FOR A GOOD CAUSE -- Striped for work

Mathis Winkler

Julia Lee’s not quite sure where the name “candy striper” comes from.

Maybe somebody chose the nickname for Hoag Hospital’s teen volunteers

program because one of the uniform options slightly resembles a candy

cane.

What Lee does know is that she’s helped for at least 550 hours at the

hospital over the last four years.

And it all happened, more or less, by accident.

One of Lee’s friends had joined the program before her, and the girl’s

stories perked Lee’s interest.

“It sounded really cool,” Lee said. “If you wanted a job in the

medical field, you get to see what it’s like.”

Now a 17-year-old senior at Corona del Mar High School, Lee went

through the candy striper orientation and has put in time in various

departments throughout the hospital.

She started in transportation, where she helped to admit and discharge

patients from the hospital.

Then came some time at nursing stations, where she answered patients’

calls and told nurses about their requests.

Lee, who serves as the president of the hospital’s 140-plus candy

stripers, now works in the cardiac care unit, where she helps at the

reception and lets nurses know when visitors arrive.

While the program has given her insight into the daily life of nurses

and doctors, Lee said she and her colleagues know where the boundaries

are.

“We can’t change bed pans,” she said. “We can’t transport people in

gurneys.”

A memorable event occurred when Lee had just started working at a

nursing station. On her first day, a patient just across the hall died.

While Lee did not see the body, she said the calmness of the nurses

and doctors impressed her.

“Everyone was doing their job,” she said.

After graduation from high school, Lee said she’ll head north to

attend Stanford University in the fall.

She still doesn’t know what she’ll study at college, but medicine is

definitely an option.

Will she miss her time at the hospital?

“Yeah,” she said. “Because I made a lot of friends there. It’s given

me a lot of opportunities to meet people outside of my own school.”

FYI

For more information on Hoag Hospital’s candy striper program, call

(949) 675-6430.