Bethany Ng Tseung

Hello everyone! I’m Bethany and I am excited to be running with Sharon for Playteam chair.

As Playteam leader and Play coordinator respectively, we have had the privilege of contributing to this invaluable scheme and it has been a great joy to bring a sense of fun and normality to children in hospital. We would like to continue the excellent work of our current chairs and implement our own strategies to ensure the growth and development of our volunteering scheme.

Our implementations :

- Training in play with neurodiverse children including workshops by specialists in neurodiversity to promote inclusivity.

- Transformation of mandatory training into interactive, team based learning to increase engagement.

- Mentorship scheme between older and younger students within groups.

- Increased emphasis on teenage patients and how to offer company to them as they are often isolated.

- Centralised team building/ bonding meetings to overcome disconnect between team members who only see each other once a fortnight.

- Debrief sessions for reflection on how volunteering sessions are running to identify ways to improve play and deal with difficult interactions.

- introduce shift exchange programme to avoid absence of entire teams on particular days.

As Mauritian president, N4Y group leader and playteam leader, I have gained key leadership, teamwork and interpersonal skills that will be crucial as chair. I will integrate these into my responsibilities of organisation of training/sign ups; communication and building rapport with St.Mary's paediatric staff; delegating tasks; problem solving and listening to and acting on constructive criticism to better the scheme with Sharon.