St Oswald's Hospice sharing reflections on running the Helpforce Volunteer to Career programme

Jackie Haskey (L), Lymphoedema Specialist and Volunteer to Career coordinator at St Oswald’s Hospice, with Angie Suazo (R) (a participant in St Oswald's Hospice Volunteer to Career pathway).

Volunteering is hugely important to St Oswald’s Hospice. We have more than 800 volunteers who support us in all aspects of the organisation – from clinical and admin to retail and gardening.

We simply couldn’t do what we do without our volunteers!

People volunteer with us for various reasons. Some want to repay the care we provided a family member or friend, while others want to share existing skills and meet new friends.

Some volunteers come to us to gain skills and experience that will help them in their future career and it was to support this category of volunteer that we applied to work with Helpforce.

We had been thinking for a while about how we could provide an enhanced offering to clinical volunteers interested in jobs in health and social care - either to begin a career or as a change to their existing profession.

In doing so, we could inspire a new generation of health and social care employees while securing a steady pipeline of quality, dedicated clinical volunteers at the hospice.

So when we saw the opportunity from Helpforce (in partnership with NHS England) to apply for funding and work with an organisation with extensive experience in developing volunteer to career programmes, it felt like the perfect fit. We jumped at the chance.

The team were so pleased when our application was successful. To be the first hospice to work with Helpforce was also very exciting.

A steering group within St Oswald’s Hospice was appointed to manage the Volunteer to Career project, which included Nurse Practitioner, Jackie Haskey, as its clinical lead.

The funding allowed Jackie to dedicate one day a week to the Volunteer to Career project while the rest of her working week was spent delivering vital medical care to patients.

Jackie and the steering group met regularly with Helpforce, who supported us every step of the way.

With Helpforce’s expert guidance, St Oswald’s Hospice developed a Volunteer to Career pathway for our Lymphoedema Service, which is a National Centre of Excellence in this condition, and the largest facility of its kind in the North East of England.

Participants on the pathway would get specialist training and practical experience in a clinical setting and one-to-one mentorship to help them take the next steps in their careers.

Jackie reflected:

“Helpforce provided a clear process to follow and they walked me through every part of the journey to keep me on track.

“I had regular one-to-one meetings where I could discuss how I was getting on. But if I was ever stuck on something, I could email or pick up the phone and someone would get back to me immediately with the answers I needed.”

Helpforce also provided weekly training, including webinars on a range of topics, from ‘How to Attract Volunteers’ to ‘Health and Safety for Volunteers’.

Jackie continued:

“Because volunteers are such an integral part of St Oswald’s Hospice, we had a lot of policies already in place. This meant some of the webinars were more relevant than others. But the beauty of it was we could pick and choose what training would help us the most.

“The process was flexible enough for us to adapt it to the needs of our organisation.”

St Oswald’s Hospice was also part of a cohort of healthcare organisations that were working with Helpforce to develop Volunteer to Career programmes.

Helpforce encouraged peer-to-peer support among the cohort – which proved another benefit to Jackie and the team, as the senior nurse explained:

“Helpforce held regular Zoom events with members of our cohort, which we really appreciated.

“It was interesting hearing the experiences of other organisations. We could discuss challenges we were facing, share advice and support each other.”

St Oswald’s Hospice ran a pilot of its Volunteer to Career pathway with Helpforce’s support for 10 months between January and October 2023. We recruited 2 cohorts during this time.

Participants assisted staff and volunteers in a range of tasks including general admin tasks, the preparing and maintaining of resources and equipment in the treatment rooms.

They also gained hands-on experience with Lymphoedema patients, supporting staff by applying and removing bandaging and compression garments, washing limbs, applying skincare and recording patients’ height, weight and limb volumes.

As well as absorbing skills and knowledge from specialist members of the clinical team, volunteers also had regular one-to-one sessions with Jackie, where they discussed how they were getting on and their future plans.

Fourteen volunteers were recruited to St Oswald’s Hospice Volunteer to Career (V2C) pathway, which supported 236 staff members and 3930 patients.

One V2C volunteer was Matthew, who spent the summer at St Oswald’s Hospice Lymphoedema Service in 2023.

He said: “I heard about the Volunteer to Career programme through the Lymphoedema Clinic, where I initially applied to be a volunteer. During my interview, they mentioned the programme and that it was designed to help people get into healthcare careers from volunteering and it was something that I really wanted to do.

“I really felt supported throughout the Volunteer to Career pathway. Jackie, my mentor, was brilliant! Always helpful and smiley. Everyone was helpful and supportive.

“The pathway has absolutely helped me to achieve my future goals. I’m hoping to apply for postgraduate medicine. With the experiences I’ve gained at St Oswald’s Hospice, it will be at the top of my application list.”

You can watch Matthew’s story below