Blogmas: Pinderfields, Pontefract and Dewsbury Volunteer Guide Teams

Our Pinderfields, Pontefract and Dewsbury Volunteer Guide Teams were well-deserved winners in the Volunteer category in our Celebrating Excellence Awards. The dedicated Guides are often the first point of contact for patients and visitors and provide a consistent service. They are warm and friendly and treat each person as an individual. Anxious patients and visitors to the hospital are given clear directions on where they need to be and who they need to see in a caring and respectful way. Here's Dani, Head of Voluntary Services:

There’s lots of exciting things happening at Mid Yorks, what are your plans for the coming year?

In 2023 we are going to be continuing to reset the Volunteering Programmes across the Trust post COVID. We will be aiming to bring lots more volunteers into the Trust and introducing new roles to help improve patient care and support colleagues. It exciting to welcome and get to know new volunteers because volunteers are generally very interesting and often remarkable people!

I recently secured funding, in partnership with the Health Care Academy, to pilot a new ‘Volunteer to Career’ initiative to trial volunteering as a pathway into careers in nursing. Volunteer to Career is a national initiative to develop career pathways from volunteering and it will be really exciting to see how that works at Mid Yorks.

Everyday I am exciting to be working with colleagues across the Trust to trial new and different approaches to volunteering as there is so much opportunity to involve volunteers in our work. It is always at the forefront of my mind that not only do our patients benefit from the gift of time and skills but volunteers themselves, just by volunteering, are also more likely to have better long term health outcomes – so it is a true WIN WIN!

What are your plans for the festive period this year?

I will be enjoying the magic of Santa, with my two young children, and all the excitement that comes with little believers.

What’s your favourite festive dish?

Too many to choose from because I love Christmas food but I do enjoy making and sharing ‘Mince Pie Cookies’ which are very popular!

… sorry I feel torn because I also love Sherry Trifle!

What’s been your best present ever?

The best one I can think of is the fancy coffee machine my husband brought me Christmas 2019; which unknown to him was an amazing present when you are going into a period national lockdown and working from home – as I had absolutely no need for coffee shops!

What’s your favourite Christmas film?

Home Alone

Tinsel or twinkly lights?

I like the lights personally but I find it difficult to accept those who are against tinsel as a part of Christmas!

Do you have a favourite Christmas tradition?

My favourite tradition is the Christmas tree. We buy the tree with the children, put in the stand and then tell them the ‘Elves decorate it overnight’. Me and my husband then frantically decorate it in the evening when the kids are asleep. So it is really magical the first morning they see the tree all lit up.

My Christmas tree also reminds me of the many happy years I worked at Wakefield Hospice, which randomly involved a lot of work with Christmas trees! Form placing giant trees across the community as part of our remembrance campaign to running a Christmas tree recycling scheme to raise fund.

I love my job and working with volunteers because it is a gift to me in meet so many wonderful people and getting involved in so many random activities that I would have never have done or known I could do! It’s difficult not to look at the Christmas tree and have a grin about all those silly memories.

Tell us a Christmassy joke.

What do you get when you eat tinsel – Tinsillitis