From the Manager’s Desk...

Volunteer Appreciation Picnic and Scholarship Announcement

SCVMC Volunteer News

do at Santa Clara Valley Med-

ical Center.

Sincerely,

Christina Egan

Volunteer Services

Manager

I am honored to know the

volunteers at Santa Clara Val-

ley Medical Center. Most of

you work, go to school and

give back to your community

by volunteering. The smart,

educated, goal-oriented

group of people who come in

weekly to help our patients

and staff, deserve kudos. Not

only do you put smiles on our

patients and the visitors of

our patients’ faces, you put a

smile on my face. It is a privi-

lege to meet you, get to know

you and hear about your ac-

complishments. Thank you

for this experience.

In case you have not met the

Volunteer Services team, stop

by the office to meet Mennen

Kassa who is an intern with us

through December and Kimber-

ly Lopez who is extra-help over-

seeing our shadowing program

with us through January. Both

of them have worked hard and

been fabulous additions to our

office.

Thank you to all of you who

participated in the CICARE

Olympics. Because of your

efforts our team won 2 Bronze

and 1 Gold medal. Not bad for

first time Olympians. Since the

games were all about customer

service and our volunteers are

excellent at customer service it

was great news to be honored

with these rewards.

On behalf of the Auxiliary

Board, SCVMC staff and pa-

tients, THANK YOU for all you

cial people will be rewarded

at the Volunteer Apprecia-

tion Picnic and we should all

go to congratulate them and

join in the fun.

Fall is approaching and what

better way to celebrate than

with a picnic. This Septem-

ber 24th, a Saturday, will be

our Volunteer Appreciation

Picnic. There will be a Taco

Bar, popsicle cart, churro

stand, face painting, games,

and many fun activities for all

volunteers to enjoy. As an

added bonus, we will also be

announcing the scholarship

recipients. Of those who

have donated 200+ hours,

have shown commitment to

the hospital and patients, and

took the time to apply for

our scholarship, three spe-

Special points of interest:

Volunteer Appreciation

Picnic and Scholarships

Volunteer Career Spot-

light

Shadowing Experience

SCVMC CICARE Olympics

Santa Clara Valley Medical Center (SCVMC)

September 2016

Mennen Kassa Administra-

tive Intern

and

Kimberly Lopez Volun-

teer/ Shadowing Coordi-

nator

My name is Nhung Thanh Quach. I

started working as a volunteer re-

search assistant at the Rehabilitation

Research Center together with my

volunteer work at the Emergency

Department in January this year. I

volunteered almost every day. Four

weeks ago I started my work as a

clinical research assistant (extra-

help) at the Rehabilitation Research

Center. Last Friday I had my new

badge for a part-time position as a

clinical research associate. I’m very

happy to share with everyone my

story.

Volunteering at the Rehabilitation

Research Center prepared me for

my new job. I earned all certificates

necessary for my work while I was

still a volunteer. I got used to the

tasks and the work environment in-

cluding all staff at the Rehabilitation

Research Center. It was a smooth

transfer from a volunteer position to

extra-help position, and now to a

part-time job. Thank you Volunteer

Services Department for giving me

an opportunity to serve, to learn,

and to get a good job.

By Nhung Quach

President’s Message

Volunteer Career Spotlight

Page 2 SCVMC Volunteer News

This will be my last President’s Mes-

sage, at least for a while. We have

chosen new officers for 2017, and

Jean Meddaugh will be the new

president. Natalie Heling will be our

new secretary.

I have enjoyed my 4 years as presi-

dent of the Auxiliary Leadership

Team. I have been honored to rep-

resent the volunteers on the VMC

Foundation Board and at the Central

Coast Counties Council, a group

comprised of most of the auxiliaries

from San Jose to King City. It’s been

a great opportunity to network with

these auxiliaries, and share ideas, as

well as a bit of bragging about our

program.

I will be continuing on the Leader-

ship Team, focusing on recruitment

activities, as well as helping with

community outreach, volunteer ap-

preciation activities, and the schol-

arships and grants program, as well

as continuing to volunteer on the

Pediatric units.

The next couple of years should be

very exciting, and the need for vol-

unteers will grow. With the opening

of the new building next year, I as-

sume there will be another infor-

mation desk that will need to be

staffed, and the transition of the New

Main into the Women and Children’s

Center should pick up steam. Add

to those projects the expansion of

the Emergency Department, and we

will be needing even more volun-

teers. The increased use of technol-

ogy, including the new Patient Por-

tal, is exciting. That is one of the

things that is most fun about working

and volunteering at VMC: there is

always something new coming.

