Medical Center volunteers bring smiles to patients

Friday, Mar. 24, 2017

SALT LAKE CITY — As patients and their families walk through the automatic doors of the Salt Lake Regional Medical Center, they are often greeted with a sound not often associated with a hospital: Laughter, which fills the entrance lobby as volunteers talk with each other and meet the surprised visitors with a smile, ready to help them however they can.

Sherri McFalls is one of those volunteers. A nurse for 35 years, she finally retired, wanting a break from that the difficult work, she said. Her retirement lasted for three months before “I ran over to (the SLRMC) and said, ‘I need to be in the hospital again.’ I ran over here quick!” she said, laughing.

That was almost 14 years ago. Volunteering satisfies the need she has always felt to work in a hospital, McFalls said. More importantly, she said, it satisfies the needs of SLRMC patients

“It makes a difference for the patients, for the people here. It’s a smiling face as they walk through the door. They’re lost, they’re always lost when they walk through the front door. … Everyone’s nervous. But when they’re greeted by a smiling face and some friendly direction, it takes the anxiety away. Most people don’t want to go to the hospital. We give them a calming feeling,” McFalls said.

The SLRMC has been in the business of being a safe place for patients since it was founded as Holy Cross Hospital, said Ann Hunter, SLRMC’s volunteer coordinator. The hospital was built in 1875 and run by the Sisters of the Holy Cross until 1994, when it was sold and renamed Salt Lake Regional Medical Center.

However, “the atmosphere about SLRMC never changed,” Hunter said. Though the hospital changed hands, the Sisters of the Holy Cross’ original desire to care for the sick and injured has been preserved over the century that the hospital has been in service, Hunter said.

The hospital has been and still is a “community hospital,” Hunter said. “Everyone knows everybody, that’s why so many of our volunteers have been here for so many years.”

Volunteers can help in the hospital in many areas, such as admitting patients, the emergency room, the information desk and on the nursing floors, said Hunter. 

Volunteers make a huge difference for the patient’s physical and emotional needs, Hunter said.

“Many of the seniors (in SLRMC) live alone,” she said. “Volunteers give them a way to make friends and meet new people.”

Each volunteer has a different reason for why they chose to donate their time and efforts, expecting no reward in return.

Stephen Voschell has volunteered at the SLRMC for two years. “Longest two years of my life,” he said with a wry smile, prompting a round of laughter from the volunteers with him. He first began volunteering because “I had extra time on my hands,” he said. “We volunteers, we’re ‘people-people.’ We get to communicate with them and help them out.”

Janeen Brazier, a volunteer at the hospital for six years, said “I’ve always been a giver. I wanted to volunteer to give my time.”

Fay DeLeeuw is one of newest volunteers at the SLRMC with about five months under his belt. “I love it,” he said. “My wife died a few years ago of a stroke, and there were people that helped me out a little bit” at SLRMC. They gave him comfort and all the help he needed, so “it made me want to give back,” he said.

Enthusiasm is the common thread that binds these volunteers together, said Hunter. 

The hospital is always in need of volunteers, she said. “What we ask for is that they have a great personality, great customer service and the willingness to volunteer. We really appreciate that,” Hunter said.

The first thing potential volunteers who visit the SLRMC website see when they open the Volunteers tab is this message: “When you join the volunteers at Salt Lake Regional Medical Center, you make a difference in someone’s life – your own!” In each of the volunteer’s service and stories in the hospital, that prediction was shown to ring true.

For information on how to volunteer at SLRMC, call volunteer services at 801-350-4991 or e-mail saltlakeregional@iasishealthcare.com.