How to Train Your Hospice Volunteers

By Barbara KarnesJanuary 25, 2022

Dear Barbara, We have added volunteers to our hospice services. How should we train them?

Start with asking them why they want to be a Hospice Volunteer. End of life brings many to our hospice doors for a variety of reasons. Family members we have just cared for while their loved one was dying are grateful and want to give back. They want to help us help others as they were helped. But not yet, their grief wound is too open. Rule of thumb for family members; wait a year then we would love to have your help.  

Some people want to be a hospice volunteer because they have a religious agenda. They want to help people see the value in a relationship with God. Being a hospice volunteer is not a place to do that. It is not a reason for working with end of life. It is not a volunteer’s job. 

A person who wants to be of service, wants to give back to the community, has some spare time on their hands, and is not overly uncomfortable with the concept of death—- this is our volunteer.

How to train hospice volunteers: 

1. First, talk about them, about their motivations, their experiences with dying and death, their concept of what happens when death comes, of an after life.

Get these beliefs, thoughts, fears, experiences, and concerns out in the open. We in hospice need to help our volunteers develop a strong mental and emotional foundation before we put them in end of life situations.

Get to know these wonderful people. Help them get to know you. They are becoming part of the hospice “family.”

2. Outline a volunteer’s role, what is expected of them. Are they comfortable with direct family and patient interactions or would they rather help with community outreach or bereavement mailings and phones calls? There are many roles to fill. Not everyone is comfortable with direct people interaction.

3. Begin end of life instructions: signs of approaching death (months, weeks, days, hours), communication and listening skills, normal grief, basics in pain at end of life, symptom management, dementia at end of life, use of oxygen, foley catheter, and positioning. Not that they will be involved in any of the above but they need to have a basic knowledge.

4. Provide agency policies, protocols, do's and don’ts of what a volunteer can do and say; how to document visits and interactions. Explain the role of the hospice team, nurses, social workers, chaplains, bereavement coordinators, and how the volunteer interacts with them.

5. I would give each volunteer a copy of my book, The Final Act of Living and the booklet You Need Care, Too, to be read as homework assignments. I would show and discuss the DVDs This Is How People Die and Care For The Caregiver.

If you are a medicare hospice you already have your volunteer program in place, medicare oversees and actually micromanages what you can and cannot do. The above is thinking outside the box. An “if I could train volunteers working with end of life—hospice, Stephen Ministries, Parish nurses, the way I wanted to, this is what I would do” blog.

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