I hope you all know how much your

efforts are appreciated. Your ser-

vices are valued and fill a need

throughout the hospital and clinics. I

hope to see many of you at the pic-

nic in September, and have the op-

portunity to thank you all in person.

By Cheryl Dewey

Cheryl Dewey

SCVMC Volunteer Auxiliary Board

President

Nhung Quach

SCVMC Clinical Research Assistant

CICare Olympics, which kicked off

on Monday, August 8th, 2016, are a

three week long series of games

meant to highlight and reinforce the

principles of customer service. Led

by Sonal Patel, a student at UC Da-vis, and Benita McLarin, SCVMC’s

Chief Operating Officer, they have

been a huge success thus far. Over

20 teams have signed up to partici-

pate in the games, with a high turn-

out rate for each event. Some such

events include: the hand hygiene

bean bag contest, in which partici-

pants must toss bean bags in be-

tween properly sanitizing their

hands; CICare Role plays, in which

participants take on a role and try to

serve the needs of the “customer” (judge) the best they

can; and CICare Go, in which partici-

pants must find the different flags of

CICare, hidden within different de-

partments.

By Sonal Patel

CICARE OLYMPICS

Having the opportunity to shadow 3

physicians and their medical teams

has been infinitely helpful for my

career in medicine. Having my eyes

opened to the long hours that the

doctors spend in the operating room

shows how exciting and grueling it

can be, and gave great insight into

the type of schedule that the resi-

dents and physicians go through.

Days in the clinic and in the wards

have shown me how simple and

complex cases can be. It also shed a

new light on patient-physician inter-

action. Feeling welcomed by the

residents was quite possibly the

greatest blessing of all, as I received

invaluable advice and forewarning

about medicine. Overall my experi-

ence was very humbling and Kim is

awesome. I really appreciate the

hard work she's done to give me a

chance to have this opportunity.

By Marcus Carrillo

different countries during those

events. Some of them probably had

no idea what I was saying, but we

both knew when a good play hap-pened and we could share that ex-

perience. Those brief but special

moments made me feel as if the

world could come together as one,

and I think that’s what the Olympics

are really about. In closing, I must

say that the women there are the

most beautiful in the world.

By Aron Mitsunaga

Shadowing

Page 3 Volume 1, Issue 2

A Week in a Doctor’s Shoes

Taken by Marcus Carrillo in Physician Break

Room; Volunteer/ Shadower

I went to the Olympics in Brazil for

the third leg of my South America

trip, with the first two being Peru

and Argentina. The Olympics was an awesome experience and I wish I

had more space to write about it. Of

course just being at the events and

seeing some of the most spectacular

athletes in the world compete on a

global stage was breathtaking, but

there was more to it than that. I was

able to see boxing, beach volley-

ball, and basketball and I must have

high-fived people from at least 10

Sonal Patel

Volunteer/Intern

Olympics: Brazil 2016 Volunteer travels to South America

WINNERS SCVMC Mission Statement

1. We provide excellent and compas-

sionate care in a respectful manner

to everyone.

2. We demonstrate integrity by being

open, honest, reliable, and dedicated

to our

mission.

3. We respect the individuals we work

with, the people we serve and the

communities of

Santa Clara County.

Volunteer Appreciation Picnic

Saturday, September 24th 11 am-3 pm Celebrate with Volunteer Services at the Volunteer Appreciation Picnic. It will be

held on Saturday, Sept 24th at John D. Morgan Park (540 W Rincon Ave) in Camp-

bell. Enjoy awesome outdoor activities and delicious food (including a taco bar,

popsicle cart, and churro cart) with your fellow volunteers. We will also announce

the winners of the Volunteer Auxiliary Scholarship. We look forward to seeing

you all there.

American Heart Association Walk

Saturday, October 22nd at 8:30 AM

Let’s save lives by taking a stand against heart disease. Join

Team VMC Volunteers for the American Heart Association: Heart

and Stroke Walk on Saturday, October 22nd at Kelly Park. Volun-

teer Services is aiming to fundraise at least $1000 towards the

cause, which will be used to fund heart disease research.

Upcoming Events

CICARE Olympics: The games have come to a close

and Volunteer Services has received:

Bronze Medal: CICARE Role Plays (Kimberly Lopez

and Matthew Visenio)

Bronze Medal: CICARE GO (Albert Liu and Kimberly

Lopez)

Gold Medal: Make a Friend Week (Kudos to Jasmin

Zaragoza for submitting 25+ pictures with new

friends)!

Smile Week Winners: Congrats to Marcus Carrillo,

Tran Pham, and Martha Gebru for submitting the most

smile charts per day! Please stop by the Volunteer

Services office to pick up your prizes!

Great job to all of the CICARE participants!