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HOW
TO VOLUNTEER
If you are interested in volunteering with
REMEDY, first email one of the coordinators or simply sign up on our Duke
list serve at: https://lists.duke.edu/sympa/info/remedy-at
All volunteers at Duke Hospital
must complete compliance and safety training. Hospital staff and professional medical
students will have received this training as part of their initial job or
program orientation. Undergraduates
and other Hospital volunteers must attend an orientation session through
the Volunteer
Services Office Please call 919-681-6088 to sign up for a
session. These occur twice a month.
All volunteers must wear a proper Duke Medical
Center identification badge
whenever on Medical
Center premises and
follow volunteer sign in procedures as required by the Volunteer Services
Office. ID badges will be issued to
non-medical volunteers through the Volunteer Services Office.
All volunteers should review Hospital policies regarding
- Universal
Precautions
- Guidelines for the
Handling and Disposal of Medical Wastes
- Fire and Life Safety
- Incident Reporting
- Security Procedures
- Privacy
On-line safety training is available at www.safety.duke.edu
Where and When
Volunteers meet as a group once a week at Duke North
Hospital, currently every Monday evening at 7:30pm, to sort, pack and
inventory the surplus we receive from various areas of the Medical Center. Our target group size is about five
people per session, which allows for a meeting time of about 1 hour.
Individuals may volunteer at other times if they cannot attend the Monday
session. We periodically may also meet some weekends at the warehouse
where our supplies are stored in order to organize and distribute supplies
to requesting projects. Weekly email
reminders will keep you informed about these dates and other REMEDY
activities.
Directions to REMEDY sorting area:
Find the stairwell to the left of the main elevators in the lobby of Duke North Hospital.
Go down to the sub-basement (zero) level. Turn right and follow
signs to the "Materials Support" area until you come to the
loading dock. The REMEDY sorting area is located to the left just before
the doors to the loading dock, by the back entrance to Sterile Processing.
Packing
and Inventory Procedures
1. Before sorting or
packing any materials, volunteers must don gloves, available in the
collections area.
2. Recovered items are sorted by type and placed in
labeled sorting bins. Unusable, damaged, or contaminated items are
discarded.
- Unprotected needles, blades or other sharps should be
discarded in the red “sharps” disposal container located in the
collections area.
- Syringes and suture not in their sterile package must be
discarded.
- Unexpired medications, IV solutions and nutritional products
are sorted into labeled bins, but should NOT be packed for overseas
donation.
- Highly specialized or technically complex items or supplies
are generally not suitable for overseas donation. Examples include cardiac
catheterization cannulas, endoscopic or
other specialized surgical devices, or devices that require specific
machinery or equipment to operate.
- All materials visibly soiled or contaminated with blood or
other body fluids should be discarded in the red plastic “Biomedical
Waste” containers.
- Containers with liquids (e.g. scrub soaps, iodine, alcohol,
etc.) should be inspected closely for leaks and discarded if any are
found. Place these in plastic bags before packing.
·
Cardboard
boxes available in the collections area are packed with items from the
sorting bins. Whenever possible, similar items should be placed
together in the same box, rather than an assortment of unlike items.
Liquid containers should be placed in a plastic bag before being packed.
3. The approximate number of each item in the box
is recorded on a carbon copy inventory slip.
4. The box is taped closed. The white copy of the inventory slip and
a legal disclaimer (see below) are taped to the outside of the box.
5.
Each
packed box is stacked on a wooden loading pallet. When the pallet is full it will be transported
to the storage warehouse for later distribution.
·
Each box is affixed with the following legal disclaimer:
“This
box contains surplus medical supplies recovered from patient care units of Duke University Medical
Center. These
materials are offered “as is”, and with no express or implied warranty of
merchantability. These medical supplies are not being sold.
They are a donation made within the charitable mission of Duke University
Health System, Inc. The recipient of these medical supplies accepts
this donation understanding the nature and purpose of the donation.”
“The recipient of these medical supplies agrees that caution will be
exercised when removing and handling the supplies in this box. The
recipient agrees to examine and inspect each item to determine its
suitability for patient use and agrees that each item must be sterilized by
the recipient before patient use. Duke University Health System, Inc.
makes no assurance or representation of the sterility of these medical
supplies or their appropriateness for use in patient care. The
recipient accepts all responsibility and liability for use or handling of
these medical supplies. Duke University Health System, Inc. makes the
donation of these medical supplies to the recipient in express reliance on
the terms of this Disclaimer, and the recipient accepts this donation with
the recipient’s agreement to the terms of this Disclaimer.”
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