Volunteers

Needs and Uses

Volunteers can be helpful in day to day tasks and let a Game Tech focus on higher acuity needs or projects. While each hospital program has a unique volunteer recruit/screening process it can be helpful to express certain "skills sets" that would be useful for a Game Tech Volunteer (GTV) vs a typical volunteer, including experience in troubleshooting basic technology and interest/knowledge in current gaming trends. Below are examples of current programs uses of their volunteers.

• Game Kart inventory/maintence
• "Lower priority" (e.g. coping well but bored) bedside sessions
• CCTV support including flier handouts, hosting, or camera work
• Playroom/Teen room supervision and transportation

Recruiting

Due to daytime shifts, most hospital volunteer programs are primarily composed of college students and retirees. While anyone can have tech knowledge and gaming interest, it tends to be more common in the younger demographic. It can be helpful to speak to your hospital's volunteer department and explore how they are recruiting from this demographic. Are they reaching out directly to local colleges? Attending recruitment fairs common at the start of semesters? These can be easy ways to either attend in person or share fliers/documentation that goes into more detail about becoming a GTV in your hospital.

There also may be current volunteers in your hospital that have interest in tasks a GTV would help with. However it is important to speak with your volunteer department or the volunteer supervisor about sharing or adjusting the volunteers role. Volunteers, particularly good ones, can be hard to find, so you don't want to get the reputation of poaching excellent volunteers.

Training and Supervision

Each hospital has different standards in training, but if your GTV will be doing unique tasks, you will likely be training them to some extent. Providing documentation volunteers can keep can be helpful as a reference materiel for them in the future and being able to shadow yourself or another volunteer can help them feel more comfortable navigating the medical space and introducing self and resources. See resources section for examples of training assets.

While supervising your volunteers, it is important to provide guidance in the form of referrals. Keeping a running list of patients that would benefit from interactions or reaching out to child life or other peers can help give your volunteers direction, particularly during their first few shifts. More importantly by having the volunteers be independent, you can see other patients or work on projects without having to "babysit". Referral lists are also help for statistic both for keeping metrics and contact tracing if infection control issue arise.

Resources

Fliers

Lurie Children's Recruitment Flier (front)

Lurie Children's Recruitment Flier (back)