Hospice Volunteer Research: How? What? Why?

How do hospice volunteers learn about hospice volunteer opportunities?

What motivates them to start volunteering?

Why do they continue to volunteer?

These are open-ended questions that researchers at the University of Utah Department of Communication asked 351 hospice volunteers from 3 states. The following are the research findings:

1) Volunteers heard of opportunities through hospice and healthcare contacts, personal contacts, print and electronic sources, and other nonhospice organizations.

2) Volunteers were motivated mainly to be of service to others and because of a personal experience with the death of someone close.

3) The majority of volunteers continued to serve because they found it personally rewarding, wanted to help others, or both. Many continued because of the quality of their own hospice organization and staff members. Demographic influences were small.

These research results are particularly important to volunteer coordinators in recruiting and maintaining a productive volunteer staff. My video poem “Reflections of a Hospice Volunteer” expresses the win-win experiences of many volunteers:





Frances Shani Parker, Author
"Becoming Dead Right: A Hospice Volunteer in Urban Nursing Homes”
“Hospice and Nursing Homes Blog”

Teddy Bears: Companionship, Grief Support, Containers for Cremated Remains

Cuddly bears often have comfort appeal for both children and adults. In nursing homes, many patients with dementia cherish their dolls and bears, sometimes referred to as “babies.” Imagine all the interesting conversations these fuzzy companions share with their nurturing owners.

Hospices use bears for companionship with dying patients and for grief support with families after loved ones have died. Some hospices collect donations of new bears from the public. Others have volunteers that sew “memory bears” made from fabrics of deceased loved ones’ clothing.

Nowadays, people even use stuffed bears as containers for cremated remains (also called “cremains”) of the deceased. Not only for memorial displays, these personalized bears with hidden pouches often accompany their owners during their daily travels. Death seems easier to bear when the gentleness of a soft bear enfolds loving memories.

Frances Shani Parker, Author
Becoming Dead Right: A Hospice Volunteer in Urban Nursing Homes
Hospice and Nursing Homes Blog