There are many different ways to help out at a hospital: discharging patients, bringing food to patients, pushing carts around, taking blood samples to the lab etc. Seniors Zoe Reynolds and Kaden Austin have done all of this as volunteers at Rutland Regional Medical Center.

Zoe says she volunteers at the hospital because she wants to have positive interactions with people and wants to actually help others. Kaden says he volunteers to do something for his community and for the volunteer hours.

Although they have different tasks to do, Zoe’s favorite thing to do at the hospital is to bring things to and from distribution. Distribution is a place where hospital supplies get stocked. She says it’s her favorite thing because it’s sort of like exercise and “it’s a chore you can't mess up.”

Kaden’s favorite thing to do is delivering stretchers and carts throughout the hospital.

Zoe says volunteering at the hospital has made her “more social and empathetic…it’s a need to speak to people, to talk to patients the way they need. You need to shift into a leadership role and have the last interaction be a nice memory for the patients.” 

“It has made me more grateful for things after seeing the hardships others go through,” Kaden adds.

They say discharging patients can be challenging. Zoe says the situation is “touch and go” and you should “go with the flow” in order to keep patients' emotions at bay. Kaden agrees with her saying, “Discharges are always challenging, they’re not fun.” 

The most rewarding part of volunteering, according to Zoe, is seeing how the doctors and nurses are less stressed when people help them help others. They are very grateful for the people who help, even with the little things like pushing a cart around the hospital. “Just the other day while I was in an elevator a nurse told me, ‘Thank you for volunteering;  I really appreciate you being here.’”

There wasn’t really a specific rewarding moment according to Kaden, but he says, “The highlight of every shift is my crispy chicken sandwich from the food court, that’s my reward.”

Having to balance school and volunteering is not that stressful, Zoe says. She started volunteering at age sixteen and if she needed to do homework the hospital would let her. She says she only volunteers on Tuesdays and it takes two and a half hours. So she isn’t there for a long time.

They do have advice for volunteering. Zoe’s advice is, “It may seem confusing at first but once you know the people and know what you’re doing just stick with it until you learn to love it.” Kaden’s advice is, “Have fun with it.”