Costa students volunteer for Little Company of Mary’s medical program

By Karli Wallace

Staff Writer

Mira Costa students learn to do more than just deliver flowers and take notes on a patient’s health while working at  Little Company of Mary’s medical program, tailored for high school students interested in pursuing a medical career.

Providence Little Company of Mary, a hospital located in Torrance, provides a high school student volunteer program for students all over the South Bay, including Mira Costa. The program has been running for almost forty years. 150 students are accepted into the program out of the 800 total volunteers at Little Company.  Students work two-hour shifts from 5 PM- 7PM on weekdays, and work four hour shifts at either 9AM- 1PM, 1-5 PM or 5-7 PM on weekends. Student volunteers also complete a variety of tasks, ranging from delivering different medical equipment to discharging fully recovered patients.

Photos: Mira Costa students work at Little Company of Mary’s medical program

“I think one of my favorite parts of volunteering here is that you get to interact with patients on a very personal level.” said Junior Faith Deitz, who is also working with Little Company’s program. “It makes the whole entire experience much more authentic; and even working with other student volunteers, I find that both interactions make this program one of the best Costa can offer.”

The High School Volunteer application process is open once a year in the spring. If students are accepted into Little Company’s program, they are required to attend the orientation, which is a four hour meeting in which Gerardi and her colleagues explain the standards of the hospital during the summer. The day and time the orientation is scheduled, Girardi says, is something that they try to tailor so that every volunteer may be in attendance.

Link: Learn more about Little Company of Mary’s internship

“The orientation is really heavy on compliance, H.I.P.A.A [The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act] , and patient privacy rights, “ Director of Little Company’s high school   program Catherine Girardi said. “We talk about the hospital, and there’s lots of important paperwork that student volunteers need to fill out as well.”

After attending the orientation meeting, student volunteers must sign up for three four hour training sessions. The first day, students shadow an already trained student volunteer. The second day. The second day, new student volunteers are shadowed by the volunteer they shadowed the day prior. The pre-trained shadow is there to insure they know what the new student volunteer is doing. On the third and final day, new student volunteers are schedules to their own shifts in different departments of the hospital, but are welcome to ask other staff members questions.

For more on nationally ranked Providence Little Company of Mary Torrance: http://health.usnews.com/best-hospitals/area/ca/providence-little-company-of-mary-6933681

“Three days, in my opinion, is not enough time to become fully acclimated to the hospital,” Girardi said. “ The good news is that I’d say at least 90% of new volunteers feel comfortable and ready by the time their training is complete.“

Students aren’t just helping patients around the hospital, though. By discharging patients from all over the hospital in different departments, students lessen the load of work that Little Company’s nurses must do. Student volunteers, Girardi says, are the biggest support system the nurses have workload wise, and that it’s one of the most appreciated things the students do at the hospital.

“If we didn’t have the student volunteers doing all the discharges, things would get really complicated really fast.” Girardi said. “Nurses would have to be pulled from their shifts, and they really appreciate the volunteers taking that pressure off of them.“

Student volunteers who apply and pursue the High School Program, like Dietz and Hilgers, typically have the goal of pursuing a medical career in the future and or want exposure to a hospital setting as soon as possible. Multiple volunteers have said that they believe that what they do, although small, contributes to the hospital in a significant way and opens the door for many opportunities for their future in the medical field.

“Little Company does a fantastic job of making sure that the student volunteers always have something to do,” Dietz said. “But, it’s all worth it. If a student has an interest in seeing the medical field in their future, this program is definitely a valuable first step.”