ABSTRACT
The nursing shortage, legal requirements, and funding deficits have led to increasingly poor patient care in German hospitals.Volunteer patient companions offer support by conversing with and caring for patients. This can work to relieve hospital staff while diminishing patients' fears/worries.Volunteer companions visited selected lonely and thus, delirium-prone patients in hospital wards and spent approximately one hour with patients conversing, playing, reading aloud, or mostly listening. A surgical escort service was also offered. Patients met the escort one day in advance. The escort then accompanied the patient to the operating room and later from recovery back to the ward. Transition companions were assigned to provide support after discharge. They contacted patients prior to discharge and assisted patients in organizing their home environment as well as continued social and medical care.From 1 July 2017 until 1 April 2023, 12000 patient companions were provided in 14 wards of 4 hospitals. Using a German school grading system (1 to 6, with 1 as the optimum), the volunteers' evaluation of their success averaged 1.3, and the patients' assessments averaged 1.2. Since November 2020, 120 surgery escorts were carried out by volunteers in trauma surgery. These were so successful that we now also make a comparable offer with a family member for all older patients. Since 2022, 30 transition companions have successfully supported patients at home in a pilot project.Volunteering in and around the hospital offers important support to older and single patients while relieving the hospital medical staff. It is a "win-win-win-win situation" for patients, volunteers, staff, and management.
