I’m now a few weeks into my time at the Orthopaedic
hospital, and overall I’m having a positive, enjoyable experience. I’ve met
many grateful, friendly patients and the staff have consistantly been around to
help me out if need be. Nevertheless, I have still had encounters which have
been difficult to manage.
As someone who has been the family member of
someone in hospital, I completely understand the stress, exhaustion and
sometimes confusion family members experience. Families always want the best
for their loved one.
My duty on the ward as a volunteer is to make tea
or coffee for the the patients, have a little chat and then clean their tables.
As volunteers we have rules to follow on the ward, for example if the curtain
is pulled around a bed, we don’t go in, similarly if the patient seems to be
asleep, we don’t disturb them.
One week I was on the ward with another volunteer,
and we were working together, each of us responsible for a different room. Once
we were almost at the end of our round, a lady approached me, obviously
distressed and quite angry. She aggressively asked me why her husband had been
deprived of a cup of tea. I calmly asked her what room he was in, then becoming
aware it was one my partner was responsible for. However, she was busy so I
dealt with the situation.
She told me how he was asleep, but she usually
wakes him to drink. I explained how my partner was only following the rules,
but we would make him a drink, I apologized and think I diffused the situation
well.
I felt slightly embarrassed and worried at first, yet after talking to
her and apologizing I felt proud of myself for staying calm and managing to
solve the problem. I would also say this was teamwork, I knew it was pointless
throwing my partner under the bus, and knew she would’ve done the same for me.
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