by Rashani Rea & Kathy Douglas
Those who companion suffering daily, such as hospice nurses and volunteers, will surely appreciate this beautiful work. With 62 original art collages by Rashani Réa, five beautiful chapters by Kathy Douglas, and a foreword by Jean Watson, this exquisite book is a peaceful refuge for contemplation, inquiry, reflection and inspiration for those who traverse the joys and sorrows of nursing.
Kathy Douglas, RN, MPH-HA is a nationally recognized nurse leader, filmmaker and entrepreneur.
Rashani Réa is a prolific artist and musician, a creatrice of sanctuaries and a respected spiritual mentor.
“This is a beloved book and beyond a book. It is an evocative, poetic, ecstatic, and inspirited sacred, experiential calling. A calling to you--YES, YOU.”
— Jean Watson, PhD, RN, AHN-BC, FAAN, Living Legend (AAN)
“Those who companion suffering daily need to turn inward to metabolize what they have witnessed. This exquisite book, filled with beautiful images and poetic wise words, is the inspiration and support needed to grow a wise heart.”
— Frank Ostaseski, founder and director of the Metta Institute and author of The Five Invitations: Discovering What Death Can Teach Us About Living Fully
“In this unique time of the COVID-19 pandemic, this book should be considered a tribute to the tremendous courage being displayed by nurses around the world. There is much wisdom conveyed throughout by those who have been there serving others with such grace.”
— Greg Schneider President, HVA, co-author of The Changing Face of Hospice Volunteering in Hospice and Palliative Care
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Replies
I can access THIS page, but I can't write on the blog for my volunteers that the company recommends we create! And...can't get paid for the time working on it at home. Good grief. Chamber lists...yes, I send to every contact I can find. You never know who has a sick relative, friend, neighbor, colleague...and I do use those newsletters as a marketing tool as well as a recruitment tool. Colleges and universities are great resources for volunteers, but my experience with senior groups is that they rarely volunteer with us. They do for hospitals! But maybe hospice is just a little 'too close to home' for most folks. That whole end of life thing. I was at a COCA meeting (continuity of care association) this morning, and one of our discussion topics was Engage With Grace and havingtheconversation.org. Both sites encourage everyone to open the conversation about 'what do you want afterwards?' And then we talked for a long time about the need for education about hospice - to docs, families, nurses - everyone. So we decided to create a press release about the need to plan for our own ends of life and about the need to tell others what those pans are; we're going to write this press release as 'from the organization' and list all the members. That will, hopefully, help us to get it published! But we do have one resource we KNOW will print it - and we can each use it on our own websites, Facebook pages, and blogs. I'm hoping it will prove beneficial to all of us. And we can use that press release as a base from which to speak to groups, service organizations, etc. about hospice and the need for EOL plans. What do you think about this idea? Have you done something similar?
Welcome to the Voluntter Administrator field. All the ideas you have received are wonderfu. I have only worked for for-profit hospices and know the struggles you are having getting items in the newspaper. I work in urban city, but have rural areas that we serve. I have found that rural papers are much more welcoming regarding press releases. I also use volunteer Match but also post on 1-800-volunteer.org. If you have a special program that you have created and are having success with newspaper will consider running a special article at times. If your Hospice has a marketing director or public relations person work with them. Also be sure and ask your staff to help. I just had a contest in my office on volunteer recruitment. Gave staff the opportunity to win gift cards for bring in a prospective volunteer who signed up and went through training. Got 7 new volunteers in a 6 week time. that is good for my area since we have about 60 hospices service clients in my service area. Good luck and keep us all posted
Jennifer Thompson, CVA
Rivercross Hospice - Tulsa
the company supplied the gift cards, since I am a for-profit hospice unable to solicit. Ask you director what the annual budget line is for volunteer department. They will probably say their isn't one, but there is generally budgeted money somewhere. I asked and found out I did have a small budget and that is where the gift card money came from. I have tryed getting things in the community, such as end of the day donuts and have run into the same problem when they ask profit or non-profit. I worked really hard promoting this within the company. Divided the staff into teams, did a team star poster for them and make it a real competition between teams. Create a theme, flyers, just like you do a volunteer recrutiment in the community. Give it some time and try again. I will probably do another one in the spring.
Jennifer
Hi Melissa-
I saw a notice in my local chamber of commerce newsletter that drew me in. Our local paper also has a section with upcoming events and classes and our local for profit hospital hospice often recruits volunteers through both of those venues.
So...here's a question or two: how many hours of training do you require before letting volunteers see patients? Are you happy with the program you have? I'm asking because I think 30+ hours of training is a LOT to ask from people who are interested in doing good things for FREE. I've lost several candidates because the training is so long and involved.
