Volunteering is what led me to my path into nursing. It has always been central to me and I have volunteered off and on since I was 13 years old. I have continued to volunteer while attending nursing school through NSNA, activities as well as with a local disaster preparedness organization. I enjoy being part of a group that works to improve things for others. Volunteering has provided me with opportunities to grow, improve myself and make a difference in someone else’s life as well as my own. In my career as a nurse, I want and need to continue to have these experiences and I believe that it will make me a better nurse. Volunteering helps to make connections. Several years ago I was a volunteer with the Junior League of San Francisco and
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Volunteerism can be one of the best teachers. I volunteered prior to nursing school to determine if nursing was where I wanted to be. I spent time at a local hospital as a doula and also spent a month in Ecuador observing and assisting in local hospitals and clinics. Both experiences increased my knowledge in different ways. My work as a doula allowed me to see what it was like on a nursing unit and my time in Ecuador allowed me to get a glimpse of what it is like to experience medical care when you don’t speak the language in which the care is being delivered. This gave me a completely new perspective when I returned to my doula role and worked with patients whose primary language was not English. I now work hard to advocate for using an interpreter as the patient may not always let us know how much English is understood. More recently, I have been working with our county’s Medical Reserve Corps which functions in a disaster relief role. I took part in a statewide emergency drill where we played out a scenario in which patients were transferred in from another county due to an earthquake damaging those hospitals. Here we ran through setting up an alternative care site, triaging patients, transferring patients from planes to ambulances and finally to the hospital that would admit them. Sitting through an informational meeting prior to the event allowed me to think about what we needed, but it
Volunteerism can be one of the best teachers. I volunteered prior to nursing school to determine if nursing was where I wanted to be. I spent time at a local hospital as a doula and also spent a month in Ecuador observing and assisting in local hospitals and clinics. Both experiences increased my knowledge in different ways. My work as a doula allowed me to see what it was like on a nursing unit and my time in Ecuador allowed me to get a glimpse of what it is like to experience medical care when you don’t speak the language in which the care is being delivered. This gave me a completely new perspective when I returned to my doula role and worked with patients whose primary language was not English. I now work hard to advocate for using an interpreter as the patient may not always let us know how much English is understood. More recently, I have been working with our county’s Medical Reserve Corps which functions in a disaster relief role. I took part in a statewide emergency drill where we played out a scenario in which patients were transferred in from another county due to an earthquake damaging those hospitals. Here we ran through setting up an alternative care site, triaging patients, transferring patients from planes to ambulances and finally to the hospital that would admit them. Sitting through an informational meeting prior to the event allowed me to think about what we needed, but it