Volunteering

Volunteers at DCH provide support throughout the hospital and make a huge contribution. Our volunteers come from a variety of backgrounds and the experience and skills they bring to the hospital are greatly valued.

Our Volunteer Support Team are part of the Patient Experience Team and provide support to our volunteers from the point of enquiry and throughout their volunteer journey with us. We strive to ensure that we can offer an excellent experience for all of our volunteers and that the roles we provide for volunteers are meaningful and supported.

Our volunteer roles

We have a number of volunteer roles in the hospital including our:

Healthy Stay team – supporting patients on wards with tasks including hydration rounds and mealtime help, enhancing the care they are already receiving and contributing to an overall positive patient experience 

Greet and Guide team – Supporting patients and visitors to find their way on arrival to the hospital both on our main site and at our Outpatient Assessment Centre at South Walks House. 

Activity team – Providing a range of therapeutic activities to our patients including arts and craft sessions, music, cooking and our wonderful therapy dogs.

Young Volunteer Programme

The Young Volunteer Programme at DCH started in 2019 as part of a nationwide project funded by the ’Pears #iWill Fund’ to develop and offer more volunteer opportunities to Young People. The project saw us work as part of a network of other hospitals throughout the country, alongside the Pears Foundation and the #iwill movement, to share ideas and develop sustainable Young Volunteer programmes.  

The programme is open to 16–19-year-olds and we recruit into the programme at regular intervals throughout the year. 

Get in touch

To find out more about volunteering please contact the team on volunteering@dchft.nhs.uk or call 01305 255351.

You can find out more and see our current open volunteer roles on our volunteering portal.

If we don’t currently have any roles you are interested in then you can find out more about volunteering roles in Dorset Healthcare and University Hospitals Dorset on the volunteering portal.