UW-Madison junior Hannah Vakili has volunteered at UW Hospital since last winter, and was especially excited to start a more hands-on position in the Family Practice unit last week.
""I already had more responsibility with patients ... and now I can't go back,"" Vakili said.
In an unprecedented decision, UW Hospital suspended all of its 350 student volunteers on Friday, fearing the growing number of H1N1 cases on campus.
""There's quite a bit of disease spreading through the student community, and since it's impossible to tell if someone is infected because they may not yet have symptoms, we thought it was prudent to protect patients and just use a blanket restriction,"" said UW Hospital spokesperson Lisa Brunette.
Brunette said student volunteers present a greater risk to patients than student employees.
""Student employees are doing things like moving medical records or administrative tasks ... they don't necessarily have the day-to-day contact, especially with kids, that volunteers do,"" Brunette said.
Although the suspension will cost the hospital 1,000 hours in free labor per week, Brunette said patient care and medical services won't be affected.
""Whenever you have a significant volunteer contingent and suddenly they're not there, you are going to have a gap,"" Brunette said. ""Some of our adult volunteers have offered to increase their hours ... but some of the little extras might be a little more challenging for us to cover.""
Vakili said the suspensions might put ""a bit more stress on the nurses,"" but agreed with the decision, though she said she will be disappointed to miss out on the valuable experience.
