In the heart of the Queensland Children’s Hospital, a special group of people play a crucial role in the surgical journey – helping more than 13,000 young patients and their families each year.
Meet our theatre-holding bay and theatre-recovery volunteers – who guide families in hospital through their most challenging times with care and support, offering comfort when it is needed most.
From holding bay to healing
As the first faces families see on their surgical journey at the Queensland Children’s Hospital, our theatre-holding bay volunteers can be a ray of light in their darkest times.
Working closely with surgical staff, our volunteers offer families a source of comfort and theatre information, helping to ease the anxiety of their child’s surgical journey and making sure no family feels alone or overwhelmed.
Transitioning from surgery, families are passed to our theatre-recovery volunteers, who provide warmth in an uncertain time.
Providing practical assistance to Queensland Children’s Hospital staff in the theatre recovery area, our volunteers are there to support moments of reunion between patients and their families on their transfer from surgery to the recovery unit.
Through simple acts of kindness, like providing a warm blanket, a soothing cup of hot tea or the reassurance of a kind word, these volunteers help create a sense of normality and comfort for families emerging from the tension of surgery.
The why behind the what
With more than 20,000 surgeries each year at the Queensland Children’s Hospital, the capacity of their medical team is often stretched, leaving little room for hospital staff to tend to the emotional needs of patients and their families.
Our theatre volunteers bridge this gap with a holistic approach to care that centres on the emotional and physical wellbeing of young children and their families.
More than just alleviating stress, these volunteers enhance the hospital’s operational efficiency and frees medical staff to focus their attention where it is needed most.
According to the Queensland Children’s Hospital’s theatre team, “the support our volunteers provide to the families allows our theatre staff to concentrate on patient care, knowing the emotional needs of the family are being addressed with kindness and compassion.”
In the last four years, our theatre volunteers have supported more than 35,000 young patients and their families.
“Not just simply assisting, theatre volunteers are a guiding light in the darkness for so many families. We are so thankful for the care and kindness that they show children and their families,” the team adds.
Our theatre-holding bay and theatre-recovery volunteers are more than just helpers – these people are pillars of strength, kindness and passion within the Queensland Children’s Hospital.
The difference that shapes their world
Through supporting the Children’s Hospital Foundation, you can improve childhoods and ensure all children and young people have access to treatment - sooner.
