University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust

Working with Occupational Health Services
University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust was created in April 2000 when three existing hospitals within Leicester merged to form one Acute Trust on three separate sites. Patients come from the city of Leicester, from the county of Leicestershire and some Departments have patients who come from other parts of the East Midlands, including Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire and Northamptonshire. There was a well-established group of volunteers at one hospital site, but volunteering on the other two sites had lapsed, or was organised through partnership agencies such as the Women’s Royal Voluntary Service (WRVS), League of Friends, the Red Cross, two hospital radio services and the volunteers associated with the hospital chaplaincy service. Volunteers received support from various members of staff in different ways, and in May 2002 a Volunteer Services Co-ordinator was appointed to work across all three hospital sites.

There are now approximately 200 volunteers within the hospitals, of which one-third are men and two-thirds women. Half the volunteers are under 40 and many of the younger volunteers go on to training or employment in nursing or other care-related professions. An average of 25 new volunteers are recruited each month, and of these, 50% are from ethnic minorities, reflecting the population of Leicester.

Volunteer Induction
Volunteers are recruited through leaflets in the hospitals, health centres, libraries, colleges, the careers service and the two local universities. Volunteer services also make use of the website www.do-it.org.uk, which co-ordinates information about volunteering opportunities in the UK. Potential volunteers complete an application form and supply two character references, which are always taken up, and volunteers working in specified areas are checked by the Criminal Records Bureau.

After that, all new volunteers undertake induction training which is delivered by training staff from the appropriate directorates as part of the Trust commitment to volunteering: the course includes:

Volunteers are then placed in a particular ward or setting and are reviewed after six weeks to ensure that the setting is appropriate for them. Some volunteers use this to sample different work areas within the Trust, in particular those who are thinking of pursuing a career in a care setting, and the review process helps with the monitoring and evaluation of volunteering within the hospital.

Where volunteers are found to be unsuitable for working in a hospital setting, perhaps because of a particular criminal conviction, the Volunteer Services Co-ordinator will help them find a suitable placement in another setting.

Asylum Seekers Volunteering in the NHS
There is a large community of asylum seekers in Leicester, many of whom wish to volunteer within the NHS. Some were health professionals in their country of origin and hope to work in a health care setting once their asylum claim has been accepted and they have permission to work in the UK. One volunteer in Leicester is a doctor who is volunteering on a ward whilst waiting for permission to work, and the hospital is likely to offer this volunteer employment as soon as permission is granted. Volunteer Services work closely with a voluntary sector organisation that supports refugees and asylum seekers to enable people to access volunteering, particularly when they are unable to supply the kind of identification or references that would be available to UK citizens.

Volunteers with Language Skills
Volunteers speak a wide range of languages and are able to communicate with patients who are otherwise isolated within the hospital. It is important to distinguish between chatting and interpreting, and the Volunteer Services Co-ordinator is currently working with the Service Equality Manager to both agree the distinction, and also identify how to access training for those volunteers who want become interpreters and move into paid employment.

Volunteers and Patient Involvement
Volunteers are often seen as an unbiased ear by patients and relatives and are a means of ongoing consultation within the Trust. They may help patients complete questionnaires and surveys as part of the PALS service, and patients will often speak more freely to a volunteer than they would to a member of staff. Patients and relatives also make suggestions and comments to volunteers, and often do this over an issue where they don’t want to make a formal complaint but feel that an aspect of service could be improved. As a result of this informal feedback to volunteers, there have been a number of changes within the Trust which include:

Working with Occupational Health Services
All potential volunteers receive training in occupational health as part of their induction and are screened by the Occupational Health Department in the same way as hospital employees. This has helped allay the fears of some volunteers about working in a hospital environment and has helped with the early identification of health problems of some volunteers, enabling them to access immunisations if needed and treatment if appropriate. The Occupational Health Team have also helped to place volunteers with disabilities in a setting that makes good use of their skills. For example, a young man who is almost blind and a wheelchair-user, is a very good listener and works with a partner who helps him identify who wants to talk to him, and then leaves him with the patient. Without support from Occupational Health, this volunteer may have been seen as difficult to place as his disabilities might have prevented his skills from being identified and used.

For further information contact:

Alison Reynolds
Volunteer Services Co-ordinator
PALS Office, Outpatients
Glenfield Hospital
Groby Road
Leicester
LE3 9QP
Tel: 0116 256 3100
E-mail: Alison.Reynolds@uhl-tr.nhs.uk