Hospital volunteer

<h2 id="history">History</h2>
<p>Candy Stripers originated as a high-school civics class project in <a href="/facts/East_Orange%2c_New_Jersey/AbPRatlr">East Orange, New Jersey</a>, in 1944. The uniforms were sewn by the girls in the class from material provided by the teacher – a red-and-white-striped fabric known as "<a href="/facts/Candy_stripe_(fabric)/N3mL2z4r">candy stripe</a>". The students chose East Orange General Hospital as the home for their class project.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:1" href="#fn:1"><sup>1</sup></a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:2" href="#fn:2"><sup>2</sup></a>
</p><p>Red Cross pins and patches were also worn on the uniforms indicating completion of required Red Cross training.
</p><p>Usually a hospital sponsored either Candy Striper or Blue Teen volunteers but not both.
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<h2 id="duties">Duties</h2>
<p>Duties of hospital volunteers vary widely depending upon the facility.  Volunteers may work in staff reception areas and gift shops; file and retrieve documents and mails; take out trash; clean; provide administrative backup; assist with research by following strict sterilizing procedures for laboratory glass and plasticware, known as autoclaving; help visitors; visit with patients; or transport various small items like flowers, medical records, lab specimens, and drugs from unit to unit. Other volunteer tasks include running a music or art therapy program, where volunteers draw or play an instrument for the patients. Some hospitals even utilize volunteers to cuddle newborn babies.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:3" href="#fn:3"><sup>3</sup></a>
</p><p>A few hospitals ask their volunteers to help out with janitorial duties, such as stripping and remaking beds with clean linens.  Other "advanced volunteers" include patient-care liaisons and volunteer orderlies.  These volunteers must operate on the orders of a nurse or a physician and are given special training to permit them to work with patients. They are also more common in large hospitals, particularly university-affiliated hospitals and teaching hospitals, as they allow pre-medical students to gain experience in patient care by taking pressure off a busy care team.
</p><p>Some hospitals manage their volunteers from a dispersal unit and assign them to tasks based on real-time labor demands, while other hospitals assign volunteers to a single unit for the duration of their service. Female volunteers traditionally wore pink-and-white jumpers, while male volunteers traditionally wore light-blue tunics or shirts over dark slacks. Today, male and female volunteers often wear a uniform shirt, <a href="/facts/Polo_shirt/S6rjlGuW">polo shirt</a> or some other short-sleeved shirt with slacks. Some volunteers (particularly "advanced volunteers") will wear <a href="/facts/Scrubs_(clothing)/VvlhDFcF">scrubs</a>, but this is usually avoided so volunteers are not confused with medical personnel. All volunteers wear ID tags within the hospital that prominently indicate the volunteer's status and position.
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<h2 id="see-also">See also</h2>
<ul><li><a href="/facts/Medical_volunteerism/emf9sYhq">Medical volunteerism</a></li></ul>

<h2 id="external-links">External links</h2>
<ul><li><a href="https://archive.storycorps.org/interviews/mbx000095-3/">StoryCorps Interview - Oral History</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.vmpc.ca/">Volunteer Management Professionals of Canada</a></li>
<li><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20220819080721/https://www.ahvrp.org/">Association for Healthcare Volunteer Resource Professionals (AHVRP)</a>[<i>usurped</i>]</li></ul>

<h2 id="references">References</h2>

<ol>
<li id="fn:1"><p>Oral History with Adele Marie McCain, née Huck, a student in the class, October 1986[original research?] <a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:No_original_research" target="_blank">/wiki/Wikipedia:No_original_research</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:2"><p>"Volunteer Opportunities". East Orange General Hospital. East Orange, New Jersey. 2008. Retrieved 2017-06-19. <a href="http://www.evh.org/dyn/_volunteering.aspx" target="_blank">http://www.evh.org/dyn/_volunteering.aspx</a> <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:3"><p>"Volunteering with Babies in the Hospital". 2018. Retrieved 2018-05-30. <a href="https://www.drbarbaraedwards.com/volunteering-with-babies-in-the-hospital/" target="_blank">https://www.drbarbaraedwards.com/volunteering-with-babies-in-the-hospital/</a> <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
</ol>

Hospital volunteer open-in-new

Hospital volunteer