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Photo above: Meeting for coffee - how nice! Meeting of the three volunteers who deliver birthday flowers to our patients. Gail and Alison (middle and R.H.) were also presented with their five year LSAs.
Click here for all volunteer opportunities
Our 390 team of volunteer staff allows hospice to:
- Provide a comprehensive range of patient support services we would not otherwise be able to offer. For example, caregiver relief and other community based support, biography (life stories) and bereavement follow up.
- Free up our nurses for more patient care and other paid staff to extend their own roles. For example, administration, assisting nurses in the IPU, coordinating car maintenance, delivery & installation of electric beds and equipment.
- Raise valuable funds for hospice. For example, raffle programme, hospice shops and other fundraising events.
We offer volunteers:
- A comprehensive and highly regarded training course (for volunteers working with patients or in IPU).
- Orientation and inservice training during the year for different groups of volunteers
- “Bounce Back” opportunities. For the many people who are away from Nelson for part of the year e.g. travel, family, work commitments etc. We welcome “bounce back” volunteers and try to offer flexible roles that allow volunteers to be on leave and return to their volunteer work when it suits them.
- Short term opportunities. If you are only in Nelson for a short time, we would still love to hear from you. We will try to match opportunities according to your experience and intended length of stay.
- The opportunity for any skills/abilities to be considered for inclusion in our volunteer programme. Many of our services to patients and families have evolved as a result of volunteers’ particular skills and suggestions.
Along with every pair of willing hands, comes a new way of viewing the world.
The diversity of volunteer skills and personalities offers huge opportunities to hospice.
Volunteer Roles
| Patient Contact |
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Limited Patient Contact |
| Support Groups |
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Ramps/Handrails installation |
| Massage |
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Driving |
| Creative Living (Day Programme) |
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Delivery of Birthday Flowers |
| Hairdressing |
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Gardening/odd jobs |
| Patient Biographies |
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Sewing |
| Community based Family Support |
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| Delivery/installation electric beds |
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Non Patient Contact |
| Bereavement Follow-Up |
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Trees of Remembrance coordination
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| Beauty Therapy (IPU – In Patient Unit) |
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Raffles (rostered selling and also coordination)
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| IPU Volunteers (Rostered shifts) |
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Flowers
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| Art & Craft/Diversional activities (IPU) |
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Administration clinical & Trust office
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Newsletter and other mailings |
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Library |
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Shop |
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Fish tank maintenance (IPU) |
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Groundsman |
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Car maintenance/driving to cleaning |
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Handyman |
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Casual fundraising |
Current volunteer opportunities
 Shop Work. Our hospice shops make a hugely valuable contribution towards hospice funding and there are a variety of volunteer roles with shifts to suit different needs. It is also an area of volunteering ideally suited to short term visitors to Nelson who wish to volunteer just for a few weeks or months. Anyone interested in helping, particularly in our Takaka or Nelson shop, may phone Debbie in Takaka Ph 03 5257639 or Irene in Nelson 03 5481823.- We would love to hear from people with the following skills or knowledge:
- Computer skills – particularly working with voice files and digital recording applications
- NZ writers of significance - to help our shops identify valuable books when they are donated in amongst a pile
- Furniture shop Nelson. This has just been established right next door to the Nelson Hospice shop. Shop manager Wayne, would love to hear from anyone able to help him:
- Collect and move furniture
- Drive the shop van
- Serve on the shop floor for a 2-3 hours a week.
- Raffles – especially Richmond but Nelson too. Sitting in pairs to sell raffle tickets. Two hours a month. An ideal way to support hospice for the minimal time.
- Driving – mostly between Stoke/Richmond and Nelson. Mileage reimbursement available.
 
Top: Principal John Dorman and students Kate and Claudia from St Paul's School admiring the artwork they have put up in the IPU.
Bottom: Pat Curry presents Beryl Watts with her 20 year LSA. 20 years of mailing newsletters - what a commitment from Beryl!
It is all the little extras from volunteers which service to make our volunteer services even more valuable to hospice. For example:
- Generosity. The lovely volunteer who donated her prize draw book voucher back to us AND topped it up to allow us;to buy a book for the staff library
- Above and beyond the call of duty. The driver who collected a patient before 6am in the winter - for an early morning flight.
- Volunteering is a family affair: The raffle volunteer's husband who designed and distributed some raffle volunteer recruitment posters.
- The mailing volunteer who not only mails out newsletters and bereavement support cards to patients but also donates the envelopes.
- The volunteer who has been supporting a patient for many months and routinely does more than 20 hours a month.
- When a patient needed something to protect the skin on their legs while biking, the sewing volunteer drafted a pattern and made up some leg protectors. The pattern will be available for other patients.
To contact our Manager, Volunteer Services, for further information or to make a volunteer application: MARY GARNER Ph 546 3912 or
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