Preparing Hospice Volunteers for Intimate Work

Hospice volunteers step into families’ lives at one of the most private moments they will ever experience. Preparing them for this intimate work requires understanding and education.

Hospice volunteers are non-medical community members who contribute their time to give support to people and their caregivers as death approaches. They have generally never met the family they are assigned to and following the death, the relationship will end. 

The job description is to be a listener, a helper with small tasks, a patient “sitter” while the caregiver leaves the house or just goes to sleep. Some hospices train their volunteers to sit with a dying person who has no family or loved ones to sit with them — a "No One Dies Alone" program. Hospice volunteers also do fundraising, community outreach, and bereavement support programs. But this blog is directed at patient/family involvement.

Working with patients and families is intimate work. The volunteers are literally getting into another’s life at a most private time.

It is up to the volunteer to maintain their boundaries. The challenge is to be supportive, educational, friendly, and comforting while not crossing the line into emotional involvement.

Hospice volunteering is NOT becoming involved in family life. It is not making friends with the family’s friends and neighbors. It is not randomly texting “How are you today?" It is not dropping by with gifts for the kids. It can, under certain circumstances, be going to the store for the caregiver with the caregiver's directions and money. But not an “I’m going to the store. Do you need anything?" kind of call. It is doing the assigned duties with the family in a compassionate manner without crossing the line into a personal relationship.

A challenge to the caring, compassionate people that volunteer their time and energy to this noble activity is being aware of these boundaries. The relationship is not personal. The families are not friends. They are people being helped in a supportive, professional manner. 

Something more…

The Final Act of Living is the resource I would use for hospice volunteer education to help volunteers understand the dying process and their specific role at the bedside.