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Whether it’s serving up cups of coffee or escorting patients around the hospital, volunteers wearing bright red shirts are at work all around El Camino Hospital.
From decking the halls in December to tearing the decorations down a month later, volunteers provide a variety of services to El Camino Hospital, thanks to its auxiliary organization, that coordinates the efforts of 800 volunteers. Starting April 12, the hospital will take part in National Volunteer Week and offering subtle reminders that all the work is appreciated.
Between its Mountain View and Los Gatos campuses, El Camino Hospital has benefited from about 5 million hours of volunteer work since its inception in 1959, most of them from long-time volunteers, according to Robert “RJ” Salus, the director of patient experience at El Camino Hospital. One couple in particular, he said, has been around since the hospital opened.
“We’ve been blessed with some long-term help,” Salus said. “They provide a tremendous amount of support.”
Volunteers do anything from working in the emergency department and nursing units to driving patients around in golf carts to knitting hats, Salus said. There’s a group of women who head to the locker room of the old operating room and adjoining conference room every Wednesday, where they make pillows for patients to use while they’re in the hospital.
Participation has been steadily increasing over the years, probably thanks in part to local tech companies that give employees time to volunteer, Salus said. He said the increased popularity allows for expanded roles at the hospital. The auxiliary is currently piloting an outreach program to ask hospital patients about their “general experience” — whether they’re comfortable and if they have good communication with hospital staff.
“The auxiliary has been a partner with us every step of the way. They’re the very first impression (for visitors) sometimes.”
The auxiliary has gone through a lot of changes since its inception, according to Donna Henderson, a 30-year volunteer at the hospital with nearly 9,000 hours of volunteer work under her belt. Henderson said she used to work as a nurse at El Camino, and in 1984 came back to the hospital to help out. At the time, she said there weren’t a lot of volunteer jobs where she had direct contact with patients, so she took up the task of helping people pick out meals from their hospital beds.
“I really wanted to be around patients,” Henderson said.
Since then, Henderson said, the auxiliary has seen a boom in membership and an expansion of its role at the hospital, and volunteer staff has gone from an all-female crew to a more gender-balanced group. Unlike other hospitals, she said, volunteers now work closely with the nurses and staff to find out what they need help with, and collaborate on what roles the auxiliary can take on.
“Communication is key to this thing, it’s become an issue of letting them know we’re here,” Henderson said.
Anne Kusian, a seven-year volunteer for the hospital, helps escort people around the hospital, conducts tours and runs an amenities cart for patients and families. Kusian is a former president of the auxiliary, and while she used to spend 30 to 35 hours a week volunteering at the hospital, she has since scaled back her time at the hospital.
“It was a little bit like herding cats,” Kusian said of leading the hundreds of auxiliary members daily. She has since taken on a role as “chairperson of the day,” which means if any volunteers aren’t able to answer a visitor’s question, it’s up to her to save the day.
Kusian used to volunteer for an auxiliary of a hospital in Arizona, working at a gift shop, but moved to the Bay Area just a block and a half away from El Camino. Since then she has poured just shy of 6,000 hours of volunteer time working around the hospital.
“My goal was to help out and do something that was meaningful,” Kusian said. “I love being here, I love being with patients.”
While the volunteer base is mostly made up of older adults, she said they have a thriving junior volunteer force, where hundreds of kids vie for a limited number of spots on the auxiliary and online registration fills up in just 60 seconds. She said it could be the proximity to schools nearby that makes working for the hospital appealing, but that they also do their part to make sure students are given jobs that are interesting and meaningful to them.
Like Henderson, Kusian said that the auxiliary is taking on a more substantial role at the hospital, with volunteers now helping patients sign important forms prior to discharge, and checking the hospital beds and rooms to see if they comply with safety precautions. She said the hospital’s current CEO Tomi Ryba has been a big advocate for the auxiliary.
And while there is something for everyone to do around the hospital, Kusian said it’s really talking to and helping patients that keeps volunteers coming back for more.
“It’s those experiences with the patients that keep them here,” Kusian said.
