After 32 years in the business of health care, and the last 6 years as a hospice care consultant, I have found that anyone wishing to volunteer wants validation and attention to the need to be of service.
I was amazed to discover that hospice volunteer training had never been presented in an online format. After extensive searching it was time to start my own training program because of the need to recruit volunteers immediately.
How often have you attended an event like a health fair or presentations to a club or church and someone approached you about becoming a hospice volunteer?
What I have seen is the majority of people interested in being of service but never able to follow through on the time commitment necessary for training.
It is critical to make volunteering as easy as possible with continued support and resources to make each volunteer feel empowered to make a true difference. Online training is long overdue and ease of independent study will create a new stream of people into the lives of hospice patients.
The success of your agency depends on many volunteers to not only meet the time requirement standards for patient care, but to be your army of marketers to your community. The more people you can train results in more people in need of the hospice benefit being served timely and effectively.
No volunteer can learn every role and responsibility from an online course. The education must be individualized and reflect the requirements for their assignments.
The volunteer who works in the office needs much less orientation than does the patient care or bereavement volunteer. However, each needs specific training related to the basics of hospice.
A successful hospice agency will recruit everyone that expresses an interest in serving and use the unique talents of each individual to fulfill special roles for their hospice. The role may not always be for patient care. Consider using every age group as volunteers for the following reasons not related to direct care:
1. Media - use volunteers to help write articles for newspapers and magazines or commercials for radio and tv ads. The volunteer may be able to use connections in the media field to greatly reduce your agency costs for submitting information.
2. Professional Therapies - music, art, pet, journaling, massage, aroma, and other alternative therapists can offer consultative services to staff after taking a short online course that demonstrates the particular needs of hospice patients and those providing care.
3. Local business - people in your community can train to identify themselves as volunteers and offer services such as reduced rates on their business offerings. Think of hairdressers, restaurants, art galleries, natural food stores, veterinarians, chiropractors, florists, etc.
4. Skilled nursing facilities - use some of the staff to train as hospice volunteers to help them gain insight to hospice benefits. A certificate of completion could be awarded by your hospice to promote recognition of those willing to learn and commit to training.
5. Schools, scouts, junior rotary - train for yard work, errands, clean up and restoration, ramp building, legacy writing, etc.
6. Phone Callers - have some volunteers train for nothing more than making a call each week to a patient to check in and show your patient that your agency is making visits but that someone is also available by phone for friendly support.
7. Pick a doctor's office and sponsor one of the staff to go through training. They will see your services through new eyes.
8. Event volunteers - every health fair could use volunteers to show their support for your agency and to recruit more volunteers. A variety of personalities magnetizes a wide array of people to become interested in what your particular agency has to offer.
Online training provides a basis for the volunteer and the agency to determine if this is a good fit for both parties. Through online training, those who will volunteer in a clerical or community event role are prepared to begin volunteering immediately upon approval by their chosen agency. Additional requirements to the training include learning the history of the agency, completing the agency's volunteer application and a criminal background check.
The volunteer can experience education to meet and exceed requirements for office and community event volunteerism by completing the online training but onsite training will continue to be the most effective route of direct patient care education.
Online training does not take the place of onsite training but it does recruit immediately the people most interested in what hospice has to offer and how it makes a difference in the lives of the patients and caregivers served by the hospice benefit.
For me personally, I can make a difference in my own community through the online training program but now I have the opportunity to make a difference on a much larger scale. I have found through my years in hospice that what I do today with authentic service, integrity, and compassion is all that I really have to offer and my hope is that is where I make the most difference in the lives of the people I serve.