In this episode of Volunteering Discovery, we meet members of the team at the Leg Ulcer Clinic at East Coast Community Healthcare. The podcast features insights from Karen, a community staff nurse, Rosie, Volunteer Service Manager at Voluntary Norfolk, and Denise, a dedicated volunteer. They discuss the tasks volunteers perform, the skills required, the impact on patient care, and how volunteers are integrated and supported within the clinic. The story highlights personal experiences, motivations for volunteering, and advice for other healthcare professionals considering involving volunteers in their services.

To find out more about volunteering with East Coast Community Healthcare visit https://www.ecch.org/about-us/volunteering/

Find the Volunteering Discovery page here https://improvinglivesnw.org.uk/get-involved/volunteering/volunteering-discovery-podcast/ or contact us using jules.alderson@nhs.net

Volunteering Discovery is a Hospital Radio Norwich production for Norfolk and Waveney Integrated Care System.

Sarah (host): Hello and welcome to Volunteering Discovery.

This is a podcast which takes you behind the scenes of volunteering in health

and social care in Norfolk and Waveney.

Volunteers enhance the experience of people accessing health and social

care in a huge variety of ways.

In our hospitals, our communities and even from the comfort of their own homes.

In each podcast, we'll be hearing from those who give their

time supporting others and the people who work alongside them.

I'm your host, Sarah, a volunteer coordinator working in the NHS.

NHS Scotland describes a leg ulcer as a long lasting, chronic sore that takes

more than four to six weeks to heal.

They usually develop on the inside of the leg, just above the ankle.

Part of the healing process might be attending a clinic to have compression

bandages applied and changed.

In today's episode, we'll be discovering what the volunteers

with the Leg Ulcer Clinic do at East Coast Community Healthcare.

We met Karen Peet, the clinician responsible for involving

volunteers within the clinic.

Karen explained to us what a leg ulcer is and what the Leg Ulcer Clinic provides.

We then asked Karen how volunteers got involved with the clinic.

My name is Karen Peat.

I'm a community staff nurse based at Great Yarmouth Community Services.

I work in the leg ulcer clinic and have been working within leg

ulcer management for 35 years.

It's basically a wound on the lower leg that's non healing.

The actual reasoning behind that could be a number of issues,

healthcare problems, mainly to do with the circulation in the legs.

It's, uh, for the treatment of patients with leg ulcers that are

more complex and need compression.

They have to be patients that are not housebound, so they're

able to go out and about.

They would normally go to their own GP or practice nurse for

the first four to six weeks.

If they don't peel.

reasonably well, then they are referred to the clinic and then we do

further investigations to ascertain the origin of their leg ulcer.

So it could be venous or arterial and then instigate the appropriate treatment

that can be referred off to another specialty like the vascular surgeons.

And then the gold standard treatment for leg ulcers is compression

if they're venous in origin.

It's compression bandage and the dressing that we put on

is not necessarily the magic.

The magic is in, in the compression that heals the ulcers.

We had someone sitting in the foyer advocating volunteers,

I just happened to say.

Oh, I'd love a volunteer in my clinic.

That's where it all started from.

Sarah (host): The person Karen met and spoke to about involving

volunteers was Rosie Meashaw.

Volunteering in a leg ulcer clinic sounds like it might be quite a

specialist role involving lots of skills.

So we wanted to find out what qualities people might need if they

were interested in volunteering there.

We were also curious what motivates people to become a volunteer

with this particular clinic.

My name's Rosie Nishaw and I am employed by Voluntary Norfolk as the

Volunteer Service Manager for our service supporting East Coast Community Healthcare

with their volunteering programme.

So Voluntary Norfolk are commissioned by East Coast Community Healthcare to provide

their volunteers, so recruiting them, training them and finding appropriate

roles for them within the organisation.

The leg also clinic role, I think, can probably sound quite daunting to

people, and it sounds quite clinical.

Actually, in terms of what volunteers are doing there, they're escorting

patients from the waiting area, helping maybe patients take off coats and shoes,

fetching and carrying for the clinician.

So actually, in terms of the skills that you need, really friendly and approachable

manner, ability to follow instructions.

A kind of non judgmental attitude, being a kind of a people person,

quite happy to get stuck in and just help out where required.

I think of the sort of main things that we look for in terms of volunteers

that are interested in that role.

We do get quite a lot of volunteers that are interested in getting a bit of

experience in a sort of clinic setting.

Maybe that might be because they are interested in pursuing a career

in medicine or a career change.

So sometimes it's maybe students or it might be people further on

in their career who are looking Uh, medicine or something in that kind

of health and social care area that like, would like the idea of getting

a bit of sort of hands on experience.

Sarah (host): One of the volunteers with the service is someone who

came with plenty of experience of working in a healthcare environment.

Denise shared her story of getting started as a volunteer with the clinic.

My name is Denise Volger.

