Volunteers needed for infection prevention program at Alberta Children’s Hospital

An educational initiative at the Alberta Children's Hospital aims to keep kids and their families safe from viral infections.

The Alberta Children’s Hospital is desperately seeking new volunteers for an infection prevention education program aimed at keeping patients and their family members safe from illnesses.

Volunteer Infection Prevention & Control (VIP) is a program aimed at increasing awareness around viral respiratory and gastrointestinal infections at units across the hospital.

“Sometimes your impact might feel small, but programs like this can really make a huge ripple effect across these units,” said volunteer Manreet Dhillon.

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“We go into the patient’s room and meet with the family to discuss the importance of why we do hand hygiene and how germs can spread. Then we also try to do a visual demonstration with the children and the family members to really enforce those messages.”

Dhillon says she also does demonstrations of how to properly wear personal protective equipment, provides information on isolation protocols and safe visitation protocols.

The VIP initiative first began in 2011 as a way of reducing the number and frequency of hospital acquired infections, but more support is needed.

“Unfortunately, the program’s acceptance of volunteers was halted in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Dr. Jessica Dunn, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at the Alberta Children’s Hospital.

“We just started to reinvigorate the program again in 2024, and recruit new volunteers with the goal of connecting families, empowering them to mitigate the risk of acquiring infections in hospital through learning.”

Dunn adds that infection awareness is particularly important at this time of year when illnesses such as influenza, RSV, norovirus and rotavirus are more prevalent.

“We’ve had really positive feedback from the families themselves who participate because they often want to be able to do something to care or protect their loved ones,” said Dunn.

“The other benefit too is that the physicians and surgeons and other clinical staff get a chance to focus on their direct clinical care knowing that they’re being supported by the volunteer program.”

One of those families who directly benefitted from the program spoke to CTV News at the Alberta Children’s Hospital on Wednesday.

Rupika Garg and her husband Yogesh have been engaging with doctors at the infectious disease clinic.

Their three-month-old son Havish has been suffering from a urine infection, but they say the support of volunteers and doctors has guided them on how to keep their family safe.

“Always making sure we’re washing our hands, using sanitizer for our baby, washing his clothes, these are really helpful things for us to think about, because you might not always think about these things,” Garg said.

To apply for a volunteer position with the VIP program, you can visit the Alberta Children’s Hospital website.