Do you offer a different training for clerical volunteers versus clinical volunteers?

[Greg Schneider]

This question was asked by HCF member, Ocean Sharp, a volunteer coordinator in Kokomo, Indiana. There are different philosophies on training of volunteers. In my experience, these philosophies are influenced by the nature of the organization (i.e. size, type, staffing), how it is managed and who is responsible for training the volunteer staff.

Organizational policies may also dictate training philosophies. That said, the following attempts to explain why I would suggest that none of those factors should dictate the answer to this important question.

Patient Care vs. Administrative

The CoP’s (Conditions of Participation) identify volunteer Role categories to be the following:

• Administrative
• Direct Patient Care

In the context of this question, I would categorize Ocean’s volunteer description of “clerical” to be equivalent to the Administrative category and “clinical” to be Direct Patient Care. These two classifications are distinctive and appropriate.

Training Requirements

While the roles of both types are important to the hospice organization, the training requirements for the Direct Patient Care (DPC) volunteer are considerably more comprehensive for obvious reasons. The DPC volunteer must be comfortable with being around those who are dying and have good communication skills. The needs of the patient and family are quite varied and the associated dynamics can be complex. While this does not imply the volunteer must be skilled as a clinician, it does imply the need for special training that is not necessary for a volunteer who is performing administrative tasks in the office or at hospice events.

Why Patient Care Volunteers Should Be Trained Separately

The original question asked if the two types of volunteers should receive different training. The answer to this question is yes. There are two reasons for this.

First of all, an Admin volunteer may wish to support the hospice mission without becoming intimately involved with death. The Admin volunteer should receive training commensurate with the tasks they will be doing. If the volunteer will have very minimal interaction with patients and families, some awareness of what that minimal interaction will encompass can allay any anticipated fears or expectations.

Secondly and most importantly, a comprehensive training program for DPC volunteers will likely include very intimate and sensitive experiential aspects. For example, role playing is often done to give volunteers a preview of what it is like to interact with a dying person or their family and friends. Participating in such training activities and experiences can be very uncomfortable for someone who has chosen to volunteer specifically in an administrative capacity. The reluctance of a volunteer to participate fully can diminish the richness and overall effectiveness of the training experience for others in the training group. This is an extremely important consideration to remember. It is more important to focus on providing a training environment that will prepare volunteers to serve the hospice’s patients in the best way possible as opposed to altering the training to meet the needs of a reluctant volunteer.

What If the Admin Volunteer Wants to Attend the DPC Training?

A good volunteer application and interview process can help a volunteer coordinator assess what the motivations are for a specific volunteer. It may be that a volunteer has chosen the administrative route in order to better understand what hospice does but deep down in their hearts, serving patients and families directly is what they ultimately want to do. In most cases however, regardless of intention, I would discourage participation in the DPC level of training by a volunteer who does not feel they can do patient care at the time of the interview. It is better to tell them that the hospice trains volunteers several times a year and after they have had some time to experience hospice as an administrative volunteer, they may reconsider serving as a DPC volunteer.

[HVTO]

Hospice goals, services and philosophy -
basically that all staff, whether paid or volunteer, are trained in the hospice philosophy of care.
Each agency has their protocol for agency specifics but we all generally start orientation for new volunteers with the same foundational guidelines.

418.78 Condition of participation: Volunteers

[HVTO]

Good information. I have noticed that the volunteers who go through the online training often tend to be "getting their feet wet" by seeing what hospice is really about. This may happen with the administrative volunteer who witnesses the patient care volunteers feeling the satisfaction of service. Understanding first the philosophy of hospice and then progressing in the direction they are most comfortable.

I totally agree with separate direct patient care and administrative volunteer training. However each must begin with the same basic orientation as defined in the Medicare Conditions of Particiipation.

[Kathleen Moen]

What are you specifically referring to regarding the "same basic orientation as defined in the Medicare CoP's?"

Thanks, Kathleen

[Frances Shani Parker]

Of course, the reverse also happens. I was surprised to see a woman who had gone through the DPC training with me working at the hospice office. During the training, she was very enthusiastic about working directly with patients. However, after she started, she said she couldn't deal with the depressing conditions at the nursing home. She transferred early. Sometimes volunteers just aren't sure until they've actually done the work.

Frances