Volunteering

King’s has run a successful volunteers programme for the past 20 years. We currently have around 250 volunteers who provide valuable support to patients and staff in a whole host of ways.

Why volunteer?

Volunteers help improve the experience of patients while they are in our care. They offer practical help and support to patients and visitors and complement the work of paid staff at the Trust.

There are many reasons why people choose to volunteer. Some feel it allows them to give something back to King’s after they or a family member has been treated here. Others want to contribute to their local community. Many use the experience to demonstrate their existing skills and further their own personal development. It also gives those who are retired a chance to put to good use the work-related and people skills they have gained over the years.

Volunteering also benefits young people, particularly if they are considering a career in the NHS, and a number of our volunteers go on to study medicine or nursing, or to gain other employment in the health and social care sector. All of King’s volunteers are involved in non-clinical aspects of patient care, and are dedicated to making the hospital a little friendlier and more comfortable for our patients and their visitors.

What do King’s volunteers do?

King’s volunteers can do anything, from accompanying a patient during surgery to showing patients and visitors around the hospital. Whether big or small, simple or complex, what unites the roles volunteers play is the fact that they help improve the lives of our patients.

Examples of current volunteering roles at King’s include:

Ward Visitor:

someone who helps to make a patient’s time in hospital more comfortable by chatting, listening, reading, doing a small amount of shopping, running an errand or escorting a patient on a short walk

Hospital Guide:

Someone who works in main entrances across the hospital to give patients and visitors directions and if necessary escort them to where they need to be

Activity Group Volunteer

someone who helps to coordinate activities for elderly patients on the wards, such as, games, singing and general stimulation

Day Surgery Assistant:

someone who talks and listens to patients who are about to have minor surgery, and sits with them during the procedure

Meal Assistant Volunteer:

someone who assists patients with eating and drinking at mealtimes

Chaplaincy Volunteer:

someone who offers appropriate spiritual, religious, pastoral and practical support to patients of all beliefs. This is more of a listening and responding role rather than about religion or belief.

Friends of King’s Volunteer

someone who helps serve in the Friends of King's Gift Shop or the charity's Trolley Shop. The shop sells confectionery, drinks and toiletries, cards, balloons and soft toys to patients, visitors and staff. A small trolley is also taken round the wards each day to visit patients who cannot leave their bed.

Volunteers do not do (or shadow) clinical work or short-term work-experience placements. If you are interested in work experience or shadowing at King's, go to work experience.

A top-class volunteering scheme

King’s Volunteers takes seriously its commitment to those who give their time. As part of a £100,000 charity-funded redesign of the service, all our volunteers can expect highly professional support. Volunteers at King’s are supported through a thorough training programme which enables them to be of more help, quicker, and to demonstrate the work they have done to potential employers and educators. They should also receive high-quality, day-to-day support from the people leading their team.

By supporting volunteers to support our patients, we hope to ensure patients have the best possible experience and that volunteers are enabled to pursue their own personal goals.

How can I get involved?

If you are over 16, good at mixing with people, enjoy helping others and would like to develop your own skills as an individual, we would like to hear from you. We generally ask that all volunteers commit at least three hours a week for a minimum of 12 months, to ensure that we can create long-lasting and meaningful roles for them.

Find out more about what's on offer and how to apply for Volunteering at King's

Following receipt of your application, we will review it and if we think there is a good chance of a mutually-beneficial placement for you, then we will invite you to attend one of our weekly Recruitment Events. You will hear back from us within 5 working days of submitting your application.

The Recruitment Events give you a chance to find out a bit more about King’s and the Volunteering scheme. They also give us the opportunity to find out more about you! We will ask you some questions in a group setting to assess what you can offer us, much like a less formal version of the interview process for paid employment.

If you are successful, you will be invited to join the King’s Volunteers (subject to satisfactory references, Criminal Records Bureau checks and Occupational Health clearance). You will undertake our training programme and then move onto specific placements within the Trust. The whole process takes two to three weeks depending on your availability and training that may need to be undertaken for your specific area of work.

If you have any queries about the King's Volunteering programme or how to apply, email kch-tr.volunteers@nhs.net or call us on +44 (0)20 3299 5111.