Many people wonder why
hospice-palliative care volunteers serve patients who are terminally or chronically ill. Here are some answers researched by the Department of
Psychology at Mount Allison University in Canada. Participants in the volunteer research included 41 hospice-palliative care volunteers from community and
hospital-based programs. They were asked these questions with the following
responses:
1)
What aspects of your
work provide you with the most (and least) satisfaction?
In five of the nine programs involved,
volunteers said that feeling appreciated by the patients and families they
support gave them great satisfaction.
Boundary issues and/or role ambiguities
were mentioned among the least satisfying aspects of their work by volunteers
in four programs. (Volunteer coordinators should note this as part of ongoing
training.)
2)
Why do you continue to
volunteer?
Volunteers in all nine programs mentioned
that they continue to volunteer because it makes a difference and meets a need
in other people's lives.
3) Why would you stop
doing this volunteer work?
Among the reasons given for potentially
stopping volunteering were a family crisis, burnout, old age, and other
commitments.
Many kinds of
activities are available for hospice-palliative care volunteers. Among services
needed in addition to direct patient care are opportunities in community
education, fundraising, and office work. Potential volunteers should also
consider using special talents or unique job skills that they already have. Haircuts @ Home is a volunteer program of San Diego
Hospice and The Institute for Palliative Medicine. This video titled Haircuts
@ Home: San Diego Hospice Volunteer Program features two volunteer hairdressers giving haircuts to
hospice patients.
Frances Shani Parker,
Author
Becoming
Dead Right: A Hospice Volunteer in Urban Nursing Homes is available in paperback at many booksellers and in
e-book form at
Amazon and Barnes and Noble booksellers.
