Hospice-Palliative Volunteers: Ranking and Rating Services (Research, Video 2:05)

Denver Hospice Volunteer Training Class

Imagine you were recently diagnosed with a life-threatening illness. Would you want a hospice-palliative care volunteer to join this journey with you and your family? More and more adults see the value in this decision. Their concern centers around, not only the services they will receive, but also the benefits their families can reap at this critical time. Mount Alison University researchers familiarized 143 adults with the services of volunteers and asked them to simply imagine having a terminal illness. The vast majority (94.4%) wanted volunteer support.

Hospice-palliative volunteers provide many services that can be categorized as emotional, social, practical, informational, and religious/spiritual. When these groupings were narrowed down to 23 specific volunteer tasks and presented to research participants for ranking, they chose practical support most. Practical support includes tasks such as running errands, writing letters, feeding, and grooming. Gender differences in participants’ emotional and social support preferences were significant, with women rating them more important than men did. Emotional support includes holding hands, playing music, saying words of comfort. Social support includes tasks such as sharing hobbies, pushing wheelchairs, and participating in recreational activities.

In this video, Annie, a Hospice of the Western Reserve volunteer, shares her experience

in providing supportive visits to patients and families.

Frances Shani Parker, Author

"Becoming Dead Right: A Hospice Volunteer in Urban Nursing Homes” (paperback, e-book)

“Hospice and Nursing Homes Blog”

Hospice Volunteers With No Patients (Video 1:34)

I have heard so many people say they admire what hospice volunteers do, but they couldn’t do that kind of work themselves. Maybe they don’t know that there are other ways they can provide admirable hospice service more appropriate to their personal comfort zones.

My class in training to become a hospice volunteer consisted of a dozen students from varied backgrounds. All of us were eager to learn what hospice entailed and what our future responsibilities might be. That class taught me the basics of what I would need in my role as a volunteer supporting patients and their families. I felt comfortable making a commitment to serving patients in inner-city Detroit nursing homes, instead of private homes. After I started volunteering, I thrived in that environment just as I had while working in inner-city schools.

But a few months later, I noticed a member of my former training class working at the front desk of the hospice organization. When we talked, she explained that she had been unhappy working directly with terminally ill patients. She especially didn’t like working in nursing homes, but service in private homes was also not attractive. When she mentioned her concerns to the hospice coordinator, she was given other service options. Those options included involvement with office work, community outreach, and fundraising. She chose office work and said she felt fulfilled and productive supporting hospice in this manner. She especially liked communicating with visitors.

Ultimately, we had both found our respective niches where we could make our best contributions as volunteers. I encourage anyone considering hospice volunteering to keep in mind that there are various ways to serve. Hospice organizations can give you a variety of options from which to choose. They could not function without the dedicated services of thousands of volunteers and the diverse talents they bring.

Frances Shani Parker, Author

Becoming Dead Right: A Hospice Volunteer in Urban Nursing Homes is available in paperback at many online and offline booksellers and in e-book form at Amazon and Barnes and Noble online stores.

Hospice and Nursing Homes Blog

Hospice and Palliative Care: Veterans and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder – PTSD (Video 7:41 mins.)

The following conversation is from my book Becoming Dead Right: A Hospice Volunteer in Urban Nursing Homes. I am talking with Nat, my hospice patient who is a veteran of the Viet Nam war. We had many conversations about his life during my weekly visits with him. His story is typical of many veterans who suffer with post-traumatic stress disorder:

“Did you see my flag on the side of the bed?” Nat asked me one day.

I looked again at his small American flag taped to the bed railing and responded, “Yes, I noticed it the first day I came. It’s always there on your bed. I can tell you like it.”

“I fought in a war years ago. Gave the best I could give. I’ve seen and done things you couldn’t imagine. Some of them were horrible, I mean really horrible. Don’t ask me to tell you what they were, because I can’t talk about it. They say time heals all wounds, but it’s a lie. I left Viet Nam, but Viet Nam never left me. I carry it with me everywhere I go. All these years later, I still have nightmares like you wouldn’t believe. The doctor says it’s post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD. I wake up shaking, gasping for breath with tears in my eyes. In my dreams, I’m always running hard, trying to escape. Sometimes my enemies are close enough for me to touch. I almost stop breathing to keep them from hearing me. I’m constantly thinking I’m not going to make it. Some nights they kill me before I wake up. My dreams are so raw, so real they turn my soul inside out. In real life, I came back alive. A lot of people who served, some of them my friends, didn’t come back. That’s why I keep that flag there all the time. It’s out of respect for those who came back in body bags; it’s for those still struggling with physical and mental injuries. It’s the least I can do for them.”

Nat is like many men and women who have served our country during World War II and wars in Korea, Viet Nam, and Iraq. He suffers with repressed fear and sadness resulting from his war experiences. Hospice and palliative care for veterans, like the Hospice of the Western Reserve in Cleveland, Ohio, includes healing opportunities for patients to express feelings they have stored inside for years. Veterans and their families receive post-traumatic stress disorder education and support. Patients are often paired with volunteers who are also veterans. Being able to “let go” of the horrific burdens of PTSD is important at any time, but especially for closure during the final phases of life.

In this video titled “Welcome Home,” veterans share some of their agonizing service memories, including burial at sea.

Frances Shani Parker, Author

Becoming Dead Right: A Hospice Volunteer in Urban Nursing Homes is available in paperback at many booksellers in America and other countries and in e-book form at Amazon and Barnes and Noble booksellers.

Hospice and Nursing Homes Blog