Name: Natalie Nguyen
Age: 21 years old
Travel from: Mt Gravatt East
Commencement: November 2015
What do you do here?
Some days, I get to assist patients who are receiving intravenous therapy infusions and staff in the day infusions department. This involves making and serving patients’ morning tea, taking lunch orders, offering them a warm blanket and providing administration support. I usually finish by lunch time and help a fellow volunteer with distributing hand washers to immobile patients and assisting the elderly with cutting up their lunch.
Other times, I can be found caring for patients’ flowers, whether new or old, so they remain fresh for as long as possible. Time flies. The rest of my day is spent catching up with a friend or studying.
Why do you do it?
Volunteering was something that I always wanted to try in this lifetime, but it became more apparent after seeing how happy and relieved an elderly woman was when I picked up tins of canned food that had fallen off her walker onto the footpath and road while she got off the bus. After this incident, I realised that I wanted to help others, make other people’s lives a little bit easier and to brighten up their day. Combine this with the hope of one day working in a hospital laboratory, volunteering at St. Andrew’s has allowed me to help the community while experiencing what it’s like working in a hospital environment.