MITZVAH PEOPLE

Hope Silverman,
foreground, and
Carol Sue Coden
hold their charges.

ENERATION

Volunteer Nannies

A number of helping hands staff
Sinai Hospital's intensive care nursery.

SUSAN WEINGARDEN

Special to The Jewish News

H

ope Silverman holds
a two-pound infant in
the palms of her
hands. Wrapped in a
pink knit hat and
blanket, the premature infant
in Sinai Hospital's neonatal
intensive care nursery has a
feeding tube connected to her
miniature mouth. "The baby
is all bones," Silverman says.
"She looks like a frying
chicken!'
Silverman, a volunteer at
Sinai, is part of the well
newborn nursery project
where she helps care for the
babies during visiting hours.
She is also trained to work in
the neonatal intensive care
unit with babies requiring
special care and attention.
Silverman was recently
featured by Channel 4 televi-
I sion's "Time To Care" series
promoting volunteers in
I' Detroit. An active volunteer
for 15 years, Silverman
helped initiate the Sinai
nursery program four years
ago.
"I was representing Meals
on Wheels at a community
service information day at the
0- Jewish Center,"says Silver-
man. - "I met Amy Brown of

•

,

the Sinai Hospital volunteer
service program and she ask-
ed- me if I wanted to volunteer
at Sinai. I told her to call me
if they started a program
working with babies."
The hospital staff had been
discussing a pilot program.
Silverman and her friend,
Carol Sue Coden, were
trained by the head nurse and
began recruiting volunteers.
The program now has 30.
Silverman looks forward to
her Tuesday night commit-
ment at Sinai. "Nursery
visiting hours are from 7 to
8 p.m. so we start about 6:30.
We check in with the nurse,
scrub and put on yellow
gowns. All well babies stay in
the rooms with their mothers.
Since preemies can't stay in
the room during visiting
hours,' our first job is to wheel
them to the nursery.
"The nurse tells us which
babies need to be fed. We
change and clean all the
babies and restock their carts
with supplies their mothers
need to care for them. Next
we put them in front of the
viewing glass so visitors can
see them. Then we return
them to their rooms. We are

finished by 8:30. It is a short
commitment, but extremely
fulfilling!"
The program worked so ef-
ficiently in the well nursery
that the nurses in the
neonatal intensive care
nursery asked for volunteers.
After careful training, some of
the women are now qualified
to work in both.
"I worked with the nurses
and learned how to feed the
babies with feeding tubes,"
Silverman says. "Many of the
babies need exercising and
stimulation. They also re-
quire extra contact and need
to be held to provide bonding,
especially if their mothers
have been discharged."
Silverman can pick her own
hours to work in the intensive
care nursery and "just shows
up" if she finds herself with
free time. She also works in
the transitional nursery
where babies are kept for the
first 4-6 hours of their lives.
"It is mind boggling to work
with a baby that is one hour
old," she says.
While Silverman is obvious-
ly high on cuddling the
babies, she also enjoys her
contact with the mothers. "I

love talking to them," she
said. "I kvell through them."
Ilene Arvin was a patient at
Sinai when she met Silver-
man two years ago. "Both my
babies were jaundiced and
spent a lot of time in the
nursery under the bilirubin
lights. I met Hope while she
was volunteering and was
very impressed with the pro-
gram."
Arvin now spends every
Thursday night at Sinai. "It
is very special to give
something back to the com-
munity and to spend time
with the babies. The staff is
great to work with and very
helpful and appreciative."
Arvin's favorite task is
holding the babies. "I never
let them cry. I pick them up
right away."
The sad part of her job is
seeing 13- and 14-year old
girls having babies. "I worry
about their futures!' she says.
"I wonder what will happen
when these babies go home. I
know that some of them will
be fighting for every meal."
As current chairwoman of
the newborn nursery
volunteer program, Carl Sue
Coden is in charge of training

volunteers. She feels the pro-
gram has made people more
aware of Sinai Hospital and
attracted people who would
not otherwise have worked
there.
"I am very involved in
volunteer work, but most of
the programs involve work
with the aged," Coden says.
"There is nothing better than
taking care of a little baby.
I've been able to take care of
my friends' babies and
sometimes see them before
they do."
Requirements for the pro-
gram include a physical, year-
ly tuberculosis test, and an
interview by a member of the
Sinai Volunteer Guild. "Our
volunteers are screened very
carefully," said Amy Brown,
director of volunteer services.
"We have to be sure they will
function appropriately before
they are trained, and they are
very well trained."
Brown says the reaction to
the program is positive, both
from the staff and the
families involved. "The
volunteers provide extra
hands and legs and the
nurses appreciate the help.
You can't hire a professional

THE DETROIT 'JEWISH. NEWS:

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