Caring for 'Jimmy's Friends': Brooke Clubbs rallies volunteers to care for hospitalized children and their families

As a child in the 1950s, Brooke Clubbs' father was hospitalized frequently with asthma. Hearing her father recount his fearful and isolated bouts of illness made a lasting impression on her.

"When he talked about it, he talked about being lonely," Clubbs says. "We've made so many medical advances since then, but (the loneliness of hospitals) is an area that still seems to be lacking."

So in 2013, to complete her master's degree at the University of Illinois, she designed a capstone project to address the deficiency.

"We all need things, especially when we're sick. We need social support, material support and emotional support," she explains. "The problem that I had recognized is that there was a lack of programs that offered all three of them, especially for families with young children in the hospital. So many parents have to go back to work or take care of other kids."

Through research, Clubbs found a group at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital called Helping Hands that provided her with a blueprint for how to go about forming her group, which she named "Jimmy's Friends" in honor of her father, James. Since the beginning, her interests have been equally motivated by academic curiosity and a calling to compassion.

Cutline:Brooke Clubbs in the NICU at Saint Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. (Laura Simon)

"I think, for me, the two are intertwined, I guess," she says. "First comes the emotion, and then comes the research. I'm the type of person that's always looking for solutions. Some people say, 'It's not personal, it's just business,' but I'm not like that. Everything is personal to me."

Brooke Clubbs in the NICU at Saint Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. (Laura Simon)

In conjunction with Southeast Missouri State University, where Clubbs has taught communications since 2007, she was awarded grant money to get the project off the ground.

"We were able to use those funds to organize the volunteers," she says. "It covered things like background checks, TB tests, supplies and other things that would have ended up being cost-prohibitive."

The first Jimmy's Friends shifts started in February 2014 at Saint Francis Medical Center. Clubbs says volunteers are primarily Southeast students -- about 25 currently -- who sign on for a semester at a time to work in shifts, usually about one or two hours per week. Shifts are focused on bringing people comforts like hot drinks, baby-sitting services or spending time with newborns in the NICU.

"Sometimes just holding a newborn when everyone else might be busy with other things -- it's not really medical, but it's critical to brain development," Clubbs explains. "Just being held in a different position, or being rocked, depending on the infant, it makes a difference."

But the patients and families themselves aren't the only ones who benefit from Jimmy's Friends' volunteer work. Covering chores such as keeping restless siblings occupied or cleaning up waiting rooms frees hospital staff to better serve their patients, leading to a more efficient allocation of personnel and higher quality of care.

"Even when babies come out of the NICU, they still have pretty intensive needs," Clubbs says. "If we've got the siblings and we're playing with them, the parents and therapists can get done what they need to get done."

Saint Francis Medical Center's rehabilitation services even gave Jimmy's Friends an award recognizing how their work has contributed to the average quality of visits and lessens the time that nurses spend cleaning.

"I hadn't really considered how much of an impact [a program like this] would have on the staff," Clubbs says, but adds she hopes a study might be able to quantify the efficacy of Jimmy's Friends' work among patients and practitioners alike.

"If we could move the needle just a tiny bit -- it wouldn't have to be enormous -- I could write about that," she explains. "And if we could get something published, then hopefully it could inspire other people elsewhere."

But for now, the short-term goals are to keep a hearty volunteer pool. Those interested in lending a helping hand are encouraged to explore the group's Facebook page or contact Clubbs at Southeast. She says it doesn't take much to make a difference.

"If people came and saw (what we do regularly), it's really me holding a baby and singing 'Take Me Out to the Ballgame,'" she says. "There are a lot of academics that go into it, but in the end you just want to make the lives and those who care for them better."