The Unexpected Surprise

There only a few guarantees in life. You will be older on your next birthday. The sun will go down just as surely as it came up. And today’s generation of teenagers will be sullen, lazy, and in no way ready to inherit the world from today’s professionals.

Some hospital volunteer programs around the nation are so sure of the last tenet that they’ll go as far as to ban individuals under the age of 18 from participating, or limit them to summer hours only. After all, who would want a bunch of moody, sluggish individuals in an environment where the focus is on happiness and vitality?

When I inherited the responsibility of managing the volunteer program at Spotsylvania Regional Medical Center, we took on a different view about today’s teens. We decided to accept applications from individuals over the age of 14, believing that the vast majority of high school students are ready for the responsibility that comes with a good, honest role in a hospital. As for the temperamental part, we knew that we couldn’t affect a teenager’s feeling about her own family, or her school family, but we could certainly give her a place in our SRMC family.

From the start, we proved the lazy reputation of high school volunteers to be false. Our volunteers play more than a dozen sports and half a dozen instruments. They are writers and artists, salutatorians and newspaper editors, members of the FFA and the Future Business Leaders of America. Some have an interest in healthcare, looking at SRMC to be the first step toward a career as a nurse, physician, surgeon, midwife or oncologist. Others want to be teachers, accountants, computer programmers or chefs.

Sullen? Well, there were a handful of teen volunteers who fit this description, but far from the degree many would have us believe. Of the 90+ prospective volunteers of high school age who have come into my office for an interview, only a handful have given me a little twinge of worry. Often times, their quiet or dim demeanor was a product of nervousness and would gently lift with a few calming questions. But one young woman’s gloomy disposition did not fade with a question about her passions or hobbies. She didn’t crack a hint of a smile during the entire interview, or during orientation either. If there was a textbook case of “being angry with the world,” this teenager had it nailed.

I brought her on hoping that SRMC environment would be an escape from whatever was bothering her. I had my doubts. Still I hoped. I oriented. I checked on her regularly. And I hoped some more.

Along the way, something happened. It was barely noticeable at first – a flicker, a glimmer – but a change began to occur. Given responsibility, given purpose, given commendation, and given value, the angry frowning young woman began to morph. She added shifts. Encouraged by staff to take on new challenges and new responsibility, this teenager has simply blossomed.

You would have no way of matching up the girl I interviewed with the girl you see in the hallways of SRMC today. The girl today talks about her unit like she’s an employee. She talks about the hospital’s growth plans. The girl today tells me how she wants to come back to get more hours, even though she’s already given more hours than the number of days we’ve been open.

 One afternoon last week, I walked into the lobby to find her pushing a patient in a wheelchair. There was a beam of sunlight coming through the front windows illuminating her. Gone was the averted glance to the ground, the sneer, the hunched shoulders. In their place were an attentive eye, a smile and a posture that indicated a comfort with the world. In that finger of light, she almost seemed angelic.

 Often, when we think about healthcare, we think about the people we touch physically – checking their vitals, bandaging their wounds, giving them the necessary fluids. The best healthcare is that which touches people by surrounding them in a healthy, inviting environment, stimulating them to feel better as much as our medical care relieves their pain. In this case, the individual did not even have to sign in to get the absolute best care she could have received. She merely had to be under the wing of a caring healthcare team.

 We are extremely proud of our high school volunteers and all they have done to disprove the stigma of how today’s youth behave. We will continue to bring in teen volunteers, because we believe it benefits our staff and our patients to see these energetic and intelligent young men and women, and because we believe it will help them in their growth. After all, an ideal volunteer program is built not on what volunteers can do for the cause, but a two-way relationship which is as good for the institution and those it cares for as it is for the volunteer. That is what it means to be a strong asset to the community.

 When one talks about the guarantees in life, we can talk about the inevitability of age or the passage of time. But there is one guarantee that has nothing to do with the changing of the seasons. If we fail to develop our youth, we guarantee that they will not be able to meet our standards. On the other hand, if we share our family atmosphere and our rich knowledge, we are sharing the tools to build a better tomorrow.

~ by Spotsylvania Regional Medical Center Blogs and Reflections on September 23, 2010.