Harriette Pearson, our current Volunteering Officer for Barts and The London, has been recently shortlisted for the national 2015 Student Volunteer of the Year Award in recognition of her passionate work on the volunteering group Project Play.
Harriette created Project Play in 2013/14 after identifying a needs gap for medical students to engage with young people in a hospital setting in order to develop their practical skills and build upon their academic learning.
The project also stemmed from the desire to improve the hospital stay of young patients admitted to A&E and paediatric wards at the Royal London Hospital. The hospital play specialist runs activities for patients during the day, however there are no provisions for evenings and weekends. This gap is now filled by volunteers running three weekly sessions consisting of play activities, such as games and arts and crafts, aimed at engaging the patients in order to help them forget that they’re hospitalized and focus less on their health problems.
These activities, however, have gone far beyond their initial goal of making hospital admission as much fun as possible and had a positive and lasting impact on the young patients involved, who valued the opportunity to interact with people closer to their own age rather than just the medical staff they see on a daily basis. One of the boys, who used to refuse to speak to the other young people in his ward, has come out of this shell and boosted his confidence by attending the play sessions. For Christmas, a terminally ill girl living in the hospital received a phone call from her favourite band after one of the volunteers used her contacts within the band to arrange the surprise. And the endearing success stories go on.
According to Harriette, 'the best sessions are when you see a child who is crying from pain, who is able to attend a session and bravely pain something for their Mum to take home. Kids work is play - and we help them to work. A member of staff sent me this in an email today - A parent just stopped me in the hall to tell me how much she loved Saturday and what a difference it made.'
Project Play grew from twenty volunteers in its first year to over forty in 2014/15 due to demand from hospital staff, patients, and students who wanted to get involved. Since launch, it has provided engaging volunteering opportunities to over sixty medical students who have developed their communication and understanding of terminally ill hospitalized patients and can now translate this learning into their academic studies. In the future, the project has the potential to be embedded in the medical curricula, with the requirement that students attend at least one play session as part of their studies.
Despite studying, working and being involved in numerous other extra-curricular projects, sport clubs and societies, Harriette proactively used her academic links and the support from the Students’ Union to create this great opportunity, excelling at volunteer coordination and project planning.
In a quote for the Union fortnightly paper, The Print, she states: “Setting up this group reminds me what wonderful students I am lucky enough to study alongside. I am constantly amazed at their commitment, skill and compassion.” We’re confident the other volunteers would say exactly the same about her.
Results will be announced Monday, February 23. Congratulations and good luck, Harriette!