Care Extenders gain valuable experience
Student volunteers garner insight into medical institution
By Jennifer K. Morita
Daily Bruin Staff
One day, when fourth-year UCLA biology student Mimi Trinh had a
brief lull in her volunteer duties at the Santa Monica/UCLA
Hospital, a family practice resident asked if she’d like to come
along and learn how to perform an ultrasound on a pregnant
woman.
"The doctor introduced me, told the patient exactly what she was
going to do, and asked if it was OK if I was in there and if she
could teach me how to do the ultrasound," Trinh recalled.
First, they performed a physical exam by feeling the patient’s
stomach area for the baby’s head, other parts of the fetus and to
see if it was moving around.
After squeezing a jelly-like substance on the woman’s stomach,
Trinh learned how to run a "paddle-like thing" over the jelly in
order to get an image of the womb.
"The ultrasound is not crystal clear," Trinh said. "It’s kind of
fuzzy and the doctor had to point out different parts to me because
it wasn’t apparent.
"I was just in awe," she added. "I was really fascinated by
everything. I’ve never seen anything like it. I’ve just never had
an experience like that before."
Trinh is just one of about 140 student volunteers taking part in
a new program at Santa Monica/UCLA Hospital called Care Extenders,
which offers students like Trinh hands-on experience working in a
teaching hospital.
"I came up with the idea in June and slowly started to put it in
place," said Care Extenders Coordinator Allen Miller, the only paid
staff person in the program.
By August, the program was underway with the first batch of 30
volunteers selected, trained and working on the hospital
floors.
According to Miller, Care Extenders had a two-fold purpose.
"I was a pre-med student myself and I’ve always wanted to do a
program for pre-med students that would give them experience in a
hospital that would help them form their goals," he said.
But Miller also wanted to create a volunteer program that would
help the hospital deal with increasing budget cuts.
"We were told there were going to be more staff cuts, yet we had
to provide the same level of care," Miller said. "So, we were
working on ways to do more with less. Since they weren’t going to
give us more staff, I thought I’d just bring in some students."
Volunteers come from area schools, such as Santa Monica College,
Pepperdine and USC, Miller said.
"Most of the volunteers are pre-meds from UCLA," Miller said,
adding that UCLA has the largest local pre-med and nursing school
population.
Today, the volunteer program is still growing to encompass a
class of 60 freshly trained volunteers about to begin work.
Students get hands-on hospital experience but also run the Care
Extenders program. One student volunteer coordinator runs a staff
of about 12 other volunteers, each of whom are in charge of various
departments.
"It’s the students who put most of the work into the program,"
Miller said.
After sending in an application and going through an
interview-process, selected volunteers then have to attend
three-day training in which they learn how to transport and
position patients, move them from a gurney to a bed, and how to
handle and move patients who may have just come through a hip
replacement surgery.
They also learn about hospital confidentiality, working in
sterile fields and about being responsible to report abuse, Miller
said.
"We teach the students about being sensitive. I believe in the
Disney approach to customer service. No matter how bad a day you’ve
had, you need to go in there with a smile," Miller said. "The
volunteers have to remember that the patient is the one who is
sick, so the volunteer needs to be understanding."
Once the training is over, the volunteers are assigned to
different hospital departments, such as the emergency room,
surgery, labor and delivery, post partum, medical surgery,
telemetry, critical care and radiology. Every three months, the
students rotate departments.
"It’s a year-long commitment," said Student Coordinator
Elizabeth Major, who helps select incoming volunteers. "I’m looking
for someone who is committed and isn’t just looking for something
to put on their application for medical or nursing school and
interested in just doing the minimum.
"You’re going to be put in a situation that’s touchy, where
there are nurses and doctors in surgery suites who are depending on
you," Major said. "There are some volunteer programs where you can
take the attitude that you’re just a volunteer and so you don’t
have to show up or you can just shine. But this isn’t one of
them."
In exchange for a minimum of four hours per week during the
school year and eight hours during summer, students said they gain
a wealth of experience working. More importantly, they observe
professionals working in a hospital, volunteers said.
"Observation is the primary benefit I get as a Care Extender who
wants to go into the medical field," said Peter Dell, a volunteer
and a fifth-year English student. "There’s a lot of responsibility.
Santa Monica/UCLA is a teaching hospital and, because of that,
residents and nurses are really willing to teach you … and
explain exactly what they’re doing."
Many times, volunteers can watch minor surgical procedures in
the emergency room or observe patients giving birth, Dell
described.
"In the surgery department, volunteers go through the whole
process of scrubbing down and most of the time they’re considered
sterile and get to watch world renown surgeons perform surgeries,"
he said.
Trinh, who was one of the first volunteers, has been working in
the emergency room for the past three months and has seen countless
surgeries. Trinh has met plastic surgeons and heart specialists and
was taught how to do an electrocardiogram.
"I’ve seen a lot of stuff that even medical students haven’t
seen," Trinh added. "This is something I wouldn’t have had the
chance to see anywhere else. Not until maybe the third year of
medical school do you really have this kind of exposure to the
hospital."
In addition to performing an ultrasound on a pregnant woman,
Trinh also helped a doctor examine a newborn.
"It was just amazing," Trinh said. "She just took me into where
the newborns were and we did a physical on a newborn baby. She let
me do the whole thing. You can’t get anymore hands-on than
that."
According to Trinh and other volunteers, the Care Extenders
program is different from other volunteer programs because of the
interaction with professionals.
"The nurses and doctors are really friendly and include you as
part of the team," Trinh said. "You actually have responsibility
and they depend on you to do certain assignments."
And the nurses themselves said they appreciate the Care Extender
volunteers.
"I wish we had some today because we really need them," said
staff nurse Gerri Watson, who works in the medical surgery
department. "I’m really very busy today and I’d really love the
help. I wish we had them every day. Sometimes it takes a while for
a volunteer to get used to things here but they’re usually pretty
good."
According to Trinh and Dell, each nurse at Santa Monica/UCLA is
responsible for eight patients, which means there are few workers
per patient.
"As care extenders, we care more for the patients and provide a
support role for nurses," Dell said. "Since each nurse has eight
patients, they don’t have a lot of time to care for each individual
so we do that by extending their care and talking to them, making
sure everything is OK"
Spending more time with the patients, Trinh said, is also
beneficial to the volunteer.
"It’s valuable to be able to interact with the patients, (and)
talk with them in their rooms," Trinh said. "They have really
interesting stories. You really feel like you’re helping out
because a lot of them don’t have many visitors and are lonely."
Volunteers have helped to reduce nurses’ work loads, so other
departments are now asking for Care Extenders, coordinators
say.
"They all love us," Major boasted. "When you come in everyone is
always happy to see you and when you leave, you get 10 thank-yous
on your way out. People really appreciate you. I think a lot of
people really like having eager, very bright and very motivated
volunteers around."
Care Extenders will be opening up its volunteer application
process again in April, offering 60 to 70 spaces.
For more info contact Allen Miller at 319-4000 ext. 3580.
SHAWN LAKSMI
Above: Volunteer Austin Elguindy, fifth-year microbiology
student (left) and Dennis Espejo, sixth-year psychobiology student,
study a patient’s x-rays.
Left: Elguindy (right) talks to patient James Snook and his
wife.
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