Volunteers are needed to assist with the Remote Area Medical (RAM) free-health care clinic, scheduled to be held at Tusculum College, Nov. 7-9.
RAM is a Knoxville-based organization providing free medical care for the uninsured and underinsured. Volunteers are needed for all three days. Tusculum College, which is hosting the event, and coordinators are recruiting volunteers to sign up to help.
According to Rachel Edens, director of the Center for Civic Advancement, general volunteers are needed to assist in setting up Friday afternoon, Nov. 7. On Saturday and Sunday, helpers are needed to register patients and work in the kitchen area, serving food, snacks and drinks to those who are working at the expedition. Others may be asked to direct traffic, help keep order in lines and do other duties.
Young adults under 18 may volunteer with some restrictions. Children under 14 are not allowed to work.
The RAM organization will also recruit skilled workers and students in the medical, dental and optometry fields to provide care to hundreds of people.
During the two-day, weekend clinics, commonly called expeditions, RAM provides basic medical services, dental work and optometry services and glasses on-site free that day. Health care services provided include comprehensive screening for diabetes and hypertension, procedures such as mammography, colon cancer screening, retinal screening using telemedicine technology, chest x-rays, pulmonary function studies and some gynecological procedures.
Volunteers for Saturday and Sunday will need to be at the college by 5:30 a.m. and plan to work all day, possibly 10-12 hours.
If you would like to be involved in event-planning and coordination, or if you would like to be a volunteer of any sort, please e-mail Edens at RAM@tusculum.edu, or call (423) 636-7450.
On both days, the parking lot will open at midnight and RAM will begin handing out numbers to patients at 3 a.m. The doors open at 6 am.
RAM, founded by adventurer Stan Brock in 1985, is dedicated to providing medical and veterinary access in rural and remote areas to anyone who needs it, both domestically and abroad.
For more information, visit RAM’s at http://www.ramusa.org/.