She delivers specimens to the lab.

She escorts patients and wheels them down for discharge.

She is not a doctor or Registered Nurse.

Muffy Bowman is a Vidant Beaufort Hospital volunteer.

She never knew passing through the first Masters of Social Work course at East Carolina University that she would be a volunteer later in life, just as she never knew her life experience as a Neo-natal Intensive Care Social Worker would prepare her for the role.

“Not everyone can volunteer in a hospital environment but I was comfortable,” Bowman said.

“Just as well volunteer,” she added.

She works in the volunteer workroom delivering meals to surgery patients and their families and compiling papers for the nursing staff.

“We don’t get to do all the exciting work like the nurses but I don’t think they could do everything they have to do without volunteers,” Bowman said.

Jan Hamblin, Volunteer Services Manager for more than six years, says volunteers do “ambassador-type things in the hospital.”

“They do anything they can to support staff and patients,” Hamblin said.

Bowman logged 152 volunteer hours last year, according to volunteer records.

When junior volunteers come during the summer, she continues to work while many other volunteers take the summer off.

She also volunteers in endoscopy and outpatient surgery.

Eloise Evans, a registered nurse at Vidant for 38 years, said that volunteers are important because they allow the nurses to focus on more serious patient needs. When patients are ready for discharge, volunteers transport them down to the lobby.

“They are great, they do a lot of transport from point A to point B,” says Evans.  “This frees us up to focus on other patients or the next patient needing care.”

Evans knows too well about the life of a volunteer.  She went from a candy striper in high school to a nursing student to a nurse.

“Volunteers are more than just a means of transport throughout Vidant,” Evans said. “They are pleasant and let the patients know that they are cared for, they also do minor clerical things.”

The “minor clerical things” range from delivering mail, newspapers and flowers to compiling papers for the nursing staff that they need to check in patients.

Bowman is more than a volunteer. She also attends St. Thomas Episcopal Church where she reads lessons on Sunday.

The mother of seven and grandmother of 10 helps with the Backpack Pals program which feeds children in need on weekends. She is also a Sunshine board member of the Pamlico River Quilters’ guild. The Baltimore native has been married to Jim Bowman, a retired orthopedist, for 29 years.

When asked where one should volunteer their time, Bowman said, “If we had more people volunteering in libraries or schools reading to the kids, there are so many places one can volunteer.”