THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, August 19, 1994 TAG: 9408190049
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E14 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JIMMY GNASS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 77 lines
CHRISTINE Bouchonville is going about her usual chores at Lake Taylor Hospital.
Wearing a candy-striped dress and standing little over 4-feet tall, she talks to the patients. She fills water pitchers and restocks medical supplies: gloves, suction cups and tracheotomy sets.
These are the bona fide duties of a nurse, but Christine is only 14 years old.
``I like to help people, and I thought volunteering would be a good start,'' she says.
Christine, a rising freshman at Lake Taylor High, is a junior volunteer with the hospital's summer student-volunteer program.
``I'm learning what it feels like to help people and learning how to become a nurse, so I can better prepare myself for the future,'' she says.
The program started in 1992 and this summer includes 35 volunteers from local schools between the ages of 14 and 18. Volunteers work up to 15 hours a week.
Martha Hall, director of volunteers, says the extra help is invaluable. These kids are a beacon of light for some of the patients, she says.
At the Lake Taylor critical care facility, hope is the essential medicine. The long-term care facility houses patients whose ailments range from Lou Gehrig's disease to major birth defects to AIDS. There are also burn victims, lightning victims and patients recovering from strokes.
``These people need hospital level care, but they're not making progress to a point where acute care will keep them. So they come here,'' Hall says. ``They stay anywhere from a month to six weeks to six years - to forever.''
Rianne Rodriguez, a rising Maury High sophomore and junior volunteer, works in the hospital gift shop. Her younger sister suffers from paralysis and is also blind.
``I can't explain it,'' she says. ``I just wanted to help.''
Rianne says she is thankful for so many things in life. This is one way she can ``give something back.''
The program is also an opportunity for the 14-year-old to get early work experience.
``Next year I plan to get a job in retail,'' she says. ``So I just wanted to work as a cashier and get the feel of things - see what inventory is like. Sometimes when you're going to get your first job, they want to know if you have any experience.''
Last summer, the 34 student volunteers logged a total 2,146 hours.
Student volunteers assist in various departments, including occupational therapy, recreational therapy, nursing units, clerical work and more.
But most of their time is spent visiting patients, who are their primary responsibility. Sometimes they read to them or even take them out for a stroll.
``A big portion of what they do is to bring conversation to the patients,'' says Hall, ``many of whom do not go outside into the community.''
Sometimes the volunteers help in surprising ways.
In an administrative office, 17-year-old Robert Deml, another junior volunteer, sits at a desk beside an assistant volunteer supervisor. Both sets of eyes are glued to the computer screen. Robert, an incoming senior at Salem High school, carefully explains how to use the database.
Teaching computers in the hospital volunteer program fits his capabilities. ``It's fun,'' says Robert. ``You get to help the community. You get to know that you help everyone in this hospital.''
Robert isn't the only junior volunteer planning to go into the medical profession.
Christine says: ``I'm learning what it's like to be a nurse because I want to be a pediatrician when I grow up.''
``I like to work with kids,'' she says.
At only 14, she has a head start. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
JIM WALKER/Staff
Volunteers Alicia Korbak, left, and Michelle Tate help Jill Newman
onto a bus at Lake Taylor Hospital.
by CNB