Student Volunteers

Students play a valuable role in the hospital. Students volunteer on the wards for an afternoon serving teas and coffees to patients, providing a listening ear and support to the patients.

We have lots of students wanting to gain experience in the hospital as many want to pursue a career in the health service so experience is vital for their application to study medicine or nursing. Some of them come for a week or two and some end up staying for a year or more.

The students aren’t involved with any of the medical care but they do provide a really valuable, supportive service to patients and staff. It’s a great way for them to improve their communication and listening skills.

They gain a great deal from their time with us and many of them have gone on to train as doctors and nurses. Only recently I received a letter from a student Abbey Wilson, who had been coming to the RUH once a week during the last year. She has since returned to New Zealand and she wrote to thank us for helping her get into nursing school.

We ask the students to give us feedback when they leave. They frequently say that they learned to communicate with patients, how much they enjoyed it and want to come back. They also say how it’s helped to increase their self-confidence and how grateful the patients are to have someone to talk to.

Last year we 70 students throughout the year and the students come from local schools and the 2 Universities. They contribute many hours to the hospital and we are grateful for their help.