someone willing to take me under their wing and get some exposure. I *did* recognize one doctor already who I know already from volunteering in the ED at St. Lukes- crazy what a small city this is!
As for right now, it looks like my duties are going to consist mainly of cleaning and changing beds, restocking room supplies, liaising with patients and generally helping nurses and physicians with whatever else they need. I think I’m going to put together a giant fruit plate (or cookies? On the fence about this… it seemed like the last ER where I volunteered used to get so many freaking trays of sweets all the time that I bet they would be dying for some healthy stuff) and bring it in for all the nurses next week for my first shift as a way to get started on the right foot.
There were so many beds! I feel like I barely oriented myself!! My training was about two hours long. I was trained by a person in a very similar situation as myself- he is a career changer as well. Formerly an IT executive, he’s now going to nursing school. Not only was he a great trainer, but super helpful telling me about some colleges around here to be doing post-bacc classes. He currently volunteers in the ICU at the same hospital, so perhaps we’ll run into each other again.
Oh my gosh- you know what else?? The uniforms we get to wear as volunteers are FREAKING ADORABLE!!! They consist of a scrub “seersucker” blazer and khaki cargo scrub pants. Instant love. I have to say, very very cute… I loved my old volunteer uniform as well. What can I say, I guess scrubs suit me. I’ll post up some photos of the uniform soon- right now I am heating up the iron to iron-on the Emergency Department patch they gave me. Lol- iron on patches. How old school is that? We don’t even own an iron, I had to borrow one from our neighbors. 
So as it stands right now, I’ll be volunteering every Wednesday for a five-hour block. Once I’ve done that for a few months or so, and learned the ropes a little, I think I am going to try and get in on an “exciting” shift… maybe Friday or Saturday late nights. My trainer told me to expect to see a lot of ETOH and otherwise altered patients.
All in all, really psyched! Here’s to another step in the right direction towards future goals.
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