After graduating from the nursing program at Queens University, Nicole Edwards made some surprising discoveries about community health.
Nicole had just returned to her hometown of Halifax, Nova Scotia, and was seeking ways to occupy her free time while she looked for a job. She applied to volunteer with the Canadian Red Cross, and was assigned the role of Community Health Transportation volunteer with the Instrumental Activities of Daily
Living program. In this role she is responsible for providing transportation and assisting seniors with small errands such as grocery shopping. She typically spends three hours with a client, and has five regular clients that she visits once a month.
“All of them are such sweet people, they hug me every time, and we always have fun together,” Nicole says.
In addition to assisting with errands, Nicole often makes time to have a coffee with her clients, providing what she describes as invaluable social interaction. “If this program didn’t exist, clients may be able to use a taxi but they would lose the social interaction that comes with the volunteer visits.”
Nicole has been volunteering with the Red Cross for more than a year and is now a full-time RN, but she has made time to maintain her weekly volunteering. “What I learned from working both in the hospital and in the community is that patients aren’t healed the moment they are discharged from the hospital. A lot of them have struggles when they go home so it feels great to help them in both places. The Red Cross program provides continuity of care as I am able to identify ongoing needs of clients after they’ve returned home, and I bring this to the attention of their caregivers.”
Nicole wants students and new graduates to know that “no time is wasted in volunteering,” and volunteering with the Independent Active Daily Living program is special as “the benefits and outcomes are really obvious, which makes you feel like you are making a real impact through this program. It’s fun, it’s relatively easy, but you are making a major impact on someone life.”
Interested in volunteering? To learn more about applying to be a Community Health Transportation volunteer with the Canadian Red Cross in
Halifax.