At JPS Health Network, our mission is to transform healthcare delivery for the communities we serve, and our volunteers play a vital role in bringing that mission to life. Alongside our clinicians and team members, volunteers at JPS generously give their time and talents to serve our patients and families with compassion.
This year for Volunteer Appreciation Week, we’re highlighting Kristin Pitt, a retired JPS physical therapist who spent decades caring for patients. Shortly after retiring, she felt called to continue her journey in patient care and returned to JPS — this time as a volunteer. Our conversation has been edited and condensed.
So Kristin, I hear you were a longtime physical therapist here at JPS before you retired.
Yes, I started at JPS in 1994 as a physical therapist, and I worked here for almost 30 years. I retired in 2021. It’s kind of wild to think that I was here that long!
What did you do once you retired?
My husband and I did a boat trip. We had moved from the suburbs — we only live a mile away now, so I walk here for volunteering, which is so good! Anyway, we had planned the trip for about 15 years, so we lived on a 45-foot boat and traveled from Florida up to Canada and back. It was fun and challenging, but we did finish! It was almost a 6,000-mile trip.
That’s incredible! How did you end up coming back to JPS as a volunteer?
When I got back from our trip, I realized I really missed the patients and my friends here. So that’s when I decided to volunteer.
And what does your role look like now?
Oh, I do multiple things up here. Sometimes I’m given specific patients to visit — people who might need motivation or just someone to talk to. I think of it as more of a “visit for the soul.”
And a lot of the time, I just go to different floors and see how the patients are doing, see if they need anything, and bring them different supplies they need from Volunteer Services. I feel kind of like Santa Claus, you know? Those little acts of kindness, they can go a long way.
Even if a patient doesn’t need a book or a deck of cards, the personal connection of a visit is so valuable.
It is. Unfortunately, a lot of our patients either don’t have family nearby, or they’re here for a long time. I try to just be there with them and encourage them. I visit patients who need motivation or just someone to talk to; it’s more of a visit for the soul. Sometimes it’s as simple as sitting with them, listening, or bringing a small item they need. I’ll go floor to floor asking who could use a visit, because even those small moments of connection can make someone’s whole day brighter.
How does volunteering at JPS compare to your time as a physical therapist?
One of the similarities is that much of my volunteering is encouraging and helping patients. Because they're afraid, usually, and maybe hurting. In physical therapy, a lot of it is really a mental game to get them to do the physical work to recover. So you're trying to get them to see that there is hope, and there is direction, and it's worth the difficulties of doing it. I still do that as a volunteer, but I don't have to do the physical lifting.
Now you’re lifting patients in a different way.
That’s exactly right. Because they hand me their experience, and then I’m holding it. To have a connection, you do have to be willing to feel that — which is tiring, but it’s worthwhile to me.
What keeps you coming back?
Oh, it's the people. The people, both the patients and the staff. And the multicultural aspect about it; I love it because that's how I see the best of America, when we're here and trying to make the best of what we have and brighten people's day and help them out when they're down. There's not a lot of places where you can get the kind of fulfilling experience that you get when you step up here at JPS.
It’s so powerful to hear about the heart behind what you do here as a volunteer.
I do feel like I always have an open heart and an open mind, and I say, “I’m gonna love whoever the universe puts in front of me.”
But when you’re retired and at home, you don’t have as many people to interact with. So I searched out this opportunity.
What would you like to share with people considering volunteering with JPS?
I wish there were more vibrant people to come say hello to some of our patients. Some of them are lonely, and they have problems that don’t have a solution. Sometimes I see everything the patients are dealing with, and I have no clue what to do—except give my time. It can feel like there’s this huge ocean of needs, and all I have is a pebble.
But listening and being there, getting them a book or something—those sorts of things would make their day better. And there are people out there who would be good at this.
JPS volunteers positively impact our patients and their family members every day. By lending their time to brighten someone’s day, they strengthen our community with every act of kindness. To learn how you can become a JPS volunteer, visit the JPS Volunteer Services page or request an application at volunteers@jpshealth.org or 817-702-1590.