Unexpected Beginnings: Taylor Employees Who Began as Volunteers

Ridley Park, PA--Taylor Hospital is proud of its volunteers, and what better way to show that appreciation than to look back on some of Taylor Hospital’s employees who started as volunteers. Alisha Hartunian and Sherita Johnson are two prime examples of individuals who first got their feet wet in a hospital setting as volunteers. Today, they are making a difference as Taylor Hospital employees.

Hartunian, clinical nurse director for the Crozer-Keystone Regional Rehabilitation Center at Taylor Hospital, got her start as a Taylor volunteer at the age of 14 for a school project. “We had to do a form of volunteer work for a class project. As a volunteer at Taylor Hospital, I was assigned to the information desk and also spent time on Telemetry delivering water pitchers and talking with patients,” Hartunian says. “I really had no intentions of working in the medical field. I had always thought I would pursue something in the arts. However, after spending three years as a volunteer in a hospital, and observing the creative ways in which the staff care for the patients, I took a liking to being in the health care environment. The Taylor Hospital volunteer program set the foundation in prepping me to become a great employee in the future. As someone who used to be very shy, being a volunteer helped to break me out of my shell. Whenever someone asks me how long I have been at Taylor, I never forget where I started 14 years ago as a volunteer.”     

As for Johnson, who is currently a medical chart tech in the medical records department, volunteering was the first step toward her current position. “Before I became a volunteer and a Taylor employee, I had no experience in the medical field. Volunteering for three months prior really made me a better person and I gained a great deal of respect for those who work in this field,” Johnson says.

The Thompson Institute, where Johnson attended as a medical office management student, required that its students volunteer before actual employment. “After I left, Taylor Hospital and Thompson Institute stopped the volunteer-before-employment program like I had done, and I fought for it to come back because I found it so incredibly useful and beneficial. Judy Lieberman assisted me on whom to call and what to do and, thankfully, the program is back in play. I feel that volunteering is a great way to get the first aspects of experience, and I would absolutely recommend volunteering to anyone.”

Judy Lieberman, director of Volunteer Services at Taylor Hospital, says, “We have a great staff here at Taylor, and those who started as volunteers have really grown and shaped into some excellent employees. I think Taylor’s staff does an amazing job working with volunteers. They give potential employees the building blocks toward success, and the results show,” Lieberman says.

Being a volunteer can help people find a career they love or discover an interest they were not even aware of before. Although Hartunian and Johnson got into volunteering for different reasons, both found that it helped shape their careers.

To find out more on how to become a volunteer at Taylor Hospital, contact Judy Lieberman, director of Volunteer Services, at (610) 595-6070.