Brianne Hanson, a student at Kansas University, pushes a wheelchair outside Lawrence Memorial Hospital. Hanson is among the health care students who get real-world experience at the hospital by volunteering.

Xinyi LI, 14, does some filing at Lawrence Memorial Hospital. Xinyi is part of the hospital’s escort team, which transports patients, records and lab specimens across the hospital. She will be a sophomore at Free State High School this fall.

Morgan Flannigan packs up some hot dog buns at Lawrence Memorial Hospital. Hospital officials say an average of 20 volunteers are working at the hospital at any given time.

Former Lawrence Dentist Paul Getto answers a phone call as a volunteer at Lawrence Memorial Hospital. Getto says being on LMH’s escort team has helped him learn “everything about this hospital.”

A phone rings in a little room just off to the side of Lawrence Memorial Hospital’s bustling Arkansas Street entrance, and 14-year-old Xinyi Li springs into action.

“It’s a specimen — 2 East,” Paul Getto, veteran volunteer, tells Xinyi, who’s in just her third week as a volunteer.

Xinyi grabs a pair of latex gloves and is quickly out the door with her trainer, retired elementary school teacher Randy Flyer, hot on her heels trying to catch up. Flyer takes with him a wheelchair and a big smile, clearly showing his appreciation of Xinyi’s nimbleness and enthusiasm.

Xinyi, Getto and Flyer are among the 20 or so unpaid volunteers working at LMH at any one time. All together, about 450 volunteers give their time to the hospital.

“The volunteers help the hospital to run smoothly — they support the patients and work together with the health care professionals,” Allyson Leland, director of volunteer services, says. “Take any one part of that equation out, and the hospital wouldn’t work as well.”

The ages, backgrounds and reasons for volunteering varies from volunteer to volunteer, Leland says, as does the type of work each volunteer does.

The new Arkansas Street entrance reception area and newly opened volunteer opportunities in the oncology and radiology departments have made new places for the volunteers to work, and an established and growing volunteer system makes the hospital attractive for those interested in giving time to the community, Leland says.

“As the hospital changes and evolves, the volunteers do, too,” Leland says.

Volunteer applications spike at the beginning of each semester and in the summer, Leland says, as college and high school students apply to be volunteers to bolster their nursing, medical school and scholarship applications with volunteer hours and hospital-related experience.

Brianne Hanson is among the many health care-focused students who volunteer at the hospital. A nontraditional student at Kansas University, Hanson decided to go to nursing school after years as a traveling musician and first-hand experience with the health care system.

“After 19 surgeries, I had a lot of wonderful nurses and a lot of horrible nurses,” Hanson says. “It’s devastatingwhen you wake up from surgery and you’re vulnerable and someone’s not on the ball to take care of you. I want to be one of the good nurses.”

Volunteering at LMH, Hanson says, is a way to start interacting with patients and get a feel for what it’s like to work at a hospital before she applies for nursing school in the fall.

Hanson, Xinyi, Getto and Flyer are among the escorts — the volunteers who transport patients, records and lab specimens across the hospital.

Xinyi, who’ll be a sophomore at Free State High School in the fall, says she decided to volunteer to “have something to do” over the summer and to see if she might want to pursue a career in health care.

Getto is a retired dentist who’s been an escort for 11 years. A bad back keeps him from doing much walking around the hospital these days, but he’s happy to answer the phone in the escort bay, on which doctors and nurses tell the escort volunteers who and what needs to be transferred and where.

“After a while as an escort, you know everything about this hospital,” Getto says.

Getto and Flyer say part of the job they enjoy is seeing people they know from years of practice and teaching as they come in and out of the hospital.

“We keep in touch with the community,” Flyer says.

“Of course, they’re not always in here for the best reasons, but at least we can help them out in hard times,” Getto adds.

Dianna Nelson volunteers in oncology. A five-year cancer survivor, she, too, wanted to give back to the hospital and help the doctors and nurses who helped her through her battle for her health.

“They took such good care of me,” Nelson says, “I wanted to do the same.”