I'm a volunteer assisting at the Leg Ulcer Clinic for the East Coast

Community Health Care Trust at Northgate Hospital near Great Yarmouth.

I was thinking about retiring and thought that I would like to do a

volunteering role of some description to be able to Make use of my spare

time and utilize my life skills.

A friend of mine happened to see it on the internet and said, they thought

that this particular role might suit me.

I qualified as a nurse in.

1971 and only retired in June of 2023.

And so I've been used to that sort of environment and I thought that

it, it would be something that, that I personally would enjoy.

I thought that I would be useful, that it would be something that

was, that I would enjoy doing, and it's proved to be that I have.

In actual fact, I've never had any dealings with actually doing a lot of leg

ulcer dressings but obviously I'm used to, if you like, aesthetic techniques so I've

learnt a lot about leg ulcer management and it's really been very interesting.

Sarah (host): To help us understand how the volunteers support in the clinic,

Karen and Denise describes the tasks that the volunteers do during their sessions

and the difference they feel it makes.

For

Usually tidy up after meetings, but speak with the patients, reassure them.

They're a friendly face that's not a healthcare professional.

So that can be really reassuring to a lot of the patients that are a bit anxious.

And as I say, tidying up, fetching, if I need something, it just saves me having

to take my apron off, wash my hands, go in the cupboard, put my apron back

on, wash my hands, it's those little things that make a big difference.

But.

The patients love the volunteers because they're more like them.

They can talk about everyday life, worries or anything that they want to.

The patients take an interest in the volunteers and the volunteers take an

interest in the patient as a person, which then allows me to cut the small

talk and get on with what I want to do.

The sessions follow a similar format that the patients are booked for

at intervals during the course of time.

And I collect them from the waiting room and then I assist them to remove the

coats and the shoes and stockings if they're not able to do that themselves.

Sometimes the clinician will ask me to take them to be weighed and I

weigh them and then record the weight.

When she's dressed the, the legs, I'll clear the trolley for her and, uh, clean

the trolley down, clean the Uh, reclining chair that the, they sit in, then I may

stock up the trolley and, uh, stock up the storeroom for her if she needs it.

Most of the patients attend on a regular basis.

You quickly, and the, the attempt for a period of time, maybe, might be a

few weeks, but often it's a few months.

Over the time, they get very familiar with you and equally you get very familiar

with them and you can engage with them on a personal level, which I enjoy.

Sarah (host): As Denise and her fellow volunteers are in a healthcare

environment, Rosie and her team offer comprehensive support to help

prepare volunteers to get started.

We asked Denise how it was for her and Rosie told us about the process

volunteers go through for the induction.

You always wonder whether you're going to fit into something when you,

if you start a new job or anything, how are you going to get on with people?

How are they going to get on with you?

So I think I was a bit concerned about that, but I was very well supported.

By the volunteer coordinator, if I had any worries about anything,

I could discuss it with her and she would assist me with that.

Initially, when somebody gets in touch with us, some people have got

a role in mind that they want to do.

But the first thing that will happen is that they'll have a chat with

either myself or my colleague, our volunteer coordinator, just to

talk about their skills and their interests, their availability as well.

So when they're going to be able to volunteer for things like the

clinic roles, obviously we can't offer volunteering opportunities.

when the clinic's not on.

So it's looking at whether the role that they're interested

in fits their availability.

We have a chat about all of that.

If somebody is still interested and we've got, we feel like we've got the

right role for them and their skills, we would progress their application through

doing some checks and some training.

Volunteers that are volunteering with East Coast Community

Healthcare in a patient facing role.

will do a morning face to face induction training with us.

So we cover lots of things, including things like health and safety,

safeguarding, um, infection prevention and control, data protection, things

that they're going to need a basic understanding of in that role.

So that's all done in a morning's face to face training.

We would carry out things like a DBS check, ask for a couple of

character references for that person.

And then once they're ready to get started in a role, for instance, with

the leg ulcer clinic at Northgate.

On their first shift, they would have a kind of local induction with the

clinician where she would go through exactly what they're going to be doing

in their role, basically, and all the kind of housekeeping things, where you

go when you arrive, where you can take your breaks, where you put your bag,

and explaining exactly what they're going to be doing in their role.

And usually if a volunteer is helping in a clinic or a hospital, they will have

a kind of named staff, what we call a volunteer champion, who will deliver that

first induction before they get started.

Sarah (host): Karen is the volunteer champion for the volunteers like

Denise at the leg ulcer clinic.

She is keen to support the volunteers so that they quickly feel

comfortable in their first sessions.

Some of them have more understanding of

what's going on than others.

We need to Hand washing and infection control.

Some of them are quite, not scared, a bit rabbit in the head, like

they don't know what to expect because it's a very specialist area.

It can be quite daunting sometimes.

When they first start, we do try and treat them very gently and talk

them through it and hold the hand, metaphorically, until they've settled in

and they soon see little jobs that they can do without necessarily being asked.

