A team of four students from Southwest Jiaotong University (SWJTU) took part in a volunteering activity titled “Fight the Pandemic and Shoulder the Youth’s Mission” at Longnan Hospital in Daqing City, Heilongjiang Province from January 14th to 20th, 2022.

After the activity, the four volunteers said during the experience sharing that these seemingly easy tasks were actually not as easy as they had expected. The volunteers learned a lot from the difficulties encountered during the voluntary tasks.

At the beginning stage, they suffered from timidity, hesitation and confusion. The volunteers could not provide professional answers to the questions from the patients. However, these questions did not stop the volunteers from moving forward with courage and determination because they were not afraid of hard work and failure. After consultation with the medical staff about the specialized knowledge and repeated practice, the four volunteers became proficient in their work.

At the hospital, busyness represents the special working conditions, especially on Mondays when the number of patients would surge. With the help from the doctors and nurses, the volunteers reflected and mastered the work skills, thus improving the efficiencies.

How to quickly and accurately distribute the volunteers is also a challenge. As one volunteer said, among the patients were some senior people who have difficulties in hearing and articulation. And they move or behave awkwardly. Taking care of those patients was the volunteers’ priorities. For patients who were already familiar with the process to see the doctors, they can help themselves, which in turn reduced the amount of volunteers’ efforts. The method of classifying patients can greatly improve efficiency. At the same time, a good grasp of the hospital’s departments and the understanding of the processes of seeing the doctors can also greatly help volunteers reduce unexpected problems.

Of course, patience and kindness were necessary as well. The volunteers’ warmth and love can be felt in spite of the masks. Upon arrival, patients can feel the warmth and love from the volunteers’ kind-hearted eyes and their well-dressed figures.

The four volunteers used their free time to serve the patients to the best of their abilities. They demonstrated SWJTU’s fine tradition of strict discipline, and practiced the school motto of “Striving to Rejuvenate China". They contributed to the society and warmed the people in their own way. They participated in the campaign of fighting the pandemic and shoulder the youth’s mission.