Is anyone familiar with the candy striper program?

[Jeafl]

My (almost) 15 yr. old daughter is very interested in becoming a candy striper. For one, she thinks it will look good on her college applications, and two, she wants to eventually be a neonatologist so she felt the hospital experience would be beneficial.

What exactly do they do? Do they have much patient contact? They must have some because she is required to have a physical and a TB test. There is a waiting list at both of our local hospitals right now, but she is scheduled for orientation and training in March.

 

[luvdzny]

I don't know anything about Candy Stripers but my 14 year old DD is hoping to become an ER doctor. Our hospital has a program called "Medical Explorers" that is a great program. It is for high school kids interested in medical careers. They meet twice a month and have different guest speakers. She even got to go to the local college and dissect a human cadaver. I think it is a branch of the boy scouts. If you do an internet search maybe you can find out if there is one in your area.

 

[WebmasterMaryJo]

<font color=navy>I was a candy striper years ago (1976) when I was 16'ish.

I don't know if the program is the same, but I volunteered one or two nights a week, about 3 or 4 hours a night.

Back then, our duties included keeping patients company, making beds, taking blood to the blood lab, helping out in the x-ray room, handing out prescriptions, taking patients in their wheelchair from their rooms to a lab and back, making beds. Keeping the moms company, helping with the babies, help feed patients ...

What we did not do included administering medicine & shots, any type of analysis (of course), handle bedpans, etc.

I really enjoyed working at our county hospital when I was there. Although I did not go into the medical field, I learned a lot while I was there.

 

[jel0511]

Yes, candy strippers do have patient contact, at least they did when I was one 20 years ago. My job was to offer magazines, books, etc to the patients. I also talked to the patients and gave them someone to talk to when they were lonely.

 

[my3kids]

I did it for a few years in high school, and I LOVED it. We would be assigned to a particular unit and stay there for the summer. One year I worked it admitting and took patients to their rooms and showed them how everything worked. Also delivered flowers that came into the front reception area. That was okay. Another year I worked in pediatrics and liked that alot. I took a game cart around and offered toys and such to the children. Also offered snacks and got juice for those that were able. Another year I worked in the OR and made up stretchers and such for the incoming patients, and took things to the labs that needed to be transported. That was very exciting.

I feel like I'm old now, so it might have changed a lot in the last 20+ years. I was in a pretty large hospital, and I never had a dull day. They provided lunch for the volunteers. We could go through the line in the employee cafeteria and get anything we wanted.

 

[SueM in MN]

I work in a hospital which does have teen volunteer and my oldest DD (now 21) was a teen volunteer from ages 13 thru 18. I also do the education on Infection Control for our teen volunteers once a year.
A lot has changed since 20 years ago (some has even changed because of the new "Privacy Rules" since my DD volunteered), but a lot is still the same as other people posted.
At the hospital system that I work at, some jobs are patient contact and some are more clerical duties. Clerical duties might be things like putting away files, helping fill supply carts, bringing things from place to place (like picking up supples), copying, faxing, putting together blank forms for new charts.
Patient contact jobs still include delivering flowers, taking magazine or book carts around, visiting patients, pushing wheelchairs to bring patients to therapy, lab or xray (for patients who are in stable condition and don't need a medical person with them). Some of the fun things teen volunteers have done at our hospital included being "victims" at disaster drills.

 

[ZachnElli]

I was a candy striper for 2 years in high school. Sometimes we worked the front desk directing people where to go, answering the phone and separating mail for different floors and delivering it. We fought over who got to deliver flowers, especially to the maternity ward. When we worked on the floors we gathered the water pitchers out of patients rooms, wrote down how many cc's were drank and filled it with fresh water and ice. We delivered meals, read mail or books to patients, even fed some that were unable to feed themselves (I hated doing that). It is definitely a life learning experience and will help your daughter decide if it's something she wants to do for real. Good luck to her!

 

[MinnieYC]

Hey, your DD sounds a lot like me at 15!
I knew in high school that I wanted to become a doctor eventually, so I volunteered at a hospital (that's what they called it, as they had a lot of male volunteers, and we didn't wear pink-and-white jackets) during the summer between 9th and 10th grades. I loved the experience, and I'm so glad I did it!
Flash forward to now, and I'm in medical school!
Colleges love hospital volunteers. For one thing, they love volunteer work of any sort. They love extra-curriculars. They love students with a focus.

I did have patient contact when I volunteered. I did a whole lot of things, but it basically involved tending to patients' non-medical needs, like getting them books, food, delivering flowers, transporting patients to other areas of the hospital, bringing recently-discharged patients downstairs, and bringing recently-admitted patients to the appropriate ward. We could have done clerical work, but I never really wanted to do that, so I didn't.

 

[suzannen]

Jeafl,
If your DD is interested in going into any medical career, candy striping will be a good experience.

When I was in high school, I wanted to become a physical therapist. My neighbor headed up the department and she encouraged me to candy stripe to see if working in a hospital setting was right for me. Well, I discovered it was NOT the career for me. I either cried every time I went to visit a patient and found he/she had gotten worse or died; became faint and wobbly everytime I had to go into the burn unit; sobbed in the pediatric ward - you name it, I was way too emotionally involved. They finally restricted me to only delivering flowers to the maternity ward. To this day I still wish I had had the temperament to have been a physical therapist, but I am glad that I learned that I didn't before I commited myself to it in school.

Meanwhile, my best friend did great, loved it and it supported her desire to be the great pediatrician she became.

Good luck to your DD!

 

[msdznyduck]

Even if she decides not to go into a medical field, it will look great on a college application. Most colleges favor applicants with community service, with some (if not most) colleges it is required. Also, you can put it on a resume after college.
My oldest DS was a volunteen from the age of 14 to 17, and loved it. He did not go into the medical field, but I think it made him a more caring person. After he got his license, he visited a gentleman in a nursing home that got to be kinda like a grandfather to him for years. (my dad had died before he was born, so he didn't have a grandfather) And this gentlman had no family near here that could bring him necessities, so my DS used to bring him toiletries, magazines, cigarettes, etc. (DS is now 32, this was a long time ago) Teenagers are usually very naive about what goes on in hospitals, unless they have personal experience with someone who is sick. Kinda gives them a different perspective on life.

 

[dvcfamily41801]

I was a candy striper when I was in Jr. High school and it was fun. I was in maternity and it was great. Everyone was so happy and I loved being around the babies. One afternoon I was walking down to pick up all the flowers that were dropped off downstairs and as I was walking down the hallway and one of the nurses asked me to hold the service elevator, so I did. In rolls a gurney on the way downstairs to the morgue I remember being totally frozen. After I got off I went to get the flowers and was coming back around to get on the elevator and that was the last thing I remembered. I totally passed out

I can not rememeber how much after that I continued at the hospital after that experience LOL!

 

[JenBlaze]

The only thing you might want to know about candy striping is that they may not allow your DD to volunteer in the nursery, or at least right away.

I wanted to be a midwife (still do!) and begged to volunteer in Labor & Delivery. Due to security reasons, they'd never had a volunteer in there, so they told me no. I ended up volunteering in Marketing & Planning first, then the OR, and THEN they let me volunteer in L&D.

I was not allowed in the nursery under any circumstances, though. Security reasons.

However, I loved every bit of the volunteering I did get to do, no matter if it involved my specialty or not. Candy striping will be a GREAT experience for your DD.

 

[Dan Murphy]

Just wanted to say, God bless the Candy Stripers, Jill, they are such a blessing.