There has been no holding Eve back!

Eve Adams joined the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust in January 2021 to support their Clinical Volunteers programme (initially set up in March 2020) during the Covid-19 outbreak and pandemic. Her role has been to support the patients and ward staff and complement the busy staff teams. Eve has been trained in bed making, serving refreshments and food hygiene, dementia awareness and patient communication, hand hygiene, infection prevention and use of PPE, and information governance. In her application Eve said she wanted to volunteer as she has been on the receiving end of exceptional care whilst as a patient at The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust many times in the past and she wanted to be part of a trust that provides such a high quality of care.

She is very passionate about all aspects of medicine and patient care and is willing to turn her hand to anything asked of her to ensure that every patient receives a high quality of care – she has certainly displayed this in abundance during her time with the Trust. Since commencing as a Clinical Volunteer there has been no holding Eve back! She quickly settled into her ward support role on one of the elderly care wards and then went on to support Virtual Covid-19 ward and Covid-19 patient swabbing station.

Eve is an incredible volunteer and at just 17 years old (16 when she first joined the Trust), is a great example of what an asset having young volunteers is to the Trust. She is committed, so hard working and fully supportive of the Volunteer Team staff and volunteers. When Eve first started volunteering she supported on one of the Trusts elderly care wards where she spent a lot of time talking with and supporting patients. As visiting was suspended, it was particularly hard for patients to interact with family members and have the one to one face to face interaction. During this time Eve said she felt privileged to hear some of the patient’s stories and she learnt so much about life and herself as a result. Eve then went on to support on the Virtual Covid-19 ward supporting patients whilst in their own homes and ringing them regularly to monitor their progress with the support of a wider clinical team. Eve’s most recent volunteer role was to support on the patient Covid-19 swab station which Eve thoroughly enjoyed and she said she really felt like she was making a difference during her time there. One of the services managers on the swab station said how honoured they were to have Eve’s support and they welcomed her support any time. Eve has always volunteered with so much enthusiasm and it is clear to see how much volunteering means to her. In fact, Eve has made such an impression on the team that she has been appointed as the Trusts first ever Youth Volunteer Ambassador!

Eve is fully committed to her role as Youth Volunteer Ambassador and regularly supports new young volunteers by mentoring them on their shifts and gives them advise and support in our regular drop in sessions or on a one to one basis if preferred. Eve is also providing incredible support to the Youth Volunteering Programme Co-ordinator with embedding the Trust’s new Youth Volunteer Programme. Eve has also supported with delivery of the volunteer training sessions and has been instrumental in getting volunteers to engage with the practical aspects of the training session such as feeding each other in preparation for feeding patients when supporting on the wards. One of the Trainers said of Eves support “Eve was AMAZING! Confident, professional, eloquent”. We would be happy to have her support any time”. Eve has also supported in presenting the Youth Volunteer Programme to local Schools, Colleges, the City Council and youth zones. This has proved hugely successful in engagement of our programme as to have someone that has gone through the process give an open and honest account of what volunteering for the Trust is like has been invaluable. The Trust vision is to continually strive to improve the outcomes and experiences for the communities that they serve and Eve has contributed to this both with her staff and patient support and also support of fellow young volunteers and embedding the Youth Volunteer Programme. This is having a positive effect on the Trust's young volunteers and raising the profile of the great contribution they make to the organisation.

Watch this video of Eve to learn more about her.