Call-out for PALS Volunteers in University Hospital Limerick
Volunteer Service also launched in Croom Orthopaedic Hospital
THE Patient Advocacy Liaison Service (PALS) of UL Hospitals Group is looking for volunteers to join their teams at University Hospital Limerick and, for the first time, Croom Orthopaedic Hospital, to welcome patients and visitors, assisting with way-finding and general queries, and helping people to give feedback on their experience of hospital service.
As hospital ambassadors, PALS volunteers are an important element of UL Hospitals Group’s efforts to improve care standards and the overall patient experience in our hospitals. The volunteers, dressed in distinctive red jackets with an embroidered gold logo, have multiple roles, including giving directions and accompanying patients to appointments, providing information for patients and visitors, and gathering patient feedback.
The service wants hear from people who are available to volunteer either in UHL or Croom Orthopaedic Hospital for a minimum of three daytime hours per week, Monday to Friday.
Liz O’Leary, PALS Manager at UHL, emphasised that anyone can volunteer for PALS. “To volunteer, you must be aged 18 years or older; be friendly and caring in your approach to meeting people; and supportive of the ethos and aims of UL Hospitals Group. Our volunteers come from a wide range of backgrounds. You don’t need qualifications. Any support will be provided as needed.”
Brian Kelly, a retired local authority official who has been a PALS volunteer at UHL since 2007, said anyone with free time to spare could volunteer for a role he has found to be “hugely rewarding”, for himself and for the people he assists in the hospital.
“I love PALS,” Brian says. “I really love it. It gives me a purpose, and that’s important to me. When people come to the hospital, they know the building but often don't know where to go. The important thing is to show people courtesy and respect, offer to help, speak with them as you're walking, and bring them where they have to go. That’s a big help in the sense that, when they come in through the front door it can be a worry for them. So if someone is there to come over and say, ‘Can I help you to find where you’re going?’, the reaction most often is--oh would you please?...”
Liz Barry, PALS Manager in UHL and Croom, says the experience of Brian, who applied to volunteer after retiring from work, is typical of many people, who sign up for a variety of reasons, from a specific interest in healthcare to a general wish to use free time to do something positive to their local community.
She said: “Our PALS volunteers are an integral part of our service, and they greatly enhance the experience of everyone who visits the hospital or attends as a patient, many of whom are very glad of a friendly greeting at the door, and assistance in finding the way to appointments. The volunteers’ presence in our hospitals was greatly missed during the pandemic, and we’re very happy to be in a position to make this call-out for more volunteers to join us. Volunteers are needed now more than ever before, both at UHL, the biggest hospital in the region, and now at Croom, which is currently going through a period of expansion. Whether in Croom or UHL, the volunteers will play an important role, as friendly, local people who are there to provide information, support and solace for patients and their relatives and loved ones.”
Concluding, PALS volunteer Brian Kelly says: “I would urge anyone who might be interested in volunteering to give it a go. It’s important to remember that you’re giving your time to people who need it. Anybody attending hospital should have a good experience, whatever the circumstances. A volunteer can make a big difference. You're dealing with people and trying to communicate with them, and very often under difficult circumstances. If you give them your best and do it in a proper way, you get the results coming back to you. I can recall one time helping a man go to his appointment in outpatients, and he asked me to sit with him, so I did. When it was his time to go in, he turned to me and said, ‘Thank you.’ That’s my wages.”
Anyone interested in volunteering for PALS should send an email outlining their details and available hours, to UHLPals@hse.ie