| Hospital
Ward Grandparent Scheme |
Welcome
to all our new volunteers who have started this year. Warm
congratulations once again to all the ward grandparent volunteers
and the health care staff who support them in the hospitals
for their wonderful work during the year.
2007
National Volunteer Week Morning Tea
In
May AWCH held a morning tea for the Hospital Ward Grandparent
Volunteers to celebrate National Volunteers Week 2007.
Our
grandparents were very impressed with the new office location
at Gladesville Hospital and enjoyed a self guided tour using
notes provided by the local historical society.
Volunteering
Australia made volunteer pins available for each ward grandparent
with a small card to hand onto someone who might be interested
in volunteering too.
Ward
Grandparents Thank You Lunch
The
AWCH Hospital Ward Grandparent thank you lunch was held
on November 26th at AJ's Cafe in Westmead. Dr Sue Towns
was our guest and spoke about teenagers, chronic illness
and how it affects them. Our grandparents commented on how
interesting and informative it was.
Once
again we played our AWCH trivia game which produced some
interesting answers. Congratulations to the winning table
who by coincidence had Prof Bennet, Dr Sue Towns and Anne
Cutler on the team. Lucky door prizes were drawn by Dr Towns
and much to everyone's surprise, one table picked up all
the prizes! AWCH would like to thank everyone for taking
time out of their very busy schedule to come to lunch.
AWCH
would like to congratulate and thank Jo Oliver, WGS Co-ordinator
at John Hunter Children's Hospital for her innovative idea
of making sure our ward grandparent services are being utilised
at the hospital. Below is a copy of Jo Oliver's report about
the new services:
Hospital
Ward Grandparent Scheme at John Hunter Hospital
Over
the year our Ward Grandparents continued to provide a much
needed and appreciated service to our families and staff.
The year also saw a number of exciting changes to our Ward
Grandparent Program. It all began with an increase in Ward
Grandparent Volunteers from three to eight and their strong
desire to be used and be more involved. Changes were also
influenced by the changing needs of our families including
the trend for shorter hospital stays. After much consultation
with various interested parties changes were implemented
in mid April 2007. These included the addition of a Roaming
Ward Grandparent each weekday to the wards and two Grandparents
going to Outpatients on a Monday and a Wednesday (busiest
days) to do craft and other activities with children (and
their siblings) while they are waiting for their appointments.
Both these additional services have been implemented on
a roster basis. They have been very well received and enable
volunteers who can only provided a day a week or fortnight
to be involved.
The
idea behind the Roaming Ward Grandparent was to provide
opportunity for short respite breaks for families and a
Grandparent on site for times when they are needed with
little or no notice. Included in the above statistics the
Roaming Ward Grandparent provided 53 visits (days roaming),
they visited 96 children, and spent 158 hours roaming. On
a day roaming they could have anywhere between nil to five
children. Before implementing the program the possibility
of having no children on a roaming day was explored with
the grandparents and they overwhelmingly decided to take
this risk and start the service. Since starting, the roaming
grandparent has had 9 out of 53 days (17%)) where they have
had no children who needed visiting. This is not surprising
for a new service, which will require time for staff and
families to know about their existence. On the other hand
there have been days where the roaming grandparent has been
in high demand and we have needed to provide them with a
pager to be able to locate them as needed.
The
joys of being a Ward Grandparent at John Hunter Hospital
The
Outpatient Ward Grandparent days were introduced after a
need was identified. There is a Volunteer who provides a
service (and has done so for a number years) on a Thursday
and we have stepped in to fill a gap on two other busy days
of the week. In addition to the above statistics our Ward
Grandparents provided 20 days visiting the outpatient area,
have interacted with 514 children, and spent 174 hours in
the outpatient area. On a day in the outpatient area the
Grandparents interacted with between 12 and 40 children
(an average of 26). I have found the Grandparents love their
time in the outpatient area and interacting with the children.
This
year has also seen the introduction of a Ward Grandparent
shirt, which has been well received by the grannies. Recently
we had another three Ward Grandparents start including our
first Ward Grandad (bringing the total to 11). I continue
to be very impressed by our Ward Grandparents level of commitment,
child centred approach and dedication to our children and
families. It has been a pleasure to see the enjoyment they
receive from being part of our Ward Grandparent Volunteer
Team.
Jo Oliver
Social Worker
Ward Grandparent Co-ordinator
John Hunter Children's Hospital
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Print
Ward Grandparent Scheme Report
Print
AWCH Newsletter
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