Busting budget constraints with volunteer help
Busting budget constraints with volunteer help
Try high-level volunteers when funds are limited
When budgets are too tight to staff a health resource center, one solution is to use volunteers in place of paid personnel. "We wouldn’t be operating if it wasn’t for them, and a large percentage of our volunteers are retired nurses," says Diane Moyer, MS, RN, CDE, program manager of consumer health education and wellness at The Ohio State University Medical Center in Columbus.
Many retired professionals want to do something other than stuff envelopes, and most of their time in the center for health information is spent with clients doing searches for them, explains Moyer.
High-level tasks, like staffing a learning center, do require high-caliber volunteers, agrees Carol Maller, RN, MS, CHES, patient education coordinator at the New Mexico Veterans Affairs (VA) Health Care System in Albuquerque. "My most successful way of recruiting high-level volunteers is through the providers at the medical center," she says.
To alert physician assistants and physicians, Maller attends outpatient staff meetings and asks them to look at their patient population for retirees who have had productive working lives but might want a way to use their skills.
She asks providers to have potential volunteers contact her or obtain permission for her to call them. "I don’t get a lot of referrals, but every one I do get works. You only need a few really good people," says Maller. She has 14 high-level volunteers working in the resource center who include retired nurses, a retired biology instructor, a retired professor and several business-sector retirees.
No matter their skills, the volunteers’ roles in the resource center are as information gatherers, not health educators, says Maller. It’s important that they understand their role although they frequently work with a light-duty nurse; sometimes they are on their own.
The Ohio State Medical Center health information center’s volunteers can ask for help from the librarian if she’s available. If not, Moyer or others act as backup contacts. There also is a list of resources that volunteers are directed to check first. For example, if a client is looking for information on a drug, there are two or three sites that volunteers can first search before doing an Internet search. The guidelines give them direction, says Moyer. If volunteers question the information’s validity, they ask one of the education coordinators to check it before they mail or hand it out.
Retired professionals don’t need a lot of supervision, says Maller. Frequently, she seeks their help on health promotions such as the Great American Smoke Out. "I can sit down with them and go over a project, and they will take off with it, contacting you if they need help," she says.
Sources
For more information about using volunteers to staff resource centers contact:
- Carol Maller, RN, MS, CHES, Patient Education Coordinator, New Mexico VA Health Care System, 1501 San Pedro Drive S.E., Albuquerque, NM 87108. Telephone: (505) 265-1711, ext. 4656. Fax: (505) 256-2870. E-mail: [email protected].
- Diane Moyer, MS, RN, CDE, Program Manager, Consumer Health Education and Wellness, The Ohio State University Medical Center, Department of Consumer & Corporate Health Education & Wellness, 1375 Perry St., Fifth FL, Columbus, OH 43210. Telephone: (614) 293-3191.
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