Healing Beats Volunteers
Creating Humanizing Healthcare Experiences through Music and Companionship
Why Healing Beats Matters
Hospital stays can be isolating and stressful. Patients often experience loneliness, anxiety, and pain, and they may grieve the loss of their autonomy or begin to see themselves only as “the sick person,” losing touch with their sense of identity, joy, and connection with others.
Healing Beats Volunteers addresses these challenges by blending music and companionship to create humanizing experiences that ease the stress of hospitalization, nurture emotional well-being, and remind patients — through genuine human connection — that they are so much more than a diagnosis.
Click on the logo above to learn how Healing Beats Volunteers use music and companionship to uplift patients.
“Thank you for spending time with me today.
– Medical-Surgical Patient, Michigan, 2019,
It must’ve been 15 years since I last heard that song.
What a gift! Now go make some other people’s days better!”
Requested “Stardust” by Nat King Cole, sang every word
Simple for volunteers.
Meaningful for patients.
Healing Beats Volunteers follow a structured, step-by-step process designed to help them feel confident and comfortable at the bedside.
Our training emphasizes patient autonomy, emotional sensitivity, infection-control practices, and the crucial step of identifying each patient’s unique needs — ensuring every encounter is meaningful, respectful, and safe for both the patient and the volunteer.
Enhancing the hospital experience for everyone.
For patients:
- Provides an emotional uplift and reduces feelings of loneliness, anxiety, and distress
- Empowers patients to reclaim a sense of autonomy
- Creates opportunities for humanizing, non-clinical conversation and companionship
- Helps patients reconnect with meaningful music and treasured memories
For volunteers:
- Builds confidence and comfort entering patient rooms through a natural, purposeful conversation-starter
- Creates authentic opportunities for meaningful, compassionate connections with patients
- Offers immediate, visible impact — volunteers witness the difference they make in real time
- Provides unique insight into patient experiences and the realities of healthcare at the bedside
For nursing staff:
- Supports nurses and aides by helping meet patients’ emotional and social needs
- Provides a comforting distraction during routine procedures, promoting patient comfort
- Strengthens patients’ trust and appreciation for both staff and the hospital
Growing Impact
5
Hospitals partnered
50
Volunteers trained
2,000+
Hours spent with patients
Every encounter represents a moment of comfort, uplift,
and human connection for a patient who needed it.
“
“The ability to connect with patients on a personal level and provide comfort during challenging times excites me about pursuing a medical career.
These moments of connection reaffirm my dedication to becoming a physician who integrates compassion with clinical skills — ensuring that every patient feels valued and understood.”
Undergraduate Student and Healing Beats Volunteer,
Wisconsin, 2025
Frictionless implementation. Wraparound support.
Partner with us to launch a lasting, impactful Healing Beats Volunteer Program at your hospital.
Why Hospitals Choose Healing Beats
- Enhances patient comfort and emotional well-being
- Reduces volunteer anxiety and allows volunteers to see their impact in real-time
- Supports nurses and care teams by meeting patients’ social needs
- Low-cost, high-impact service model
What Your Hospital Receives
- Turn-key volunteer training program —designed to be easily used by volunteer services teams, based on six years of real-world success and development
- Implementation guidance & onboarding support — we walk alongside your volunteer services team during recruitment, training, and program launch
- Custom-branded materials — all templates and resources tailored to your hospital’s name and style
- Ongoing consultation — continued support as your program grows
Our goal is to make this program feel like your facility’s own initiative, fully branded and integrated with your volunteer department.
When patients ask where the program comes from, Healing Beats Volunteers are trained to say:
“This is a program offered by the hospital to help make your stay more comfortable.”
Help us bring humanizing healthcare experiences to patients.
Whether you’re a hospital leader or volunteer manager, a future volunteer, or a supporter —
you can help us share music and companionship with more patients that need the company and uplift.
We could not be more grateful for your support.
Launch a meaningful, high-impact, low-burden volunteer program at your facility.
Learn how to bring music and companionship to patients who need it most.
Help us expand to new communities and reach more patients.
Healing Beats Volunteers
Creating humanizing healthcare experiences through music and companionship.
jake.nitzkin@healingbeatsvolunteers.org
Healing Beats Volunteers is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
© 2025 Healing Beats Volunteers. All rights reserved.
Healing Beats Volunteers 