Volunteer with us
Volunteer with us
Volunteering with us is a great way of supporting our staff to deliver the highest quality care and improve the experience of our patients and visitors, and is something that many people find highly rewarding.
Our volunteers sacrifice their time to help provide a warm and friendly environment and help our staff by assisting with services of a non-clinical nature to make sure the patient has an even better experience.
We have a number of voluntary roles, from welcoming patients, families and visitors and helping them to find their way around the hospital, to helping on the wards to enhance our patient experience and support our staff in their roles.
Volunteering is a rewarding and uplifting experience and gives you the opportunity to be involved at your local hospital or in the community.
Roles available at Royal Bolton Hospital include:
- Hospital guides – to provide a Meet and Greet service accompanying patients and visitors to their destinations
- Ward helper – assist with non-clinical duties on ward areas
- Volunteer Patient Experience Team – Provide a friendly and personal point of contact for patients in our wards to help people find their way, listen to any issues or problems they are experiencing and escalate challenges to the most appropriate member of the ward staff or PALS team.
- Emergency Department helper – provide a general way finding service, communicate regarding waiting time and help patients feel more relaxed and comforted during their visit
Anyone over the age of 16 years can apply to help at the hospital.
Volunteering opportunities will be advertised on the join our team page, where you will need to register your interest in volunteering by completing an online application form.
This lets us know a bit about you and your reasons for getting into volunteering, as well as your previous experience and specific skills.
Once we have received your application, if we think that there may be a role available for you we will invite you in for an informal conversation to discuss your suitability for the role.
Please contact the Volunteer Services Manager on 01204 390 560 or email voluntaryservices@boltonft.nhs.uk to arrange this.
We want to encourage people from a variety of backgrounds and levels of experience to join our team of volunteers.
Where possible, we will support volunteers with reasonable adjustment requests. Therefore, if you have accessibility needs please discuss these with the Volunteer Services Manager.
Please be aware that volunteering is not work experience. Our volunteers do not carry out or shadow any clinical work, or gain any hands-on care experience.
Before submitting an application, all prospective applicants must meet the following criteria and agree to undertake checks deemed necessary prior to commencing any voluntary work:
- All applicants must complete an Occupational Health check and provide the details of one referee who has known them for the last 12 months
- Depending on the type of role, applicants may be subject to a Standard or Enhanced Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) check
- Once the necessary checks have been completed, all new volunteers must attend a local induction session before commencing any voluntary work
- All volunteers should advise what time they can commit to volunteering on a weekly basis
- All prospective volunteers must complete mandatory training provided by NHS England, E-Learning for Health (ELFH) before they start volunteering by undertaking the National Volunteer Certificate which underpins the induction they will do as a volunteer.
- Completion of induction training supports the process for ensuring that volunteers are safe in the volunteering environment and by achieving The National Volunteer Certificate (NVC) will demonstrate that they will have undertaken high-quality training in theory to be able to volunteer safely in health and social care.
Once we have received a satisfactory reference and completed the necessary checks, we will contact you to arrange a date for you to attend a local induction with our Volunteers Services Department.
