Hospice volunteer coordinators ensure hospice patients receive the compassionate care and support they need during their end-of-life journey. In this article, we will explore the responsibilities of a hospice volunteer coordinator, address common misconceptions about hospice volunteers, and share insights from Hope Eberly, Volunteer Coordinator for Grane Hospice.
Common Misconceptions About Hospice Volunteers
Volunteers Are Untrained
Contrary to the misconception that hospice volunteers lack training, they undergo an extensive training and onboarding process. This training equips them with the necessary skills to communicate and connect appropriately with hospice patients, ensuring that volunteers are well-prepared to provide the best possible support.
Volunteers Have Limited Roles
Hospice volunteers play diverse and essential roles in patient care. They can relieve loneliness by being friends with patients, engaging in activities like reading, playing board games, doing crafts, baking, playing music, or even learning new skills. Furthermore, they contribute to the bereavement program by offering companionship, creating memory items, or sending thoughtful cards.
Volunteers Provide Medical Care
Volunteers are not responsible for providing medical care. They offer emotional support, companionship, and assistance with non-medical tasks.
Volunteers Only Work in a Facility
Most hospice care is provided in the patient’s preferred setting, often their home. Volunteers can visit patients in homes, nursing homes, or assisted living facilities.
Volunteers Only Work with Patients
Volunteers can also assist with the bereavement program by providing companionship to a bereaved, making memory items, or sending “thinking of you” cards.
The Role of a Hospice Volunteer Coordinator
The hospice volunteer coordinator is responsible for managing the volunteer program. This role involves recruiting, training, matching, and overseeing caring and compassionate individuals who visit hospice patients. Their primary goal is to ensure that volunteers are well-prepared to interact with patients meaningfully and empathetically.
Recruiting and Training
One key responsibility of a hospice volunteer coordinator is recruiting suitable volunteers. They identify individuals with the right qualities for this role, such as empathy and compassion. Once selected, volunteers undergo comprehensive training to prepare them for their challenges.
Matching Volunteers with Patients
The coordinator is vital in matching volunteers with patients who could benefit from their specific skills and personality. This careful matchmaking enhances the quality of the patient-volunteer relationship and ensures that patients receive the best possible companionship.
Overseeing Volunteer Activities
The hospice volunteer coordinator monitors and oversees volunteers’ activities, ensuring they provide the support patients and their families need. They offer guidance and support to volunteers as they fulfill their roles, maintaining a high standard of care.
Real-Life Impact of Hospice Volunteers
Hospice volunteers often create meaningful connections with patients that profoundly impact their end-of-life journey. For instance, a volunteer may create personalized items, fulfill a patient’s hobbies, or provide a comforting presence when needed. Let’s expand on the tremendous impact of hospice volunteers.
Here are some ways in which hospice volunteers make a difference:
Emotional support and companionship: Volunteers offer a listening ear, a comforting presence, and a source of companionship for patients. They can engage in activities such as reading, playing games, or sitting quietly with the patient.
Relieving loneliness: Hospice can be a lonely experience for patients, as their world often revolves around medical procedures and healthcare professionals. Volunteers allow patients to reconnect with their community, make new friends, and stay social.
Assistance with practical tasks: Volunteers can help with light household chores, shopping, cooking, or even pet care, relieving some burdens on the patient and their family.
Bereavement support: Volunteers can provide companionship and support to the bereaved, helping them through the grieving process by making memory items or sending “thinking of you” cards.
Indirect contributions: In addition to working directly with patients and families, hospice volunteers can also make indirect contributions by assisting with administrative tasks such as filing paperwork, data entry, or planning community events and outings.
Hospice volunteers make a difference in the lives of patients and their families and benefit personally from their experiences. They often report a better acceptance of death and its place in the lifecycle, a sense of gratification, and a deeper appreciation of what is profoundly important in life.
Insights from Hope Eberly, Volunteer Coordinator for Grane Hospice
Hope Eberly, Volunteer Coordinator for Grane Hospice, shared some examples of how volunteers make a difference in patients’ lives. These stories highlight the importance of volunteers in providing support, companionship, and meaningful experiences for patients in hospice care. Some of these examples include:
A volunteer makes rubber band bracelets for a bedbound patient, bringing joy and a sense of connection to the patient.
A volunteer baking no-bake cookies with a patient who used to love baking, creating a meaningful and enjoyable experience for the patient.
A volunteer provides a comforting presence and plays quiet music for a nonresponsive patient on end-of-life visits, with the presence of a pet therapy dog offering additional comfort to the patient.
These stories demonstrate volunteers’ impact on the lives of patients and their families, providing support, companionship, and meaningful experiences during their end-of-life journey.
Conclusion
Hospice volunteer coordinators are the linchpin in ensuring patients receive compassionate care from well-trained volunteers. They play a pivotal role in dispelling common misconceptions about hospice volunteers and creating opportunities for meaningful connections in the end-of-life journey.
