Melissa Jones is nurse manager of a 40-bed, long-term care unit that is essentially a small nursing home contained within Community Hospital. The unit is almost always fully occupied. A number of the patients spend several hours each day in wheelchairs, but most return to their beds for a couple of hours in the afternoon.

Melissa has a constant concern that her limited staff is only marginally able to fill the needs of the elderly patients, especially given that some patients who go without visitors for prolonged periods are eager to engage staff members in conversation. Melissa has determined that a number of apparent patient needs, especially the need for socialization, could be met with volunteers, so she developed a volunteer roster consisting of persons who indicated their willingness to help, after which she developed a 30-day schedule for volunteer support.

On the initial day of the schedule three of five scheduled volunteers failed to show up. On the following day, two did not appear. Only one appeared on each of the third and fourth days, and on the fifth daya Friday with gorgeous summer weather beckoning all to the outdoorsno volunteers were present in the unit. Melissa gave up on her schedule.

Melissa was thoroughly discouraged by the volunteers' lack of dependability. And because she had made no secret of her new volunteer program, a number of patients were similarly discouraged, and several complained that Melissa had not delivered as promised. As Melissa complained to her friend, Carol, "I had a couple dozen supposedly willing volunteers on my list, but when I need them they're nowhere to be found!"

Discuss the following information in your initial post:

2. As the team lead in charge of organizing the volunteer program, what types of strategies would you implement to ensure regularly scheduled attendance? Be sure to include at least THREE strategies. Hint: Part of having regular attendance is finding/recruiting volunteers.
4. How would adding a reward/recognition program to the volunteer program support the initiatives?
6. Explain the impact having the regular paid employees on board with the volunteer program would have on the success of the volunteer program?
8. Discuss how you will determine what roles the volunteers can take on?

Please be sure to include at least ONE credible reference and in-text citations.