VA sees increase in student volunteers for summer program

This summer, the Veteran Affairs Medical Center’s summer youth volunteer program has expanded with goals to expand further.

J. Dale Garrett, volunteer service chief, said there’s about 10 youth volunteers at the VA over the summer who are helping to escort patients, assisting in different departments and delivering supplies where they’re needed.

Garrett took over the position last year and he said while the program has existed for a number of years, this year’s students are more active within the facility and with the patients.

“In the past, I think that students didn’t get to do all the things that they’re being allowed to do now,” he said. “I know last summer, when I was new, there was a lot of students who sat in the room over here and sat on their phone all day and did very little. The students this year hardly spend any time in this room and are out here in the facility helping to provide that support.”

Volunteers, whether adult or student, are considered non-compensated employees and can do anything the employees do as long as they have the right certification and training. Students as young as 13 are able to apply to volunteer. While most don’t have the medical certifications to do many things, Garrett said he’s been working with the different departments to identify what they can have students helping with.

He said there’s more the students can do than most departments realized and through continuing to explore and define roles the students can fill, he’s hoping to increase the number of students the departments are willing to take on at a time. From there, it’s about finding the students to fill those positions.

“We haven’t had enough positions to put students in,” Garrett said. “If I can get more buy-in by the facility, staff here on having positions for students to do then I can start doing recruitment.”

For instance, students are able to fill roles as clinic assistants, which means greeting those coming into the facility, escorting veterans to their exam/procedure room, orienting veterans with who they need to see next, assisting with administrative needs and making reminder calls for appointments.

There’s a volunteer who is working in the physical therapy department, cleaning and assisting, but also being taught about the different injuries a patient can have and why different treatments are being done. Garrett said yet another student is working in the warehouse, helping to unload deliveries and move items to the different areas they’re needed.

Garrett said there’s other students working as radiology support assistants, which means doing a lot of the same work, but specifically with the radiology department.

“While the ones in radiology are helping radiology, they’re also kind of shadowing in radiology — learning while they’re also helping and assisting,” he said. “The ones working in radiology are looking at going to radiology school. Maybe to be an X-ray tech or maybe even a radiologist.”

Most of the students are interested in pursuing a career in the medical field, Garrett said, but the volunteers are able to assist with other work such as designing brochures and flyers faster and easier than many of the older staff.

“They’re a lot better at creating stuff in Publisher or other programs,” he said. “They can get in and do things, have something completed in the time it would take me to figure out how to do one task. So we try to capitalize on that with their knowledge of technology.”

While the volunteers aren’t paid, Garrett said there’s other benefits to doing the work. These include helping with college applications as well as work resume and references. Students also receive the chance to be nominated for VA scholarships.

“If you’ve got a kid who has been here for several years, built up a lot of volunteer hours and they get a lot of good praise from whoever is supervising them each year,” he said. “Well, if I think they’re somebody who needs to be nominated for these national scholarships then I’ll nominate them for the scholarship.”

However, there’s benefits for the veterans who visit the VA as well. Garrett said many, especially those who live at the facility’s nursing home, aren’t in regular contact with the nation’s youth — beyond some family coming to visit them. By having students who help escort veterans to exam rooms or sit down in the common area to talk or play games with them, they can see that there are youth that care about them.

“They don’t see the youth of today as showing concern for older people or veterans,” he said. “We have some that’ll even go up to the nursing home floor and will read to or talk with or play games with veterans up there. When our veterans that come here for care see that, hopefully it’ll encourage them about the future of our nation to see you actually interested in veterans and coming in to help.”

Garrett said there are concerns with any volunteer — adult or student. One of the main ones is privacy and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, which restricts the release of medical information.

Volunteers get the same 2 1/2-hour training, whether student or adult, which includes privacy laws along with training the police department offers training on harassment, potential crimes, active threat response training, infection control, patient safety on operating wheelchairs and other safety measures. Garrett said a lot of the training is building on what the students get at school.

Along with the summer program, Garrett said the VA does accept student volunteers during the school year. Students who come in during days off of school during normal business hours do much of the same work as they do over the summer. However, students are also able to come in over the weekend, when the medical facilities are closed, to fill a position referred to as Red Coat Ambassadors.

The Ambassadors are primarily responsible for spending time with veterans by helping guide veterans and visitors. Students can also volunteer to spend time with the veterans in the nursing home during summer.

“They may find that this ‘isn’t what I expected at all, I think I’ll go into something different,’” he said. “Some kids that are here are just here to get community service hours for National Honor Society, BETA club, whatever different extracurricular programs that they’re in. Some of them are here because mom and dad told them to do something.”

Anybody interested in being a volunteer can contact Garrett at dale.garrett@va.gov or in his office at the VA.