Two decades of service celebrated

The unsung heroes of Timaru Hospital’s emergency department have celebrated two decades of service.

Last week past and present volunteers from the Timaru branch of the Hato Hone St John Friends of the Emergency Department (FEDs) programme came together to reminisce and mark 20 years since the programme was launched in Timaru.

The Timaru FEDs volunteers work morning and night shifts, seven days a week, offering those who find themselves in the ED a bit of help and reassurance as well as food and drink or just a bit of extra support.

Team leader Elaine Richardt had been a part of the programme since its inception and said it was great to be able to celebrate the milestone.

‘‘It has been good to see everyone together in their uniforms, chatting and meeting people they hadn’t seen for a while. Especially the volunteers that had stopped.

‘‘It would have been great to have seen even more but I think sometimes people find it hard when they’ve been out of touch to just come back.’’

She said the types of jobs the volunteers would do had changed a lot over time.

‘‘We used to do all these wee jobs like stamping the medlab pads, folding the face cloths and putting them on top of the soap dispensers, making up the tempo bottles to spray the beds down, splitting up the injections and buttoning up the gowns among other things.

‘‘A lot of our work was helping out so the hospital staff didn’t have to do it and to give them more time to do what they needed to. It was much quieter back then, we still do things like folding face cloths but thankfully we don’t have to do those bloody gowns and the wait times have definitely increased but that’s all I’ll say about that.

‘‘We don’t have the jobs like we used to now but that connection aspect is still there, it’s more about the patient now, which is the best thing. Some people will come in and you go and talk to them, they don’t really want to talk but after three or four hours they’re quite happy to talk.’’

She said she started as a volunteer as a way to give back.

‘‘The family had all grown up, and I wanted to do something. I saw it come up and thought ‘oh, it’s at the hospital’ and I had always wanted to go be a nurse to start with.

‘‘So I started and Angela [Bennison, charge nurse at the time] said about being a team leader and it’s just gone from there. That’s got harder and harder from then to what it is now with the computer and all that.

‘‘But it’s been very rewarding and I still enjoy it.’’

The programme was still as important as ever, she said.

‘‘You’ve got so many elderly people coming in who’ve got nobody, and you sit and talk to them, or elderly couples come in, and it’s not the person that’s sick, it’s the carer that needs the support.

‘‘Some days you come out of the hospital thinking ‘that was a really good shift’ and you made a difference and others you do have to deal with the odd grumpy person who doesn’t want to talk but that’s OK. We have a team of 21 and all just do a great job.’’