Sarah (host): Now that volunteers are an established part of the clinic's team, we

asked Karen what changes she would notice if volunteers were no longer involved.

I would be able to see less patients.

I notice if they don't come in for whatever reason.

My clinic's always running late because I have to answer, where are the volunteers?

Do all those little jobs that I didn't realize I had to do.

So it, it, it would make a huge difference.

I would have, I would probably lose one patient per session time wise.

For I think the biggest thing that makes me smile is When I'm in the

clinic and one of the volunteers isn't around for whatever reason, they all

ask where they are, that they want to know where they are and why aren't

they here and that sort of thing.

It's nice that they're missed.

Sarah (host): Volunteering is always the most successful when it meets the needs

of the volunteers as well as the people or organisations they are supporting.

We asked Denise and Rosie to tell us about why volunteers enjoy this role.

I think it, it, it gives you a purpose to, to your week.

It enables you to meet new people and you hope that you're helpful to the staff.

We all want to feel useful in our lives, whatever we do.

And yeah, it's just, I suppose it's a new interest.

When I'm going to come out on a Monday afternoon and a Tuesday morning, and yeah,

I think it's, it's a big part of my life.

I feel that I'm part of a team, despite the fact that I'm a volunteer,

I'm made to feel as if I belong to something, and I really like that.

The thing that's quite unique about this role, compared to perhaps

say something like volunteering on a hospital ward, like an inpatient ward, Is

that because you are supporting usually a clinician want to, so it's usually a

clinician that's working on their own, you get a really good opportunity and have

a kind of good amount of support from a named staff member and also to build a

good relationship with that staff member if it is something where you're interested

in their area of work and what they do.

There are a lot more opportunities for that kind of, that sort of chat, and

that kind of learning, and that sort of shadowing, which I think actually lots

of people are looking for in a role.

And in something like a ward based role, where you've maybe got staff, where

you'll have staff on a rotor, you might not be seeing the same people every

time you go in, it's much harder, I think, to have the benefits of some of

those things that you get when you're working with a staff member one to one.

So I would say that's a real plus of that role.

You also do get to see the same patients quite a lot, which again

might not be the case in some roles.

You'll get people coming in for their sort of regular appointments.

I know when you spoke with the clinician there, she did mention that sometimes

when the volunteers aren't there, the patients might ask after them.

So you are, you're building a relationship with both patients and and staff members

in a way that I think is really nice.

So I'd say that's a definite plus to this role.

And getting different experience, I think.

Many people will necessarily have been in a clinic like that and seen

what goes on and how an appointment runs and the things that go into that.

Sarah (host): We wrapped up our discussion with Karen by asking her

if she had any advice for healthcare colleagues who might be thinking about

involving volunteers in their services.

I think you have to think carefully about what roles you can

give them, but there's always a help and with the right volunteer, you, you

can find, sometimes the people don't realize that, that they're, they feel

that there isn't a role there for them.

What can they give them to do?

They don't want them necessarily to stand around doing nothing.

But there are little things and as you work through it, so you find those little

things that the volunteer can do for you.

So there's always a role somewhere, but I was a volunteer myself when I was younger.

So I suppose that's always been something that's close to my heart is

something that I think it's, they're a valuable asset to any walk in life.

There's always something to do.

And the mental health side of it, from both perspectives, all of us, the patient,

myself, as a lone worker, sometimes you need someone maybe just to, not vent,

just express concerns about and sometimes say, is that me or did this really happen?

That sort of thing.

And it's nice to just have someone there sometimes just

to chat about life in general.

Sarah (host): A big thank you to Karen, Rosie and volunteer Denise

for taking the time to talk to us.

Rosie and Denise left us with some final thoughts about volunteering

at the leg ulcer clinic.

Because of how well we found that this role works, it is something that

we're now looking to replicate in other clinics across East Coast community

health care cover quite a broad area.

So we're hoping that we'll be able to have some volunteers doing a

similar type of support in Lowestoft as well as in Halesworth as well.

So if you're interested in this type of role, but you don't live

in the Great Yarmouth area, it may be that we've got other positions

similar that are more local to you.

I think that, that if people are to do it, if you were to be a

volunteer, you'll be surprised about how much it actually adds to your

life and it gets you out of the house.

It's just a different interest to say, meeting new people, you know,

making new friends with people.

I've just really enjoyed my time here.

I hope that it'll be, it'll long continue really.

Sarah (host): Thank you for listening to today's episode.

If you're interested in finding out more about volunteering with

East Coast Community Healthcare, please visit their website www.

ecch.

org and search for volunteering.

Please don't forget to subscribe, rate, and review this podcast.

It all helps people find us and spread the word about volunteering.

This podcast was produced for the Norfolk Waveney Integrated Care

System by Hospital Radio Norwich.

Hosted by Sarah Briggs.

Producer was Jules Alderson.

Original music composed and performed by Philip Aldred.

Interviews by Sarah Briggs and Jules Alderson.