HELPING HANDS TRAINING SESSION SCHEDULED SEPT. 28

Training session for "Helping Hands," a volunteer training program sponsored by Southeast Missouri Hospital, will be held at the hospital beginning Sept. 28.

Since its implementation last spring, Helping Hands has allowed trained volunteers to assist the hospital nursing staff with unit and patient care.

Director of Volunteer Services Charlotte Sargent said, "Helping Hands offers specially trained volunteers a challenging new dimension in volunteer service."

To qualify for the program, volunteers must be at least 16 years old, physically able to meet the demands of patient care and must attend a three-session classroom orientation.

The all-day orientation sessions include how to assist with the transport of patients, how to feed patients, how to make beds hospital-style, and other skills. CPR training is optional.

The next Helping Hands orientation-training session will be held Sept. 28, 30 and Oct. 4. All sessions meet from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. It is mandatory that volunteers attend all three sessions.

For information call 651-5518. Applicants will be interviewed and references checked.

Helping Hands volunteer Alene Matthews of cape Girardeau works one day a week on Southeast's surgical progressive care unit. "I've benefited so much from the program," Matthews said. "I never go home without trying to do at least one thing to make a patient's day a little better. I hope I'm contributing something special. I know that this program has certainly given me something very special."

Surgical progressive care unit nurse manager Jeri Palmer added that the Helping Hands program is not only a big help for patients. "It's a big help for the staff. Our Helping Hands volunteers have been a very positive influence. The staff loves them and the patients do too."