When I first began volunteering in 1996, I was trained by Frank Ostaseski, the founder of the Zen Hospice Project. Zen Hospice had a residential facility with 5 beds called the Guest House, which is where I served the evening shift from 5:00pm - 10:00pm. Zen Hospice was unique in that volunteers served a very active role in the care of patients from sitting at the bedside to cooking, bathing and washing their clothes to name a few. This is rare in today's hospice environment, sadly which is becoming more rigid by the day for reasons described as liability, limits the roles that volunteers may assume in caring for patients.
I had arrived on my shift one evening to find that Philip was actively dying. At that time, the hospice assigned one volunteer per shift. There were three 5-hour shifts from 9am to 10pm. Each shift overlapped by an hour so when I had arrived Margaret, who did the 1pm-6pm shift, was still on shift and two other volunteers who wanted to support Philip, were in his room singing to him and holding his hand.
I came into the room and sat at the end of Philip's bed in a chair. Margaret was sitting on sofa against the wall not far from me. The other two volunteers who were singing to him were at the left side of his bed. Philip was non-responsive, laying there with a wash cloth over his eyes. Philip had done this before, while laying in his bed. It gave him a degree of privacy and solitude, yet he could still experience the presence of the volunteers without having to make eye contact.
I sat in my chair observing the actions of the two experienced volunteers. At the time Margaret and I had only been volunteers for a couple of months. After sitting there for about 20 minutes, Margaret said to us "Wait, I think I have the perfect music for Philip. In fact the song I want to play is already cued up in my car. I'll go get it and be back in a few minutes." Margaret returned and put the tape (Donovan's Sutras) into the tape player and it softly began to play. Within a few minutes of starting the music, Philip's body moved and his facial expression changed after being perfectly still for the duration of time the two volunteers had been there. There was a noticeable change in him. He seemed to be more at ease. During the second song Philip died so very peacefully. What was most interesting about this experience was that the title of the first song was "Give It All Up" and the second song was "Sleep."
Such a divine example of letting your intuition guide you.
The caution here is not to let the tools get between you and the patient. Your calming physical and spiritual presence is very important. I struggle with this, as I have been playing the harp as a vigiling volunteer for 7 years now. I find the focus required to play the harp can disconnect me from the patient. So use the tools only as needed, not as a tool to alleviate the helplessness that you may feel with the situation.
Frank Ostaseski, my hospice volunteering teacher, says we need to be 50% present with the patient and 50% present with ourselves in order to serve the patient fully.
Greg Schneider
HCF Creator
President, HVA
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