CREMONA – If you happen to be at the emergency room of the Cremona hospital, you will often be met by a volunteer who welcomes you and asks you if he can help you, inviting you to come in. They are the volunteers of the Sono Noi association who for more than ten years have been working to support healthcare workers in the emergency department in accompanying patients and family members during access and waiting times.
You can find them in the morning, afternoon or late evening, during weekdays, but also on Sundays or holidays.
They are always available to give you directions to accompany relatives to the rooms, mothers with children in the pediatric emergency room, give information on the operational process of the department and are available to show you where to receive health information from doctors and nurses.
They are citizens like us who have chosen to donate their time to others, some are retired, but many are still active at workwho carve out the few hours of free time to help lonely elderly people, the infirm and their families.
To do this service, preparation is essential. The training course which saw the attendance of 12 new volunteers recently ended who in recent days have already started the internship period in the emergency department, always supported by expert tutors and after a suitable number of shifts, once they have acquired the qualification, they will be able to start operating independently.
During the 12-day course, the volunteers learned how to support patients, the value of empathy, kindness and active listening.have analyzed the different approaches to be taken with disabled people, with elderly people, with foreigners as well as the specifically regulatory aspects, privacy and informed consent, the functioning of the department with its rules and procedures.
Their presence is not only a help to citizens, but also a valid support for the organization of the department to manage access flows, give useful information and lend a hand to staff in non-healthcare aspects.
The volunteers of the È Noi association, thanks to the help of many citizens of Cremona, have played an important role in the vaccination hubs of the Fair and Sapiens during Covid and in recent years, in addition to the emergency room, they have given their constant presence in via Dante , at the vaccination center in Cremona and for the elderly in the Cremona Solidale and Opera Pia retirement homes in Castelverde.
