Tim and Anne volunteer at Airedale Hospital. They run a satisfaction survey which insures the staff find out how to improve patient care.
Tim and Anne love working at the hospital and encourage other people to volunteer.
Transcript
Hi there my name’s Tim and this is Anne my wife, we are both volunteers for NHS trust at Airedale with the real time patient survey.
What we do is go around with this computer asking patients being discharged what their experience was in Airedale hospital, whether they’ve been in for a day or for a week.
It gives to management an actual real time survey of what the patients experienced.
They can use that to make improvements that goes back to the sisters or charges nurses on the wards and they can make improvements if there are need for that.
We come and introduce ourselves and say ‘we are from the volunteer service from the hospital and would like to ask you some questions about your stay’.
You’ve got to be able to relate to people; to understand why they are here and what we are trying to do. Trying to give patients that come after them to make sure they have a good stay as they patients that we have seen today.
We are both used to dealing with people in our past jobs. I would say you get a feeling that ‘yes, there are people that care about them’ not just the clinical care but the wellbeing and the experience ‘was a good one? Or was it a bad experience?’
We must say that at Airedale hospital most patients have had a fantastic experience.
Because it’s done on a daily basis by us and other volunteers, the chief nurse on a weekly basis knows exactly what the patients are thinking about this hospital without having to refer to paper sheets which some patients do eventually fill in.
The Hospital Trust knows exactly what’s going on in the hospital on a daily basis. You can also fill a paper sheet in later and you perhaps wouldn’t answer questions in the same way because the experience is over and you see it in a different light, whereas when we come in they’re leaving today and anything that has gone wrong is fresh in their minds.
To give back to the community that I have lived in for years and years and years. I’ve even worked here so the funny thing is that I’m coming back on a voluntary basis because I enjoy it.
If I enjoy something, we both enjoy something, the people you meet enjoy things.
It almost becomes a social activity. If you get a bay of say 4 men or 4 ladies and they are all of the similar nature, it can be bedlam - we are in hysterics with them it makes an monotony for them at times, but no its interesting to come, because there’s all age ranges from young people, 16-18 up to age 99. We spend half a day or a day a week doing this.
When we come here we have to adhere to the hospital regulations, nothing below the elbow. You have to be neat and tidy. You have to attend mandatory training sessions, do it! There’s allsorts you can do; besides what we do. There’s a shop, a library, church services, even if you are working full time there are things to do on a weekend! Do it. Come and do it. There’s all sorts you can do.