Janet-I am studying this issue myself. My interpretation of the COPs (well, it's not mine really, as I have read it in more than one place!) says that there is no mandated length for training, so long as it encompasses all of the curicculum items they outline. That said, when I was a hospice volunteer nearly 20 years ago, I recall my training being lengthy...maybe 4 sessions, partial or full days even...but I REALLY wanted to do it, so I stuck it out. (and it was fantastic!) The program I came into had maybe a 5 hour curriculum set up, which I have consolidated into about 3.5 hours of necessary info...and I call it orientation, not training. I am trying to enhance what we offer in part because my volunteer training was so comprehensive and beneficial! However, I have seen many programs offer "graduated" levels...a few hours for general/admin volunteers, add a few hours to that for pt. care; add a few more hours for bereavement, etc. I have also seen info on online training, which is helpful if you have someone ready to start who applies between trainings...I would love to check more into this option as it is a more convenient tool for some...though I would still want to bring applicants in to go over more agency specific info.
I might suggest posting the question to the board here...it would be interesting to see the varied responses and maybe we could steal a few more cars! (haha) Happy New Year to you!
ps I already have a volunteer working on a chamber database for me!)
I have my orientation/training divided up by what the volunteer opportunity is for. My administrative volunteers go through approximately 3 hours of general orientation and position training. direct patient do thorugh approximately 5 hours with me and another 6 hours watching DVD's put out by Pat Carver. This DVD sessions are done on their own in their homes, There is a Q&A and reflection questions on each session. I have found the combination to be every successful and I don't have to wait until I have a group. The HIPPA section in these DVD's is the best I have ever seen and we use it for our employees as well. You can find the information by goggling Pat Carver + hospice training material. (I can't remember the exact address). I work very hard at making training convienent for the volunteer. They are hard to obtain, don't want to loss them. But remember a good volunteer will go through as much training as is needed if they believe in your mission/cause.
Jennifer Thompson, CVA
Rivercross Hospice - Tulsa
Diane, many of my volunteers are students at Valpo University, Indiana University Northwest, Purdue North Central, and Indiana University South Bend. Most of them do not have cars! That presented a challenge. So, I've "updated" our program and now send all training documents via email. I'm soon going to post them on my blog, but I have to do that from home. Company computers won't allow us to access blogs or Facebook, etc - but encourages us to create blogs and Facebook accounts to keep in touch with our volunteers. Sigh. Trying to coordinate RNs, MSWs, ministers and bereavement counselors with volunteers is 'herding cats.' So my plan for 2011 is to set up a video camera and capture presentations from each group. Then I can either present the videos live to a group or I can digitize and put on the blog. I think it's crucial to make the training not only interesting and valuable - but easy to access and complete. The Volunteer Notes are an issue as well; I hate committing valuable documents to the mail. I'm going to ask the volunteers to complete their notes at the facilities and then fax them from there to me. Instantaneous communications - safer than mail or email. How do you handle Notes and Needs Assessments?
Jan-
Happy New Year! Sorry for the delay in replying...to demonstrate my understanding of your frustration about the social media, blogs, etc...I can't even access this page from work! (I spend Tuesdays in the community making contacts and am taking a lunch break now, using my personal laptop!)
I understand about the desire to put your training online...that's an option I might explore down the road. At a hospice I worked at previously, volunteers (and staff) could earn continuing ed "credits" to demonstrate ongoing learning by reading an especially useful piece of info/research, then answering questions/writing about what they read and the implications for hospice staff...that has some of the same implications as your idea, in my opinion. I think the videotaping is a worthwhile idea...I know staff elsewhere has done this for volunteers who can maybe make it to an in-person training for three of four sessions, etc. I think I would personally have a hard time not doing some of the training face to face...one of the most meanigful parts of my own volunteer training were the experiential exercises that got us thinking about death and dying and end of life issues.
As far as our notes go, we too use the mail...I never thought of the concerns around mail being lost, etc...the volunteer notes are one of the few remaining paper documents we use. (Clinical staff is in the process of going almost totally electronic.) Though I have volunteers who see patients in facilities, many of them also see patients in the patient home and many of my pt. care volunteers likely don't have access to a place to fax paperwork in. I know that the resource available thru this site, the patient data vault, seeks to eliminate these concerns, but I think I'd have a hard time selling it to anyone else for that reason.
Finally, a quick question about your chamber lists for your newsletters...do you send to every type of business you can? I don't know if it is because of our location (Metro Orlando) but most of our chambers have literally hundreds of business categories, so I asked my volunteer to start with things like senior living communities, apartment communities, libraries, college/universities, etc...any suggestions?
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