Emergency Department Volunteers are a force to be reckoned with

OVER 20,000 people were helped by the Emergency Department Volunteers at South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust between February and June 2023, supporting patients and helping to free up medical staff to concentrate on clinical tasks.

With the help of Helpforce, a charity that works with health and care organisations to grow and accelerate the impact of volunteering in health and care, the volunteering team at the trust was able to set up the Emergency Department (ED) Volunteering Service for the A&E department within weeks, giving a boost to staff, patients, and their family or carers during one of the busiest periods of the year.

Fran Docherty, Lead for Volunteer Services and the Health and Wellbeing Information Centre at the Trust, explained: “We were fortunate to have the full support from our Board to develop this service as our CEO Glen Burley recognises the important values that volunteers can bring to an A&E department.

“A&E Departments are extremely busy and fast-paced, so anything that can help to save staff’s time is vital, because staff can then use saved time to focus on clinical tasks or take well-earned breaks.

“That’s where an ED Volunteer can step in to help, such as re-stocking equipment, making sure everything is ready when clinicians see patients. Other important tasks that volunteers can help with include escorting patients to X-ray departments, picking up medications, or providing a listening ear to help ease anxiety for patients and their families. Our data illustrates that volunteers have spent 466 hours on tasks across five months.”

When asked what key support that Helpforce provided to the team, Fran explained: “Helpforce Programme Managers provide both strategic and operational support. Sometimes they act as a critical friend as we develop our volunteering approach. In addition, they share with us proven delivery models and best practice developed by other organisations, which has helped us to fast track our ability to get services up and running.

“We are encouraged to continuously improve our current practices and think strategically, using data models to capture the volunteering activity in a way that allows us to evidence the impact, which helped us secure additional resource to further develop and sustain this service.

“You could see the impact the volunteers made instantly, and within a couple of months we were able to establish it as a business-as-usual support for the A&E department. Having the ED volunteers in place ahead of winter pressures will reduce the pressure on the A&E staff. We’ll continue to review the ED volunteer role to make sure it is flexing to the changing needs of the department during this high demand period.”

Feedback from a consultant at the A&E Department said: “Volunteers are our backbone when it’s tough going. Our experienced volunteers know what to do and say to our patients and this frees up more staff-time with our patients.”