Brampton Civic Hospital

Brampton Civic Hospital is one of three hospitals under the William Osler Health System acute care community hospital group, working with hundreds of volunteers at each site. I began as a volunteer at the hospital in June 2017, and continued until September 2020.

During my time as a Student Team Lead one of the main tasks I undertook was creating a mini-map system for visitors to use. I found that due to the number of elderly people visiting the very large hospital, it was often difficult to remember navigational directions. In an effort to curb this problem, I worked with other volunteers to conduct research and create solutions using an iterative design process, where we gathered feedback and implemented it to meet the visitor needs.

Pandemic Volunteer, 2020

In the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, the hospital invited volunteers to return as part of the Pandemic Response Team. During this time, we were expected to put on multiple hats and take on the role of any volunteer in any department that needed help.

New Situations

Given the nature of the situation regarding COVID-19, we were presented with new guidelines regarding patient-visitor-volunteer interactions almost every third day. It was imperative that we learnt the new guidelines as we received them in order to ensure that all members of the community were kept safe. There were often situations which were not prescribed, and being one of the more senior volunteers on the team, I dealt with how to handle these unfamiliar circumstances. Doing this resulted in toeing the line between taking the visitor’s wishes into consideration, and hospital policies, but ultimately taking action which was for the safety of all involved.

Delivery (of patients and packages!)

Due to new restrictions on who/what was allowed into the hospital after screening, the volunteers handled both delivering packages to patients, and helping patients get to their appointments. When delivering packages the sender often did not have all the information regarding where the patient was, and so I often had to research either through hospital records or by talking to the nurses in various departments. Most of the patients who needed help getting to their appointment were most often either elderly, pregnant, or did not speak English. Each of these situations came with their own obstacles, which we as volunteers overcame to make sure that all visitors to the hospital had a pleasant experience. We acted as the line of communication between hospital staff and the patient’s families to ensure that the best care was given to those who came.

Student Team Lead, 2019–2020

As the Student Team Lead, I led a team of over 20 volunteers across various departments (Pediatrics, Diagnostic Imaging, Neurology, Dialysis, etc.) and acted as a point of contact to the Volunteer Department. I was tasked with helping out volunteers whenever they required additional resources, as well as onboarding new volunteers to orient them with the hospital.

Training Volunteers

A large part of my role was welcoming new volunteers to the hospital, showing them around each department in the hospital, introducing them to their role in the specific department, and how they work with the rest of the hospital operations. In order to successfully do this, I had to understand the basics of each role any volunteer in the hospital could possibly do, as well as be able to confidently run through how a typical day in their department would be like. Giving new volunteers tours of the hospitals also entailed a significant amount of knowledge regarding hospital operations, and the locations of each department.

Overseeing Departments

Supervising volunteers in over 20 departments per shift meant that I had to be extremely organized in scheduling, knowing when they would be absent, and handling any concerns they had regarding their volunteer experience. I found that the best way of doing this was to connect with each of them personally. Doing this ensured that they were comfortable enough to talk to me if they had any problems. I also worked with current volunteers at their department to setup shadowing if they found that they wanted some practice before they started, which was often very helpful in learning some of the more finer tips of each department.

Streamlining Technologies

In late 2019, the hospital introduced a new system of signing in for Dialysis patients and I took charge in working with the patients on the frontlines to handle any problems they faced, and gauge a general understanding of how both patients and staff felt about the new addition. I worked with the Volunteer Community Resources Department to come up with improvements to the system based on feedback we received to make it more useable for patients.

Lobby and Emergency Volunteer, 2017–2019

In the beginning of my journey as a hospital volunteer, I began as a Main Lobby Volunteer and handled visitor inquiries, helped with wayfinding, and assisted patients in getting to various locations around the hospital. After a couple months, I was also added to the Emergency Department shift where I helped patients move to different triages, and assisted nurses in bringing patients into the check-in area.

Handling Unfamiliar Scenarios

Some of my most memorable moments volunteering at the hospital came during my time volunteering at the Lobby and the Emergency Department. Working a weekday, evening shift meant that no two weeks were the same; I handled situations ranging from bringing in an elderly gentleman who had collapsed in front of the hospital to finding ways to transport a child with pneumonia up to the Pediatrics department, while obeying hospital protocols. Most times, these situations required extreme compassion and being able to separate tone from meaning, especially when it came to tired patients/visitors who are simply seeking help. Being able to place myself in the patient’s shoes was extremely important, as it allowed me to understand what exactly they needed, and what was in my power to get it done for them.

Improving Communications

In my first couple months as a Lobby Volunteer, one of my main tasks was simple wayfinding where I helped out visitors/patients access different departments in the hospital. I found that due to the large elderly population in the community, many of them were often not able to remember complicated directions around the large hospital. In an effort to solve this problem I introduced smaller hand-drawn maps where I would mark landmarks in the area and draw out the route they needed to take, so that they didn’t have to remember the entire process. Many other volunteers also found this solution to be quite effective and took this up, allowing for an improvement in volunteer-visitor communications.