Volunteer Opportunity for Students

As a volunteer for the Malcom Randall VA Medical Center fifth-floor library, students will gain clinical field work experience while accumulating volunteer experience with military veterans. The library is located on the fifth-floor inpatient psychiatric unit. The east side of the unit serves veterans with psychotic spectrum disorders or cognitive deficits, while the west side serves veterans with substance use disorders or major mood disorders. The program provides a service to veterans to check out fiction and self-help books every Sunday afternoon from 2-3pm. While veterans often check out books from the library, they usually stay to converse with the volunteers. Some veterans also come just to converse with the volunteers. This program provides a great way to interact with patients in a clinical setting while also gaining clinical experience.

Volunteers need to be available from 1:30-3:30 on Sundays. Though there is not a requirement of hours per semester, we do expect volunteers to be more available than not during these specified hours. Expansion of the program will likely lead to volunteer opportunities on Saturdays as well. We meet once a semester with the head of the program to discuss changes that could be made to the program, as well as brainstorm new program ideas. Once a semester we also take inventory of the library’s materials.

Students need to be at least in their second year of college and an interest in psychology would be preferred, but is not required.

If you would like more information about the program or would like to volunteer, please contact Sarah Bullock at sarahbullock95@gmail.com.