We are fortunate to have a dedicated community of more than 400 volunteers who make a huge contribution to the Trust.
The Voluntary Services team look after volunteers only. If you would like to gain work experience within the hospital, please refer to the following page: Work Experience at PHU
Why Volunteer with us?
Volunteering comes with many benefits to both you and our community. By volunteering with Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust, you will be:
- making a difference
- gaining new skills and experience
- meeting new people
- giving back to others
- increasing your confidence
- enhancing your CV
- improving your own wellbeing.
The contribution our volunteers make is hugely valued. We think all of our volunteers bring a ray of sunshine to the Trust by giving back their time and energy to our staff and patients, so we have introduced a new uniform to ensure volunteers are easily identifiable to all.
Every year we hold a celebration during national Volunteers’ Week to recognise and thank our volunteers for their support. We also hold a celebration over the Christmas period and which is a great opportunity for our volunteers to get together.
Volunteers are recognised at our annual Proud to be PHU Awards, which celebrates our dedicated staff and volunteers. Alongside this, our volunteers have won awards such as ‘Volunteer of the Year’ with the NHS Parliamentary Awards and have been commended in Portsmouth Inspiring Volunteer Awards.
Our volunteers regularly go above and beyond, giving up their valuable time to provide support in a huge variety of roles across our hospital. The types of voluntary roles we have are below:
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Commitment
We welcome volunteers from the age of 16 upwards and believe that everyone has something to give. We ask all volunteers to commit to at least 3 hours a week, for a minimum of 6 months.
If you think Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust is the perfect place for you to volunteer, we would love to hear from you. Please note, we receive an overwhelming amount of interest in volunteering and our window to share your interest is open until 14 July 2024. If we receive too many expressions of interest, we reserve the right to bring this date forward.
For those who have shared their interest by the above date, you will be invited into a session to find out more about becoming a volunteer, the process and the roles in more detail. This will take place in the afternoon on 12 August 2024.
Our current vacancies fall into the below role categories – please read the brief outline of these roles and only express an interest in the one that suits your best:
This role is varied, and it may change from ward to ward.
Tasks may include helping with some administrative tasks, answering phones, helping patients who have queries, picking up medications from the pharmacy or supporting discharges. Volunteers will offer time to chat to patients who may feel isolated or lonely in the hospital by befriending them, talking, listening and general conversation. Volunteers may also support and help patients at mealtimes in ward areas across the trust. The aim of the role is to encourage patients to eat and drink independently to ensure their nutritional needs are met, and to encourage mealtimes to be a social experience. For those dealing with patients living with dementia, tasks may focus on individual attention of patients and the activities that are tailored to their interests or abilities.
Our Feedback Volunteers chat to patients about their experiences during their stay and assist with hospital surveys such as ‘real time feedback’ and ‘family and friends’ questionnaires.
Our patient representatives act as experts by experience, helping us to shape services and training amongst other things and are often members of hospital groups such as the Patient, Family and Carers Collaborative.
Hospital guides are the friendly face that welcome patients and visitors into Queen Alexandra. They support people to find their way around the hospital.
Admin volunteers are responsible for helping departments out with additional administrative tasks that staff are unbale to fulfil. Usually this includes filing, scanning, filling envelopes, sending out letters, data inputting, answering phones etc. Each administrative task varies due to the needs of the specific department.
To register your interest, please complete and return the form below. You can also download a copy of the form here.
As a Trust, we place volunteers based on the needs of the hospital. If you are looking for a specific role/department that does not fit into our current vacancies, then we unfortunately may not be able to help.