It’s Volunteers’ Week and we are celebrating all the volunteers who support patients, staff and visitors across our services at North Bristol NHS Trust.
We have more than 370 volunteers across our sites supporting us through a variety of roles, and over the last year (April 2022 – March 2023) 35,000 hours were volunteered across our services.
We are very grateful for the important contribution volunteers provide. They have a huge impact on the patient experience and are highly valued by our staff from across the trust. Here is how much our volunteers mean to us at NBT:
Since last year we have increased our pool of volunteers by 37%! Our beloved Pets as Therapy volunteers have returned to visit wards along with our Macmillan Wellbeing Centre volunteers. We have also introduced a new Patient Experience Survey role and have been really pleased to support many young people in to volunteering within our ward areas.
The Move Maker buggy made more than 30,000 trips in the atrium of the Brunel building and our Kidney Peer Mentor Volunteers were winners in the NBT Staff Awards in the “We Make Improvements to our Patients’ Experience” category.
We have 55 volunteer musicians who support our patients and staff wellbeing by playing the piano regularly within the Atrium. We also now have a harpist, cellist, flautist and guitarists on our musical volunteer team and this year our musicians donated 500 hours of playing time.
One patient who shared their experience, said: “Walking through the atrium to an appointment and hoping that the news will be good can be stressful, so I sat down and listened for a while as I usually do for the piano. It makes the hospital feel less medical and much happier. Congratulations and gratitude to everyone.”
Here is Alex who played today to kick start Volunteers week.
We welcome people of all ages and all backgrounds to volunteer with us. There really is a role for everyone. From our patient befrienders, ward support volunteers, mealtime companions, or patient and carer partners.
If you are interested in becoming a volunteer at NBT please take a look at our website or contact the team.