Sentara looks to make staff volunteer pool permanent

To mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic’s strains on its clinical staff, Sentara Healthcare developed a nonclinical resource pool, which gives the health systems 6,000 nonclinical employees a formal way to volunteer their free time to assist clinical staff. Using a survey, the pool matches volunteers with one of seven positions depending on their interests and their facility’s current needs. The program has drawn nearly 500 volunteers, who donated more 3,000 volunteer hours in a two-week period. The pool has been so well received, Sentara is considering making it a permanent program. (HealthLeaders Media article, 2/11/22)