Post Hospital Elder Life Program

            Throughout my volunteering in the hospital elder life program (HELP), I was able to work with multiple patients who were experiencing delirium. This helped me realize that by orienting the patient, socializing with them, and ensuring the patient was getting adequate sleep, nutrition, and fluids delirium can be prevented. The HELP program provides a great opportunity to ensure a patient isn’t developing delirium and if the patient is, the volunteers in the program can notify the nurse so interventions can be implemented. 

            The most meaningful part of my HELP volunteering experience was when I got to do a friendly visit with a patient who didn’t receive many visitors. This patient expressed to me how she loved socializing with people, and that it wasn’t something she was frequently able to do while in the hospital. The patient told me stories about her family and her stay in the hospital, and I could tell that her mood was improving throughout our conversation. This visit gave me a greater appreciation for the HELP program because it allows time for the patient to have simple discussions about their life and their stay in the hospital. This is a therapeutic technique for healing that is often neglected due to lack of time and resources. 

            My goals before beginning my volunteering experience with the HELP program were to improve my therapeutic communication techniques and to learn more about public health nursing. I feel that I met both goals through my volunteering experience. I was able to improve my therapeutic communication techniques because I had to communicate with patients that I had never met before and ask them somewhat personal questions. This was difficult at first but became easier throughout my volunteering experience. I also learned more about the role of a public health nurse and realized how much community health affects care behind the scenes. Community health nursing often seems neglected to me when working on the floor as a can or nursing student but going forward I will have a better knowledge of all the work community health nurses do to improve patient outcomes.