Busy Bee Response volunteer
Tags: Guidance, Template
7th March 2022
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Called Busy Bees, the new volunteering team was launched early in 2022 at Pilgrim and Lincoln Hospitals. It is part of a four-month pilot, which if successful, will become a permanent service.
Thank you to Andrew Tysoe (Volunteer Services Manager) from United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust for sharing the details of this role as well as copy of the presentation made to NHS England.
Who are the Busy Bees?
The Busy Bees is a four-month pilot-scheme aimed at helping to relieve pressures on our staff in the busiest areas of both Pilgrim Hospital and Lincoln County Hospital. If successful, we want to make this a permanent service.
The Busy Bees are a new group of volunteers running alongside our current volunteering service who will not be permanently placed in a location in the Trust.
Instead, the Busy Bees will be response volunteers who can react to real-time situations and have the fluidity to move around different wards and departments, creating a dynamic and varied new role.
The new scheme will allow us to utilise the freely given time of our volunteers in a more effective way and allow staff the opportunity to request additional support when required, either for a day or two or even just for an hour.
The appointed Voluntary Services Supervisor on each site will accept requests from members of staff and facilitate them where possible with the use of Busy Bees. As the team of Busy Bees grows, more requests will be completed and this will help to ease the burden on our staff who are currently experiencing high levels of pressure, enabling them to focus on providing better care to patients with the support of the volunteering service.
What will the Busy Bees do?
Busy Bees will be able to do a wide range of generic non-clinical activities as well as specific duties based on the needs of certain areas depending on the type of help that is required. Some examples of these duties can include:
Keeping patients company and providing emotional and practical support
Running errands to allow staff to remain on wards
- These may include things such as taking samples to the lab, going to the pharmacy to collect or drop off prescriptions, collecting items from stores to ensure that wards are fully stocked etc.
Escorting patients around the hospital
- Busy Bees will be wheelchair trained and only required to move patients who are fit enough to be transported by wheelchair
Volunteers will not ever be asked to handle patients Assisting with the distribution of food and drink - On wards this can include helping with menus, handing out lunches, doing tea and coffee rounds and also cleaning up following mealtimes
- Food and drink also needs distribution in waiting rooms such as in the Emergency Department
Supporting with admin tasks
- e.g. answering phones, posting letters, building packs for patient notes Meeting and greeting visitors and relatives
Supporting virtual visiting
For more details please download the attached PDF's
