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volunteering at hospital
Tomorrow I'll be starting my first day volunteering at a hospital. Most of the patients are elderly. I was wondering what I should talk to them about. I'm terrible at talking to adults as it begins with, so I'm a bit nervous as to what I should say to the patients. I do know senior citizens enjoy talking about their life, so I will ask them about that, but what else should I say? I don't think I really want to talk about my life, so what are other good conversations I can have? Thanks in advance.
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aw, good luck working at the hospital. i did some volunteering at a retirement home. and usually the senior citizens do all the talking, and you do all the listening. just make sure you seem to take interest in what they have to say. and if they ask you something about your life, answer it. and like, if you can relate to stuff, you should tell them. they're actually fun to talk to in my experience. so yeah. usually you don't do much of the talking, you do most of the listening. and in the end they really appreciate it.
good luck.
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you are right about senior citizens liking to talk about their lives, and that could take up most of the time you would need to talk to them. however, if you need something else to talk to them about, you could talk to them about music or movies if you are interested in older things, or you could ask them their opinions on things that are currently happening. you could just talk about school in general these days, and talk to them about how things have changed since they were younger. good luck!
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I would ask what their hobbies are. The LOLs (Little Old Ladies) will likely want to talk about sewing, quilting, flower arranging, etc. The men might want to talk about cars, etc. There are universal questions like "what's your favorite movie?" You could ask about their families or pictures they may have up in their rooms. Mainly just letting them know you're there to listen if they want to talk about anything is going to be helpful.
It's a good thing to help someone. Be confident that what you are doing will help both them and yourself and try not to be nervous.
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I used to volunteer at a hospital. =]
I thought it was a lot of fun. You can judge by the patient whether or not they'd like to talk to you or not. If they seem crabby, don't bother saying much. Always remember to say Hi and smile because that makes them smile.
I talked to my patients about things such as the weather outside and just simple basic things like that. If they were getting "discharged" [leaving the hospital], I'd say something like "oh, happy to be going home? :]' and they liked that question. :P
You don't get much time to talk to them so just use basic things like those. Don't worry so much about it because almost all the patients I had were elderly too and are willing to talk about anything, sometimes starting their own conversations with you. :]
Havee fuuunnn. It really is fun. :]
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