Busy college athlete enjoys volunteering at hospital
Transcript
Host Amber Smith: Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, New York, invites you to be The Informed Patient, with the podcast that features experts from Central New York's only academic medical center. I'm your host, Amber Smith.
Tatum White was the team captain of this year's women's hockey team at Syracuse University, and she was the first named College Hockey America Scholar Athlete of the Year. Aside from her sport and her studies, one of the things she made time for during her time at SU was volunteering at Upstate University Hospital. She's my guest today.
Welcome to "The Informed Patient," Ms. White.
Tatum White: Thank you so much for having me.
Host Amber Smith: I know that you're a native of Kingston, Ontario. How did you choose Syracuse for your college?
Tatum White: When I was choosing a college, I was in the 10th grade. Because of hockey, I was recruited a lot earlier, so at that time I didn't know exactly what I wanted to study in college, and I knew that Syracuse had many options for majors, and so that is what brought me to Syracuse.
Host Amber Smith: So you came to SU not really knowing that chemistry would be your major, or did you figure that out before you got here?
Tatum White: I didn't know that chemistry was going to be my major when I committed here, like I said, much earlier than usual for picking a university. I was in the 10th grade, so I hadn't specifically dove into biology and chemistry and subjects like that in high school yet, so when I chose here, I didn't know I wanted to specifically study chemistry, and then I found a passion for science throughout my later years in high school. And before I actually attended Syracuse University, I did decide that chemistry would be my major.
Host Amber Smith: What do you think attracted you to the sciences or medicine?
Tatum White: I think what attracted me to medicine was just the experiences I've had so far in clinical settings, as well as just helping people. I have a passion for helping others and giving back to other people, so that is definitely something that's helped me develop my passion for medicine.
Host Amber Smith: Now, I see that your degree is going to be in medicinal chemistry.
Do you have plans for what you want to do with that degree after you graduate?
Tatum White: My plans after graduation are to attend medical school and hopefully pursue a career in medicine. So just using my science degree to help me get into the next stage of the process.
Host Amber Smith: Well, part of being a successful college athlete means you have to be good at managing your time, because not only do you have your studies, your college courses and your training and your games, you also become involved in the community.
How did you decide that you wanted to volunteer at Upstate University Hospital?
Tatum White: It's definitely a lot to manage my time between everything. But what got me involved in volunteering at Upstate was that I knew Upstate was very close to Syracuse (University), and I wanted to be involved in a clinical setting and kind of further investigate my interest in medicine, just to be in a setting like that in the inner workings of a hospital.
So Upstate has really given me the opportunity to kind of just see the way a hospital works from the inside.
Host Amber Smith: Do you remember what your volunteer orientation was like?
Tatum White: I do, yeah. It was in the summer before I started in the fall of 2023. So when I was applying, I had an interview process to try and get in to be a volunteer. And then we had an orientation online. Just going over the different processes, different codes, the different opportunities that were available for a volunteer and just covering all the basics like that.
Host Amber Smith: What were the other volunteers like? I'm wondering if you were surrounded by other college students, or were there older people that were volunteering?
Tatum White: The volunteer process that I went through was specifically for college students, so a lot of the people that I was in the orientation with, and then also who I volunteer with, as well, all attend SU or surrounding colleges.
Host Amber Smith: Now, you mentioned that there were some options. How did you choose where you would volunteer in the hospital?
Tatum White: When I first started, I didn't really know exactly what each opportunity would look like. There was different options in terms of departments to work in, so my first choices were, I think, the pediatric emergency department, and I can't remember what else I had chosen, but I didn't end up in either of those, and I was placed into the volunteer express department.
And I really did enjoy my time there, and I've kind of switched over to different tasks since, but everything I've been doing at Upstate has been really enjoyable so far.
Host Amber Smith: This is Upstate's "The Informed Patient" podcast. I'm your host, Amber Smith.
I'm talking with Tatum White. She's an SU women's hockey player and a volunteer at Upstate University Hospital.
Let me tell listeners who may be interested: They can learn more about volunteer opportunities at the website upstate.edu/volunteers (plural) or by sending an email to [email protected] ([email protected]).
Can you tell us about what some of your duties were like? What was a typical day for you when you came and did your volunteer time?
Tatum White: So the first thing I would do is go to the volunteer department and log in with my code. And then I would head upstairs to where the volunteer express department was. And pretty much what we did there was we would answer phone calls from throughout the hospital and the people calling in would know that we were available to kind of take lab samples across the hospital or deliver documents.
Another thing we did was transport visitors up to where they needed to go throughout the hospital. So kind of just learning and knowing where everything is throughout the hospital was a pretty cool experience.
And then what I've transitioned into now is working with the comfort cart. So that's something where I come around with comfort items like toiletries, books, coloring pencils, things like that. Whatever visitors and patients may need on the floors. I would just go through and ask them if they'd like any of the items, and I get to chat with patients and their family and friends and just all the visitors and people that are in there. I just kind of got the opportunity to go room to room and honestly make people's day, just come through and give them some items that they may be in need of. So that has been really something I'm enjoying this semester that I'm working in there.
Host Amber Smith: Can you tell us about any memorable shifts that you've done or any memorable incidents that you came across while you were volunteering?
Tatum White: Yeah, actually just recently, it was last week, I was working, using the comfort cart. So I was going through one of the floors, just delivering things to different people that may need them. And I came across the room of a young boy who was very interested in the cart. And so we have different things like card games, coloring books, like I mentioned, and so I usually just kind of make my rounds and drop things off to people. But I ended up staying and playing a couple card games with him, so I think I spent an hour just kind of hanging out with him.
And part of my job is to kind of just be there and listening to the people that may need someone to talk to or just need an extra ... extra person to help comfort them and things like that. So it was a really cool experience to just sit in there, and who doesn't love a game of cards?
So yeah, it was just awesome to kind of give him some light in his day.
Host Amber Smith: Has your time working in the hospital as a volunteer, has that solidified your desire to go to medical school and become a doctor?
Tatum White: It definitely has. Just being in the setting of a hospital and seeing how it works from the inside, I've got definitely gotten a lot more comfortable in the setting and comfortable talking to people, comfortable asking questions when I may need it. So the passion that I do have for medicine, it's kind of been further solidified through this experience because I've just been more comfortable in the setting.
Host Amber Smith: Do you think the job of hospital volunteer is something that you would recommend to other college students?
Tatum White: I would definitely recommend it. It's something I've really enjoyed and, like I was saying before, just having the opportunity to be the light in people's day.
The hospital isn't always a great place, and sometimes it is a great place. You never know the people you walk by and what they're experiencing. For example, someone maybe just had a baby, and it's the best day of their life, or someone may have just lost a loved one, and you will never know between one person to the next. So kind of just going in and being able to smile and bring joy to people's days has been a really awesome experience, and I would definitely recommend it to other people.
Host Amber Smith: Well, Ms. White, I appreciate you making time for this interview. Thank you.
Tatum White: Thank you very much.
Host Amber Smith: My guest has been Tatum White. She's a Syracuse University women's hockey player, the team captain for 2023-2024, and she volunteers at Upstate University Hospital.
" The Informed Patient" is a podcast covering health, science and medicine, brought to you by Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, New York, and produced by Jim Howe.
Find our archive of previous episodes at upstate.edu/informed.
If you enjoyed this episode, please tell a friend to listen, too, and you can rate and review "The Informed Patient" podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube or wherever you tune in.
Host Amber Smith: This is your host, Amber Smith, thanking you for listening.