Nenagh women who volunteer as hospital patient companions enriched by their experiences helping others

Dressed in their distinctive red tabards with embroidered yellow logo, patient advocates  have had a transformative impact on patient experience in Nenagh and surrounding hospitals, serving in a diversity of roles, whether as way-finders, patient companions, information guides, and gatherers of anecdotal patient feedback. 

They are part of  UL Hospitals Group’s Patient Advocacy Liaison Services (PALS) have been a crucial element of the group’s strategy to continually improve care standards and the patient experience across University Hospital Limerick, Ennis Hospital and Nenagh Hospitals.

For Virginia O’Dowd, a retired school teacher and former public representative who was once Town Mayor of Nenagh, volunteering for PALS has been an experience that has enriched her, almost incalculably so. 

“PALS makes a huge difference to the hospital experience for patients. There are no other demands on us, so we can give total attention to the patients. We volunteers also get a huge amount out of it. I always come out feeling richer, somehow; I get more out of it than can be measured,” Virginia explains. 

 

 

PALS volunteers help to firmly situate the hospital within the community where it is located, which in turn puts patients, relatives and all visitors at their ease, helping to create a more user-friendly hospital experience. 

The service also provides immediate feedback about care standards and other aspects of the patient experience. Virginia says the feedback from Nenagh patients is unanimously positive: “There is the greatest respect for staff. In PALS, we hear that from the patients every single day.” 

When a person requires hospital care, even the smallest act of kindness and support is significant, and this is at the core of the PALS ethos. “Sometimes, elderly people will be driven to the hospital, and of course, drivers cannot park outside the door, so we wait with their relative until the driver parks, and we also greet people who arrive in taxis. These are simple, reassuring things that make such a huge difference.” 

Virginia emphasises how important it is to be vigilant for patients who look as if they need a helping hand or a kind word when they arrive for a hospital appointment, which, for many, can be a disorienting or frightening experience.

She recalls being approached in a shop by an elderly man who thanked her for being his friend in the hospital. “I didn’t recognise him at first, but then remembered him from some months ago. He’d come into the hospital alone, and looked ill and quite stressed. I asked if he needed help, and he told me he was there for an appointment, so I took him to admissions, got him a drink, and sat with him until he was called. I thought no more of it, but when I met him months later, he told me that on the day, he would have left if there hadn’t been someone who made time for him. It was great to see the man looking so well and it shows the importance of PALS.” 

 

 

As a Befriender on the PALS volunteer team at Nenagh Hospital, Toomevara resident Pauline Ryan has a more specific duty: “Meeting and greeting is my thing,” beams Pauline. “I’m not just there to show people how to find places, but also, if the patient wants, to sit and wait with them, chat, and help to take their mind off their appointments.” 

Once fearful of hospitals herself, Pauline has discovered such trepidation affects all age groups: “You can read it in their faces. Sometimes, all they want is for you to sit and chat with them. So I’ll talk about something I’ve been through. Hurling is a great subject, particularly with our Limerick patients. Young people, even when they’re in with parents, might need someone else to chat to who can lighten things up a bit, because, well, I suppose Mammy might be worried as much as they are,” Pauline explains. 

Pauline is the ultimate people’s person, and a force of nature who refuses to be brought down by the challenges life can present. “In 2008, I went into the hospital in Limerick on a Monday morning, had a mastectomy that afternoon, was discharged on Friday, and was out dancing at a Mike Denver show the following Monday night. We’ve all been to hospital for what I describe as personal NCTs. Most people don’t want to come in for things like colonoscopies, and when I describe them as NCTs, something we don’t like doing but have to, it helps to lighten the mood for them.” 

 

 

The call to join the PALS volunteers three years ago came at the right time for Pauline, who suddenly found herself at home alone after being married for 30 years, and mother to five sons who had left the nest. Her love of people and volunteering and cheerful, friendly disposition, as well as her own experiences of the health system, makes Pauline a natural fit for the role of PALS Befriender. A beacon of positivity, Pauline recently returned from a holiday to the US, where she grabbed a window of opportunity during a stopover in Philadelphia to run up the steps immortalised by Sylvester Stallone in the ‘Rocky’ movies. She began running two years after her mastectomy, and celebrated five years free from cancer by running the Dublin City Marathon. She’s also a keen long-distance walker. Pauline’s indefatigable spirit shines through all duties she undertakes with PALS. 

Her love of dance meant that when staff were seeking a traditional set dancer to perform for patients on the wards during St Patrick’s Day celebrations in 2018, Pauline stepped forward. “I danced on almost every ward in the hospital that time. There was a man playing reels on the mouth organ, and I was doing the dancing, and the patients all loved it.” 

“I love PALS, and I would do it every day if I could. All the staff are fantastic, and it’s such a lovely hospital to work in. And I think people really appreciate it. A large number of patients will come back to us from time to time, just to say hello and say thanks for being there for them,” Pauline added.

Cathrina Ryan, Operational Director of Nursing at Nenagh Hospital, said that within four years, the PALS volunteers had become so much a part of service delivery, and were so embedded in Hospital culture and activities, that it would be “difficult to either recall or imagine the hospital without them”. 

 

 

 

FULL DETAILS

For further information on PALS Volunteers in UL Hospitals Group, visit https://www.hse.ie/eng/services/list/3/acutehospitals/hospitals/ulh/contact/pal/palsvolunteers.html