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Hospital volunteer work? or other volunteering.

Can you be a volunteer in a hospital? apart from giving people directions. and if so how do I go about it?
Ive applied to start an access to HE nursing and social work course in the hope to go on to uni to do midwifery or child's nursing (or social work if all else fails) But its really hard to get into our uni with good grades let alone just an access course so would like to do some other stuff to make my CV look better and just to get me out there and out of the house a bit. I'm only 20 so have only had 1 job working in a supermarket for 3 years untill i had Tegan & Leo and its about time i got my life on track and going places.
Any help would be greatly apreciated ladies.

xxx

Replies

  • Try and get in touch with your local hospital 'Friends of' service and see what volunteering opportunities they have avaiable. I think that would be best!
  • Yes! you can volunteer and they often put you on wards where you do teas and coffee and things. If you want to do nursing/midwifery, have you tried getting on the bank and being a health care assistant? Or alternatively working as a health care assistant in a nursing/residential home? I know you say paed nursing but if you cant do hospitals its some form of care work. You could ask if you could gain work experience through working with a play specialist on the childrens ward. I could do hospital exp at the time when I was 16 so I some time with a play specikalist.

    Skills you need to show on personal statement to uni would be team work skills working alone, organisational skills, leadership skills, good communication etc. Is their a headway group near you. You can volunteer for these places, its working with people who have had a head injury through trauma, tumours etc and they attend sessions at headway to find ways to help them with daily living. Really interesting! work experience at a special needs school.

    I ahve a friend who is a nurse at gosh, so will enquire what is good work exp. These are jsut some ideas of the top of my head. HTH x

    [Modified by: Joey08 on August 20, 2009 10:31 PM]

  • hi hun i'm a paed nurse and i got onto the course with no experience (i was very lucky) but a lot of my friends worked in care homes for experience and this worked in there favour, you can also work as a health care assistant on a paed ward and you would get fab experience from it and earn some money.
    If you want to do voulentering then get incontact with your hospital and ask them, most are desprate for help
    if you need any help/info just ask and i'll do whay i can (bear in mind i am on mat leave and my brain has gone to mush)
    xx
  • Hi Hannah i am starting my access course in sep to go to do midwiferey and im the same i have taken the course over 2 yrs to ensure i get the best grades but it is one of the toughest courses to get into.Last yr there was 12 places and 500 people applied so i am currently on a waiting list with the volunteer centre to see if i can volunteer in the health care service as i was told this would improve my chances greatly.

    I am the same my 3 Ellie 7 Leo 2 and James 1, i dont want to be sat on my bum when they start school, i am 29 and its about time i got on and did something as i worked all my life right up til i had the 2 youngest, but i dont want to go and do a job i dont like, i want to do something i have always wanted to do and now is the time as my mum is gonna have them when im at college and then if i get into uni they will be stating nursery at school so the timing is great.

    I would either ring the local volunteer center or the hospital, also i contacted nhs careers and asked them.
    vikki xx
  • Thank you so much ladies :\)
    Ive just emailed the hospital about volunteer work aswell as nhs careers helpline and ive emailed the university asking what they recommend I do to help get me a place. Got emails back saying that it can be up to 3 days before they reply so I'll just wait and see what happens with those.
    Once I find out my college hours for definite then I will phone the nursing homes asking if they would like some extra help.
    Ive seen on the net that health care assistants jobs look good, but there isnt any going in hospitals that I know of, but I will keep looking.
    My uni is the same Vikki, loads of applicants but hardly any places. What access course are you doing? there doesnt seem to be any down here specificaly for midwifery, silly cornwall:roll: and all the ones they do offer only last a year.
    Joey08-ive not heard of a headway group so I will have to look into that, as it sounds interesting.

    Thanks to all of you image xxx
  • Hi i am doing the intro to access for a yr and then an access to higher learning and for midwiferey you need to have maths english and a science one so i am doing english language, quantative methods which is maths and human biology which is the science part. The intro to access is gcse level to introduce me back into education as i left school 13 yrs ago aahh its sounds so long ago wrote down lol
    vikki xx
  • Midwifery and paeds ask for higher grades than the other areas of nursing due to the higher demand in applicants,

    Hannah - phone the hospital and asked to speak to the bank department or HR and ask if you can apply to do HCA work. Its always best to ask as you wont be losing anything. The other option, is to look online for agency work, they foten pay more too. Advantages of bank and agency is you dont ahve set hrs and can work when you want and can say no to jobs to.

    Are you on good terms with your midwife you had for your children. You could see if she could help you gain work experience or just jobs in the midwifery fireld. Often, knowing somebody wo works in teh field, its easier to get work exp. Another place would be to spend to with a health visitor. I dont know how easy this will be, it may become easier for you when on the access course.

    If you get hold of lollyhatch, she is in the same position as you. You will probably find her in the large families forum.
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