St Clare Hospice is welcoming two new Young Ambassadors to its clinical teams this month, in the scheme’s fourth year.
Millie Johnson, 17, and Saidhriti Siddantham, 16, join the West Essex and East Hertfordshire charity on a 6 month voluntary placement until February 2020. During the half a year, Millie and Saidhriti will gain an insight into the variety of roles required to provide the highest standards of care to patients with life-limiting conditions at St Clare.
The Young Ambassador’s scheme offers young people aged 16 -18 years the opportunity to volunteer on St Clare’s Inpatient Unit in a hands-on clinical voluntary placement. Open to all those who are interested in a career in medicine, nursing, or healthcare, the scheme offers an opportunity to gain practical experience of the clinical world and voluntary sector.
During the six months, volunteers will be responsible for vital housekeeping duties within the Inpatient Unit, as well as having the opportunity to shadow nursing staff and other clinical staff. The project also aims to help students to enhance their college, university or job applications, while offering valuable life skills development through direct contact with patients, families and hospice care teams.
St Clare Hospice’s Voluntary Services Manager, Rob Wallace, said:
“We are really excited to welcome Millie and Saidhriti to St Clare Hospice in the fourth year of running our Young Ambassadors scheme. In previous years, we have found that this project has brought real value to our volunteers who participate in the scheme.
“Many have reflected on how their perceptions of hospices have changed drastically, bringing them real insight into the work we do here at St Clare – and how we support local people throughout their experiences of death, dying and bereavement. Having experience of working on our hospice Inpatient Unit can be really inspiring for our Young Ambassadors as they begin their careers in healthcare and medicine, so we’re delighted to be able to keep the project running for yet another year. Welcome Millie and Saidhriti!”
Commenting at the start of the Young Ambassadors project, Saidhriti said:
“I applied to become a Young Ambassador to both enhance my university application and to learn about the care provided in hospices. After the training day, I already had a much greater understanding about palliative care and the work St Clare Hospice does. Hearing from various staff members with different roles within the Hospice was very interesting, and the passion they had when they spoke about St Clare makes me look forward to beginning my placement!”
Millie also commented:
“I am so excited to have the opportunity to gain such a valuable experience as a Young Ambassador, where I will be able to work with and talk to a variety of people at the Hospice. Just by visiting St Clare, I can already see the amount of comfort the staff bring to people’s lives, and that it isn’t a ‘gloomy,’ ‘scary’ place where ‘people go to die’ – but so much more than that.
St Clare provide such a wide variety of services, and I can’t wait to start and learn more. I hope that participating in this scheme will help me on my path to becoming a paramedic in the future.”
For more information visit St Clare Hospice
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