TaeKwonDo Student in Cary Donates Time to Duke Hospital in Preparation for His Belt Test
Black Belt Essay
Community Service
Eric Meehan
This summer I volunteered for 150 hours at Duke Hospital in Durham. During this time, I worked at various information desks and helped escort patients to their clinics inside the hospital. Because of it’s size, many of these patients were overwhelmed and upset. Having an escort, however, helped calm them down and made them feel more comfortable in the hospital. This job taught me a lot about working with the public. The majority of the patients in the hospital were not happy about being there and were generally not in a very good mood. Even when they were upset with me or the other volunteers, understanding why they felt this way made it a lot easier to handle the situation in a calm and constructive way.
Volunteering at duke hospital requires a lot of integrity because, once I was given a job to do, I was usually left without supervision with the expectation that the tasks will be completed fully and correctly. Even though I was a volunteer and there was no requirement that I actually finish the jobs I was assigned, it was important that I did them in order to help keep the hospital running smoothly. Since my supervisors trusted me with these jobs, they relied completely on my integrity to do the job in a way that exceeded their expectations.
Another challenge in the hospital is working with the other volunteers. Even though there were one or two who I did not always agree with, I still needed to work with them to get the jobs done. I learned the importance of working well with the group and how it is a necessary skill to have when working as part of a team.
Working at Duke hospital is a very good experience for anyone to have. Even though it was not an easy job, it is an excellent way to help out your community in a place that really needs your help.
