Living the Mission: St. Vincent's Volunteers
Sr. Patricia Cusack, St. Vincent's Hospital Manhattan

Volunteers have always been a vital part of St. Vincent's healing ministry. Integrating the "Vincenteen" program during the early years of the hospital's existence was evidence of the Sisters of Charity's outstanding commitment to volunteerism. One only has to read the documents that articulate the actual history of the sisters' influence on the founding of the hospital to gain a better understanding of their innovative genius. They were both intellectual and human pillars of professional strength.

St. Vincent's volunteers currently provide service in both clinical and non-clinical areas, serving in nearly 50 areas of the hospital. Some are seniors who have served the hospital and its patients for decades; others are career oriented and desirous of learning about the healthcare environment, and still others are motivated to give something back after witnessing a loved one receive fine professional care at St. Vincent's.

Volunteers help fulfill the mission of St. Vincent's by exemplifying the hospital's social outreach to NYC and serving all who come for treatment regardless of personal economic circumstances. Everything that a volunteer does, be it performing office work, contributing to a special event or providing nursing services on a unit or in the emergency department, ultimately helps the hospital and its patients.

St. Vincent's has a strong commitment to enabling volunteers of all ages to provide service while they receive opportunities to learn, to grow, to change. This give and take dynamic allows everyone to win, especially our consumers.

St. Vincent's Hospital Manhattan is fortunate in having some 350 volunteers whose ages range from 16 to 94. They include students, lawyers, corporate employees, retired executives, counselors, teachers, social workers, homemakers, retired nurses, artists, nannies, St. Vincent's current and former employees, secretaries, free-lancers, graphic artists, computer technologists, psychologists and others. The profile of volunteers is simply New York City at its best: it is as diverse a population as one would find either in a 24-story high rise in midtown or any subway platform in Manhattan.

Each and every volunteer contributes something different to St. Vincent's. Not only do they perform specific tasks, but also they bring a wealth of knowledge, experience, wisdom and new energy that is so essential to the primary mission of why we are all here: to deliver quality health care in a way that maximizes the dignity and self-respect of patients and everyone involved in their care.