Volunteer in our Hospital

SPECIAL ALERT
Due to the H1N1 swine flu precautions being implemented to protect our patients, we cannot place junior volunteers (15-17 years of age) until late Spring.

Steps to Become a Volunteer
Opportunities for Volunteers
Volunteer Commitment

Each year, over 500 compassionate individuals from our community volunteer over 65,000 hours in 55 different areas of the hospital, mostly in patient care areas.

Many of our volunteers work directly with patients:

assisting in hospital playrooms (and sometimes at the bedside)
playing board games
reading to children (requires 10 hours of individual training)

Steps to Become a Volunteer

Step 1. Check Your Schedule

A commitment of 6 months serves our patients needs best. Prior to applying to be a volunteer, please ensure that you can help for 6 consecutive months.

Step 2. Check our Volunteer Requirements

Step 3. Take our Self-Evaluation Survey

Complete this survey to access our volunteer application forms.

Step 4. Apply Online

The applications to become a volunteer are accessible ONLY upon completion of our Self-Evaluation Survey (see Step 3 above). Once you have completed and submitted your application, please allow a minimum of two weeks for our staff to review your application and respond to your request.

Opportunities for Volunteers

Volunteer opportunities fall into two main categories:

Direct Patient Contact¹

Opportunities with patients include assisting in:

Patient care units
Outpatient services
Emergency Department
Child Life Playrooms

Little or No Patient Contact

Volunteers with little or no patient contact help in our:

Business offices
Gift Shop
Volunteer Resources office
Outpatient clinics
Guest Services escorts

Find out more about our Volunteer Opportunities.

We have a special division of volunteers—the Tender Loving Care and Compassion Team—who visit patients with extra needs.

There are also a small number of administrative volunteers who work at the Guest Services desk and in various clinics and offices within the hospital. As part of our efforts to promote literacy, we also have volunteers who read aloud to patients and families in the waiting room of our General Pediatrics Clinic.

Volunteer Commitment

Volunteering at our hospital requires a significant commitment from our staff to provide free training, testing, and processing. As a result, we require a significant commitment from our volunteers. Find out more about the process of becoming a volunteer in our Volunteer Requirements section of the site.

In addition, there are special programs hosted by other nonprofit agencies who deliver services at our hospital to our patients. To become involved with these programs, please contact them directly.

Additional Information

For additional information, please contact:
Volunteer Services
Email us or Call (323) 361-2371

^{1 Volunteers provide services that are strictly comforting in nature. Volunteers are not provided with the opportunity to shadow nurses, MD's, clinicians, take vital signs, or observe procedures.}