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Have you been volunteering with us here at Children’s Hospital for 6 months or longer? If so, you will soon be approached by a friendly Volunteer Services coordinator, or a staff person in the department you volunteer with, for a quick Annual Evaluation!

This evaluation process will provide volunteers with feedback about their service, and will also give volunteers the opportunity to share feedback about how things are going and what could be improved.

Have you been here for LESS than 6 months? Don’t worry; you won’t be left out!  All volunteers who have started their service within the last six months will be asked to complete an “initial competency review” to go over basic safety, infection control, and policy items!

Please be in touch at any time to share your feedback!

It’s National Handwashing Awareness Week!  As such, we wanted to briefly review some important hand hygiene policies.  When volunteering, you should be washing your hands:

• -before entering & after exiting patient rooms
• -after using the restroom
• -after eating or drinking
• -after contact with patient bedding, clothing, or body fluids

When washing your hands, Wendy Berg, Children’s Infection Preventionist, says, “The expectation is to use either hand foam or soap & water, but not both.  Soap & water should be used after every 10-15 applications of hand foam.”

When applying hand foam, the amount of foam used should be approximately the size of a golf ball (see below)!

When rubbing your hands together, make sure that you rub ALL of the foam in!  The picture below illustrates what NOT to do:  please rub your hands together until the product dries.

Hand foam should be used in most circumstances, unless your hands are visibly soiled (from contact with body fluids, using the restroom, eating a red velvet cupcake, etc.):

When your hands become soiled, please use soap & water to clean them!

Handwashing is the single most effective way to prevent the spread of infection, so PLEASE…WASH YOUR HANDS, WASH YOUR HANDS, WASH YOUR HANDS!  Our goal is for each volunteer’s hands to look like this:

Thanks for doing your part to protect our patients & families from germs!

Editor’s Note:  We are so excited to welcome Ingrid Schmeling as the newest team member in Children’s Volunteer Services! Read on for Ingrid’s “hello” message!

Ingrid Schmeling

“Hello, all!  My name is Ingrid Schmeling, and I could not be more excited about becoming a Volunteer Coordinator in the Volunteer Services Department, Minneapolis Campus.  I am a former Children’s volunteer (yahoo!) and University of St. Thomas graduate, with a double major in Psychology and Spanish.  I have spent the past 2 ½ years working as an Admissions Coordinator for Children’s at their Roseville Rehabilitation Site.

A bit more about me:  I am a huge animal lover who enjoys movies, music, travel, good food, and spending time with friends and family.  If you ever need a pet sitter, I am the gal to ask!  I had the privilege of studying abroad in Rome (as a Spanish major…whoops!) in college, and have had a passion for fashion and travel ever since!  I may love food, but am not the greatest chef…I do make a MEAN mac n’ cheese, though (straight from the Kraft box, of course).  That is me in a nutshell…to learn more, feel free to ask. I look forward to meeting all of the amazing volunteers and staff at Children’s!”

WELCOME, Ingrid! We’re so happy to have you join Volunteer Services!

A wise man once said, “The only constant is change.”  Our department will experience another big change next week, as we bid farewell to Minneapolis Volunteer Coordinator Ben Reed.

Ben began his career at Children’s in 2004, working in Human Resources.  He came to Volunteer Services in April 2006, and has been a tremendous asset to the department ever since.  We have greatly appreciated his community involvement & leadership skills, and will miss his humor, easygoing nature, and knowledge of all things food-related!  

Ben will be taking a new position as Manager of the International Center at Abbott Northwestern Hospital, so we’re very glad that he will remain in the area!  Ben’s last day at Children’s will be Friday, October 7th.  We will be having an open house in the Minneapolis Volunteer Services office from 12:00-2:00 pm that day if you’re able to stop by; otherwise, please feel free to shoot Ben an e-mail (benjamin.reed@childrensmn.org) or give him a call (612-813-6170) to thank him for his years of dedicated service to Children’s.

Best of luck in your new venture, Ben!  We’ll miss you!

Effective last Friday, September 2nd, St. Paul Volunteer Coordinator Molly Lamon has reduced her time to casual.  (This means that Molly will remain a member of our department on an “on-call” basis.)

Molly has been working in Volunteer Services at Children’s since 2005, and has been instrumental in developing, organizing, and championing a variety of amazing volunteer initiatives.  We have particularly benefitted from her passion for our PAWH (Pets Assisting With Healing) and Developmental Rehabilitation programs in St. Paul.   It’s been a joy to work with Molly, and we will miss her friendly, energetic, and outgoing nature in our office on a daily basis!

We’re extremely happy that Molly will not really be leaving us, but simply taking more time to be home with her four beautiful children.  You’ll still have chances to see her around the St. Paul campus, either picking up hours in our office or utilizing her child life certification through coordinating the Diabetes Support Group program.  

Thank you for ALL that you have done for our department, and for Children’s, over the past 6 years, Molly.  We will miss you!

P.S.  We’re very excited to welcome our new colleague, Kristi Kehrwald, to the department as a full-time Volunteer Coordinator in St. Paul.  We will be posting a “get-to-know-Kristi” profile on our blog very soon…stay tuned!