By Courtney McDermott
Editor’s note: This week (April 21-27) is National Volunteer Week, an opportunity to recognize the impact of volunteer service and the power of volunteers to make a positive difference in their communities.
It’s a busy Tuesday in the Beaufort Memorial Chemotherapy and Infusion Services center as the staff prepare for the dozen or more patients who will receive treatment in the 14-chair outpatient facility,part of the hospital’s Keyserling Cancer Center.
As nurses hang bags of fluids containing potent, cancer-fighting drugs, insert IVs to deliver the medications and monitor vital signs, hospital volunteer Geri Connors provides another kind of care for patients: comfort and companionship.
The Massachusetts native spent years volunteering at the Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital in Plymouth, Massachusetts, before moving to Beaufort 13 years ago. A former executive recruiter and business manager, Geri volunteers twice a week in the infusion center.
“Our efforts are to make the patients as comfortable as possible,” she says. “We offer warm blankets, pillows, hot and cold drinks, and snacks.”
Geri is among six volunteers – she recruited most of them from her Beaufort-area neighborhood – who rotate through the center Monday through Friday to ensure that both staff and patients have extra support every day.
From organizing donations and engaging in conversations to sanitizing treatment stations and distributing snacks, the volunteers are a welcome addition to the busy team.
“Having volunteers who can contribute a sense of normalcy in an otherwise isolating and scary time is a gift to our patients,” said Kianna Brown, who is a licensed medical social worker at the hospital’s cancer center. “They offer something that staff have in limited supply: time. They use that time to connect, engage and simply be a warm presence.”
Beaufort Memorial Patient Advocate and Volunteer Services Coordinator Anna Makar worked with the center’s director, Mark Hennigan, and Brown to develop the program.
“We had volunteers who expressed an interest in working in the infusion center, so we got together to create a job description and orientation,” Makar says. “Today we have volunteers in the center five days a week, and we have three additional volunteers in orientation.”
Currently, the volunteer team includes Geri, Jim Egan, Maureen Kutys, Frances McCarthy, Eileen McKenna and Dawn Novick. Geri says she has other friends who also would like to help.
“Sometimes a smile and comforting hand is all it takes to make someone feel more relaxed,” shesays. “These nurses are so dedicated to assuring the safety and well-being of their patients, and it just makes sense to have someone volunteering to do the ancillary tasks to assist.”
Beaufort Memorial is always looking for new volunteers. Get all the details about how to volunteer, including the volunteer application, at BeaufortMemorial.org/volunteer.
