DENVER — Once a week, Shawn Kinney is running loads of laundry, stocking supply shelves, and popping in and out of patient rooms.
Kinney is a volunteer for Presbyterian/St. Luke’s Medical Center (PSL) in Denver, where she is helping both patients and healthcare workers in a hospital setting.
“I had a friend, 10 years ago, on this exact floor – she had leukemia,” Kinney said, standing inside the hospital’s Colorado Blood Cancer Institute.
“She was from out of town and her family couldn’t visit her all the time, so I used to come down and walk the halls with her… I told myself when I retired, that might be something I’d be interested in volunteering.”
“And so,” she added. “Here I am!”
Prior to the pandemic, the volunteer program at PSL and next-door Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children, had more than 400 participants. But during the pandemic, when visitors and non-essential personnel were restricted, the program was put on pause.
When it returned this spring, it returned with a new focus.
“I think there’s more of a focus now on really caring for patients and providing support for them,” said Molly Zaslow, a clinical nurse coordinator in the blood cancer unit.
Like many hospitals across the state, PSL is dealing with staffing shortages. Family visits are still limited. And healthcare workers often feel like they’re running on fumes.
Volunteers are helping lighten the load of full-time staff – physically, and mentally.
“We would love to be able to sit with our patients more often but just given the facts of this job and the tasks that are given to us, we just don’t always have that [extra] time,” Zaslow said. So it’s helpful to have someone else who can take the time to do that and who can do maybe other tasks when we are doing the emotional support part.”
Perhaps you’ve heard of "rounds" for doctors or nurses. PSL volunteers have their own version, "comfort rounds," to check in with patients, visit for a while, and offer some of that emotional support.
“Some people have really great news, you know, and you’re joyful with them. Some people have bad news and you cry right along with them,” Kinney said. And I think that takes a toll on the nurses – and if the volunteers can take some of that emotional part away and help out in that regard – I think it’s great.
Since the volunteer program restarted earlier this year, there are about 100 volunteers on staff. They hope to bring on more in January.
Some, like Kinney, are assisting healthcare workers on specific floors. Others serve as greeters and "way finders," even therapy cuddlers for babies in the NICU. Volunteers are not working on COVID floors or with COVID patients.
Some, also like Kinney, are retirees. Others are students in high school or college, interested in medical careers.
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