Student Learns from Volunteering

Details: Created on Tuesday, 19 November 2013 20:19; Written by Diana Cogger

LYNDON- Jacob Gallison is your average 18 year old. He just started at Lyndon State College, has lots of friends, and he really doesn’t like having class at 8 am. What might surprise you about this double major is that even around a tightly packed college schedule, he still volunteers 32 hours a week to work with residents in an elderly care facility.

Gallison started volunteering as a senior in high school just after completing a program called CollegeQuest, offered by the NorthEastern Vermont Area Health Education Center (or NEVAHEC.) That 6 week long program got him thinking.

“I wanted to see if [working in medicine] was something I really wanted to do. I wanted to test the waters, not just jump right in to an extended educational program just to figure out partway through that it was something I didn’t want to do… I thought the best way to figure all of that out, to see what being a nurse was really like, was to volunteer at a hospital or something”

For Gallison, it was true; volunteering really did give him the real-life experience he was looking for, and helped him get his LNA certification.

“Its amazing, even as a volunteer you can save someone’s life. There was this one time, I was on shift late that night and we had a resident who seemed fine all day, even when we put her to bed that night she was ok, but when I came through for bed check a few hours later, I found her in the middle of a seizure. I ran over to the call button and called in the code, and other nurses and doctors came rushing in. We began life saving procedures, which for this particular resident (who had diabetes) included getting her blood sugars back to a safe range. The resident had gone into a diabetic shock, meaning the sugar levels in her blood had dropped to dangerously low levels. We tried everything we could to get this resident stabilized. I ended up practically force feeding her jelly, like sandwich jelly, to try to get more sugar into her. At about the 45 minute mark, we were about ready to give up, it looked like she wasn’t going to make it, and then she started to turn around. I helped save that person’s life. To this day, that resident is still alive and kicking.”

Gallison paused for a second, remembering that night. After a moment, he started to reflect on the events of that evening. “Even though it was a spur of the moment thing, it feels good to walk out of work and know that you did something that made a difference to someone else’s life. That’s why I do this. I like to help people who can’t help themselves and whose families can’t provide the care that myself and my co-workers do for their loved ones.”

Though he doesn’t save a life every time he is on shift, he still makes a difference in the lives of the people he works with.

“The residents enjoy having someone to talk to and to keep them company. The paid medical staff doesn’t usually have time to sit down to a game of cards with a resident, but volunteers do. You sit down over a chess board or a deck of cards and listen to what they have to say, what stories they have to tell about their past. You learn so much about their lifetime and its things you won’t learn from books. When someone sits down to spend time with them, it makes the residents feel remembered and it makes them feel valued. You make that much of a difference in someone else’s life just by sitting down and talking with them for half an hour, who wouldn’t want that?”

Gallison is committed to volunteering, and doesn't see himself stopping any time soon. He built his volunteer schedule around his college schedule so that he could still give as many hours as possible to the residents he's come to care for.

It's not just in elderly residential facilities that you can volunteer. There are several different jobs at Northeastern Vermont Regional Hospital in St. Johnsbury that are open to volunteers. Everything from greeting people at the front desk to assisting in the cafeteria. There are even positions open in departments like surgery or nutrition. It’s a great way to experience the medical field before committing to it.

If you are interested in donating your time to NVRH, you can apply online or contact Pat Forest, the Volunteer Coordinator for the hospital at 802-748-7310. If you are accepted into their volunteer program you will be fully trained in whatever area of the hospital you end up working.

Gallison still isn't completely sure what direction he wants to go in, but he loves what he's doing now. "It’s a hard and demanding job sometimes, but in the end its all worth it. Its more then earning hours for some school requirement, its about really caring about people and giving back."