Volunteer services at Methodist Richardson Medical Center are provided by the Auxiliary. Both the Auxiliary and the hospital have a long history in Richardson. In April 1965, the idea for a Women’s Auxiliary was born. The Richardson Jaycee-Ettes and the Richardson Chapter of the Zeta Tau Alpha social sorority organized an executive board and wrote the set of Bylaws.
The Auxiliary was founded by 15 members. At the end of the first year, the total membership had grown to 79 members. The volunteer organization had accumulated over a thousand hours within two months from its inception, and service hours have been steadily mounting since that time. The Candy Stripers, a volunteer group of teenage girls at Richardson General Hospital was organized in October, 1965.
Following in the footsteps of the hospital itself, the Auxiliary and the Volunteer Services Department have grown and changed as new needs have been identified.
The Auxiliary currently has more than 200 active volunteers, consisting of shift, department and junior volunteers. Men and teenage boys have been a welcome addition.
Volunteers at Methodist Richardson provide many services. Not only do the volunteers aid patients, their families and visitors, but they also staff information desks, transport patients, and deliver medications and mail throughout the hospital. The volunteers donate service hours on a regularly assigned schedule. They also are involved in the Lifeline Emergency Response System, health fairs, tours of the hospital for school-aged children, sewing cough pillows and much more.
Volunteers are required to commit to one four hour shift a week. Volunteers are assigned to departments or a shift of volunteers depending on their interest. Shifts are from 8:30 am to 12:30 pm and 12:30 pm to 4:30 pm, with limited evening and weekend shifts available. The heart and foundation of the Methodist Richardson volunteer program is the shift volunteer, totaling 75% of the entire program. Shift volunteers are cross-trained to perform all volunteer duties and rotate every hour during a four hour shift. Shift volunteers experience a variety of areas in the hospital therefore creating a very unique and satisfying volunteer experience. Shift volunteers are required to commit to one full year of service and departmental volunteers must commit to a minimum of six months. In order to begin volunteering and join the Auxiliary, we also charge $10 in Auxiliary dues and $20 for a uniform.
In addition, the volunteers are committed to raising funds by hosting numerous fundraisers throughout the year, such as book sales, bake sales, and jewelry sales. Each year the profits are donated to the hospital for projects and equipment that support the medical center’s mission to deliver quality health care to our community. The Auxiliary also offers scholarships to volunteers and hospital employees who are pursuing education in a health-related field. In 2007, the Auxiliary awarded a total of eleven scholarships to both volunteers and employees.
The future is promising… we foresee more change and more growth. The Volunteer Services Department at Methodist Richardson is a vital link in the health care chain that provides quality care to patients and their families.
