Parc Sanitari incorporates volunteers in the Emergency Department to alleviate the loneliness of patients and relatives

Waiting in a hospital’s Emergency Department can generate uncertainty, distress or feelings of loneliness, especially among the most vulnerable people. With the aim of making care more human and accessible, the SJD Sant Boi Hospital has launched the Contacte! project. Volunteering that connects, an initiative that incorporates volunteers to offer accompaniment and non-clinical support to patients in this department.

The project, created as a pilot scheme, aims to respond to situations where waiting times, concern about the healthcare process or a lack of support can have an emotional impact on the people being treated. In this context, volunteering guarantees a close presence, active listening and guidance, and contributes to improving the experience of patients and relatives.

Volunteers accompany people who are alone, help them understand the department’s circuits and support them with digital tools linked to the health field, especially in those cases where technological difficulties can become a barrier.

Humanising care and accompanying in loneliness

The initiative pays special attention to older people, those with cognitive impairment or those coming from other healthcare facilities, groups that often require more personalised accompaniment. In this way, the project helps to alleviate situations of loneliness and provides emotional support that complements healthcare. The first families assisted by the volunteers have been very satisfied. “The care is very human and highly personalised; with this initiative I feel my mother is not just another number in the Emergency Department”, explains Inés Moreno, relative of a patient.

This action is part of the Parc Sanitari SJD’s commitment to promoting a more human, comprehensive care model centred on people’s needs, and to fostering a more positive experience for both patients and their families.

A learning experience for future professionals

The pilot scheme, launched this July, features the participation of student volunteers from the SJD Teaching Campus, and strengthens the collaboration between the healthcare and educational spheres. This experience offers future professionals the opportunity to see first-hand the importance of person-centred care and the value of accompaniment in the healthcare process. “As Nursing students, while we are training, we only see a small part of a patient’s reality, but now we realise that patients live a whole experience in the Emergency Department”, explains Paula Maestro, a student at the SJD Teaching Campus.

Beyond direct support for patients, ‘Contacte! Volunteering that connects‘ reinforces the values of solidarity, hospitality and service inherent to Sant Joan de Déu, while fostering awareness about the creation of spaces for learning and social commitment.

With this initiative, the SJD Sant Boi Hospital continues to progress towards increasingly close and human care, and builds a collaboration network that unites healthcare, training and volunteering in the service of people.