{"id":50938,"date":"2019-12-12T08:51:24","date_gmt":"2019-12-12T13:51:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/?p=50938"},"modified":"2021-03-17T14:16:28","modified_gmt":"2021-03-17T18:16:28","slug":"volunteer-sarah-aly-wins-human-touch-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/healthy-tomorrows\/volunteer-sarah-aly-wins-human-touch-award\/","title":{"rendered":"Volunteer Sarah Aly wins Human Touch Award"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><em>Volunteer Sarah Aly won the Human Touch Award<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sarah Aly has made coming to The Ottawa Hospital a top\npriority for three years. The second-year university student even rearranged her\nclass schedule to accommodate visits to the hemodialysis unit. Sarah is one of\nmore than 1,400 people who volunteer at The Ottawa Hospital. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI want to be with patients,\u201d said Sarah, who is studying\nHealth Sciences at the University of Ottawa. \u201cI have formed strong bonds with\nthe patients I see regularly at the hospital. If I can make their lives just a\nlittle bit easier by bringing them a blanket, getting them a drink of water, or\njust talking to them about life, then I have done my job.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sarah\u2019s dedication to the patients she works with was\nnoticed by the biomedical technicians who worked in the area. They told her one\nday that they were going to nominate her for a Human Touch Award. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignright is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Sarah-Ally-11122019.jpg\" alt=\"Sarah Aly with a patient \" class=\"wp-image-50940\" width=\"321\" height=\"213\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Sarah-Ally-11122019.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Sarah-Ally-11122019-600x400.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Sarah-Ally-11122019-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Sarah-Ally-11122019-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 321px) 100vw, 321px\" \/><figcaption>Sarah Aly (left) felt a special bond with many of the patients she visited, including Rosemarie Grant (right).  <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>She thought it was a joke. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A few months later, she found out that she was going to\nreceive the award. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ccohealth.ca\/en\/get-involved\/awards\/hta-nomination\">Human Touch Awards<\/a>, organized by Cancer Care Ontario, recognize exemplary and compassionate patient care by people who work or volunteer in cancer and kidney-care systems. The awards are given to volunteers who:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Demonstrate a commitment to care through\nexceptional volunteer work that enhances the quality of life and\/or access to\ncare for patients.<\/li><li>Work to improve the patient experience at any\nstage in their care by demonstrating creativity and innovation in their\nvolunteer contributions, beyond what is expected of volunteers in their\norganization.<\/li><li>Have a meaningful impact on the lives of\npatients and\/or the health-care professionals who treat them. <\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Volunteers at The Ottawa Hospital play a critical role in patient care. While they help with important tasks like making sure patients are comfortable or helping them locate certain areas of the hospital, Sarah finds the most value in the connections that she makes with patients. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>\u201cSometimes the most important thing I can do for a patient is just talk to them about their life,\u201d she said. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThey confide in you, and you just have to listen. You never know what they\u2019re going through. The least you can do is offer a comforting ear, and that can make all the difference.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Because she works in the hemodialysis area, which certain\npatients visit regularly, Sarah sees some of the same patients on almost every\nshift. She has built such strong connections with them that she even comes in\non her days off just to say hello. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When asked if she wants to go into a career in medicine,\nSarah is open to the idea, but she is also excited to see what the future holds\nregardless of her career path. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One thing is for sure: if she does decide on a career in\nhealth care, her patients will be in very good hands. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Want to volunteer at The Ottawa Hospital like Sarah? Visit\nthe <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/career-opportunities\/\">Career and\nVolunteer Opportunities page<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sarah Aly is a volunteer in the hemodialysis unit at The Ottawa Hospital. When colleagues saw her dedication, hard work and bond with her patients, they nominated her for a Human Touch Award. She thought it was a joke &#8211; until she won.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":50939,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[167,480,381,184],"class_list":["post-50938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-healthy-tomorrows","tag-awards","tag-compassion","tag-patient-experience","tag-volunteers"],"acf":[],"wps_subtitle":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50938"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50938\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}