I do not have video and I have an uncooperative audio this morning-I'm Lisa Alesch-Buena Vista Regional Medical Center, Storm Lake Iowa-I have been with the hospital for almost 15 years but in the role of volunteer coordinator for 5 months

How lucky you are to have Pam Gridley as your guru!

AGREE!

THANKS. You are so sweet! Definitely my pleasure.

I have a problem with my screen going in and out. Sorry I will try to keep up the best I can!

Metropolitan and urban seem the same to me!

we are small community....

can i change my answer! :)

me too!

Mine is rural/critical access

I got pulled away for a minute. Our volunteers are not back yet.

Some are not comfortable coming into the hospital with Covid concerns and others do not want to be vaccinated at this time.

Not yet, but going there when legally obligated.

Gundersen Palmer has a mandate.

Verification of vaccination OR waiver form submission required by Dec 20.

I will only loose one come the end of the year.

we lost 2 (MN). They cannot come to anything no matter where.

My hardest shifts are: Friday afternoon, followed by Friday morning, followed by Monday morning

I agree with Vickie

Friday afternoons are the WORST

I also agree with Vickie

not busy Friday afternoons

I have volunteers 65+ who don't want to drive in the dark / evening. Our college volunteers more prefer days.

we don’t offer weekend volunteering except for an occasional fundraise

Sorry, my mic. isn't working or I would just talk. We dug into more clerical opportunities and found that areas like fiscal, admissions and even security had very appropriate weekly volunteer tasks that we are now assisting in ... opening / sorting mail, filing, etc.

It was honestly me just touching base with other Managers to see if they had thoughts on how volunteers could assist in non-patient areas ... and then taking it from there. I did, of course, get a lot of feedback that was not volunteer appropriate however, it did result in some great areas of expansion for volunteers.

We have had requests from several departments for volunteers to help out...ie food services, patient registration. We need to be careful not to "replace" employees with volunteers, even if we can't find employees!

i agree Barb. We wanted to help by having volunteers in our lab but couldn't have a volunteer do the work of an employee.

Our unions would not allow us to replace employees with volunteers. We also have a policy (Allina). I would expect at some point....some of this would have to change.

information desk at closed entrances no longer open and will not reopen. screeners at limited entrances.

Same for us at Mercy IC as Julie with the Information Desk / Greeter volunteers now being paid Screeners. The volunteers want to come back in our case as well.

We have returned some to patient contact - mail delivery and patient safety

We do not.

We do

A few

very few

I have a few

We do not either

We actually had one contact us now which was usual.

we do have new vols , a few

I am in the process of totally redoing my application process to accommodate all the changes

Is anyone allowing volunteers in the ED? We are talking about returning those volunteers but want to know what you are all doing.

yes, I have volunteers in the ED and in patient rooms

We are not allowing any in the ED or patient rooms

We are looking at it. United Hospital in St. Paul does have volunteers in the ED.

Would anyone be willing to share what the volunteers in your ED are doing to support?

Asking current volunteers to take another shift.

we have the gift shop open with limited hours

I am in the process of having meetings with all the department managers to see if they have volunteer needs-some mangers have never used volunteers before but with a little encouragement are seeing new ways that they could use the help-it's a way for me to keep volunteers involved that were used to helping in areas that we can no longer have them in (ex-info desks) Also am redoing the application to list new areas and remove areas that I don't ever see us being able to staff again.

I attached what volunteers do in the ED

What program(s) are people using for volunteers to sign-up for various shifts rather than the set schedule method?

oh my gosh! thank you for the ED doc!!!

Almost all of my areas are self scheduling. Volunteers LOVE it

Sorry I have to head to another meting, it was sooo good seeing all of you!

Fear

Merry Christmas Melinda!

Sorry I have to go - but thank you Angela! This was great!

Bye Vicki! !

Have to go. Thanks for the great conversation!

recognition is a direct correlation in my opinion.

If your current volunteers feel appreciated and their contributions recognized I think they will go out and tell others to volunteer.

110% agree! I am making little tags that read "How sweet it is to work with you" that I will attach to a candy bar (super low cost) and delivery to volunteers before Christmas which really just gives me the opportunity to thank them in person, touch base and give them a little token of our appreciation.

I just bought individual bags of chex mix with a tag that says "he's making a list, chexing it twice and going to fn

find out that you are really nice" Again-super low cost

Lisa, that is super cute!

Thank you ladies! It was great!!!

What is the website?

thank you!