There’s a new volunteering opportunity at Austin Medical Center-Mayo Health System.

It’s in the audiology department working for clinical audiologist Susan Lynn.

The audiology department must do a hearing screening on all newborns, according to Lynn.

“They’re helping me so much with the new universal hearing screening program,” Lynn said of the volunteers. “We are now mandated to provide this service for the state of Minnesota, so there’s a lot of associated paper work.

“They are doing a beautiful job of helping me with that paper work to comply with the state standards.”

So important are the audiology department volunteers, that, Lynn said, “If it wasn’t for our volunteers, we couldn’t operate the way we do.”

Completing the paper work is a necessary part of the hearing screening process.

The results of the tests are recorded in a log-book. Volunteers then take the log-book information and record it on Minnesota Department of Health forms.

The information is then Faxed to the MDH each week.

As time and accessibility allow, the volunteers also do filing for Lynn.

“This work is easy and no special knowledge is necessary,” said Ken Jensen, publicist for the AMC Auxiliary.

“It is not very time-consuming,” Jensen added. “Usually it takes less than an hour once a week,” he added. “We try to do it toward the end of each week, and the hours are flexible.

Presently, Eldeen Peters, Milly Burroughs and Joyce Goetz are the first AMC Auxiliary volunteers to accept the offer to assist the AMC audiology department.

“We really would like another couple of volunteers to join us,” Jensen said. “We would train them, and it would involve only an hour or less of their time once a month.”

Goetz, who is the recruitment leader for the AMC Auxiliary, said, “There’s always a critical need for volunteers, but this is a new area and it’s very, very easy work.

“Hopefully, it takes some of the burden off Susan.”

“And,” added Peters, “we’re helping newborn babies and their mothers and fathers.”

Males as well as females are welcome to join the audiology department volunteers.

Call Joyce for more information at 437-4608.