Volunteer Observation Paper

Introduction

Volunteering is something many do to give back to their community. Being a volunteer is an altruistic way to be involved in helping others. I have volunteered in high school, but since college have fallen out of doing so. I have wanted to get back into being a volunteer, but just haven’t found time with being both employed full-time and a full-time student. For this paper, we had to volunteer at a healthcare facility and I was happy to have to get myself out there and start volunteering again. Time constraints made it difficult, but I found time at least once a week to volunteer and I’m glad I did. For this paper, I would like to give an overview of what I learned and observed while volunteering. Then, I will be applying an analysis of course material to what I observed.

Context

I chose to volunteer at Good Samaritan Hospital in

I observed this social support from the families of the patients. The families offered emotional social support and they did so within a relationship context, with physical affection and expressing concern. It surprised how many of the families actually waited in the waiting room, which was fairly small, for hours for their loved ones to be done with their procedures. Families could leave contact information and leave and be contacted when their loved one was done, but many chose to simply wait for them. I saw relationship support expressed through the families just being together and waiting on their loved ones. Physical affection by the way the communicated with each other before the patient went back to their bed, many were hugging and kissing, etc. Also, many families who were waiting expressed concern by inquiring on the status of their loved ones. I thought it was great how many of these families chose to stay and wait versus just leave and be contacted, I think it goes to show how deep and meaningful family is and how strong a bond families can