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Attracting New Volunteers

Posted by Greg Schneider on July 28, 2011 at 7:46am

If your hospice needs new volunteers, most do, what is your recruiting perspective?

Do you recruit thinking only of the needs of your hospice -- am I going to make that 5% target this month or do you consider the needs of the potential volunteer pool?

Being a volunteer myself, who has a busy schedule, I prefer to volunteer with hospices that are conscious of the limited amount of time I have.  Unfortunately all of the hospices I volunteer with in my local area are not using an electronic form of reporting such as HVA's Patient Data Vault.  I am constantly having to deal with paper and envelopes.  When I run out of forms or envelopes I have to have them mail me a new supply, sometimes delaying my form submittal.  Then I have to find a mail box, which is hard to find these days, or get to a post office.  I find it to be a hassle, knowing that better alternatives are available.  If I knew a hospice had easier reporting methods, I would change hospices.

How To Be More Successful in Your Volunteer Recruiting

If you want more volunteers to consider joining your organization, you need to update your management and reporting tools.  Your probabilities of getting a volunteer to come to your hospice if you are still pushing paper and mailing envelopes will be less in this day and age.  Younger volunteers and computer savvy professionals will favor a competitor that is using the Patient Data Vault (PDV), over a hospice that does not use a computer-based reporting tool that is accessible via the Internet.

If you are using the PDV, use it as a marketing tool!!  Put it in your advertising.  Also add that members will receive free memberships to HVA upon completion of their training if they come to your hospice.  There are many resources that are valuable to new volunteers that are about to make a life changing choice of serving those who are dying.  Successful recruiting is about making your hospice stand out compared to its competitors.  Let HVA help you improve your recruiting odds!!

Hospices located in college towns can draw college students easier if they advertise that they care about the volunteer's time and that they use the latest technologies such as the PDV, which allows volunteers to easily submit reports and communicate with their volunteers about patient-related activities using the latest technologies, including text messaging.

If you are interested in trying HVA's inexpensive PDV service, which many hospices have been using for several years, contact HVA at (866) 489-4325.  It will improve that care that you provide and make you volunteers happier and your volunteer program more efficient.

Greg Schneider
President, HVA

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The Big Lie

Posted by Greg Schneider on January 31, 2010 at 11:43am
[My comments: Tolstoy's novella, The Death of Ivan Ilyich, provides insight into the life of a high court judge in 19th-century Russia who left serious reflection on his own life until hours before his death. The process of dying, which for him started after the realization that his illness was not going to improve -- no matter what his doctors told him, was physically and emotionally painful. His suffering was perpetuated up until the very moment of his death by what he referred to as The Big Lie.] Supporting Others at the End of Life At some point in our lives most of us will be required confront the death of a friend or loved one. Some of us will be bold and brave enough to offer our support to a friend or family member throughout their dying process, while the rest of us will attempt to support a friend or family member from the periphery in the best way we know how. Generally speaking our society approaches a death situation with trepidation because we are not sure how to handle it. What should I say? Will I say the wrong thing? Can I be in the presence of someone dying or will the realization of my own mortality be too much to face? This reluctance and ultimate aversion to face a death situation with open eyes and open mind may satisfy the needs of the person who is not dying but the person who is dying can incur incredible suffering by our lack of willingness to accept the situation for what it is. The book refers to this aversion as The Big Lie. The following excerpt from the book expresses Ivan’s frustration with all of those around him who seemed to ignore the fact that he was dying:
Ivan Ilyich suffered most of all from the lie, the lie which, for some reason, everyone accepted: that he was not dying but was simply ill, and that if he stayed calm and underwent treatment he could expect good results. Yet he knew that regardless of what was done, all he could expect was more agonizing suffering and death. And he was tortured by this lie, tortured by the fact that they refused to acknowledge what he and everyone else knew, that they wanted to lie about his horrible condition and to force him to become a party to that lie. This lie, a lie perpetrated on the eve of his death, a lie that was bound to degrade the awesome, solemn act of his dying to the level of their social calls, their draperies, and the sturgeon they ate for dinner, was an excruciating torture for Ivan Ilyich. And, oddly enough, many times when they were going through their acts with him he came within a hairbreadth of shouting: "Stop your lying! You and I know that I'm dying, so at least stop lying!" But he never had the courage to do it. He saw that the awesome, terrifying act of his dying had been degraded by those about him to the level of a chance unpleasantness, a bit of unseemly behavior (they reacted to him as they would to a man who emitted a foul odor on entering a drawing room); that it had been degraded by that very "propriety" to which he had devoted his entire life. He saw that no one pitied him because no one even cared to understand his situation.
This excerpt illustrates the complexity of the situation and how it can result in suffering for the person who is dying. While Ivan was a prominent court judge in his career, he still found it difficult to openly express his own frustration with the situation. Had he felt more supported by those around him, he likely would have felt more comfortable expressing why he was unhappy with others, which would have benefited him immensely at the end of his life. Creating a safe environment that permits open communication is so important. Compassionate Caregiving Helps to Alleviate Suffering Hospice volunteers are trained to be very sensitive to the potential emotional and physical suffering of the dying as well as the impact that has on friends and family. You can help to alleviate some of the suffering of someone who is dying by not avoiding the situation and being willing to talk truthfully about someone's impending death. This does not mean that you have to focus on the topic when you come to visit them but rather be open to the possibility of a discussion if the opportunity arises. Let your dying friend or loved one lead the way. In my experience the discussion may take a very circuitous path as the person who is dying relaxes and finds the ease and courage to bring you into this most intimate discussion. Here are some thoughts from Ivan on this topic as he discusses how his caregiver Gerasim is the only one who seems to understand:
Gerasim was the only one who did not lie; everything he did showed that he alone understood what was happening, saw no need to conceal it, and simply pitied his feeble, wasted master. Once, as Ivan Ilyich was sending him away, he came right out and said: "We all have to die someday, so why shouldn't I help you?" By this he meant that he did not find his work a burden because he was doing it for a dying man, and he hoped that someone would do the same for him when his time came. In addition to the lie, or owing to it, what tormented Ivan Ilyich most was that no one gave him the kind of compassion he craved. There were moments after long suffering when what he wanted most of all (shameful as it might be for him to admit) was to be pitied like a sick child. He wanted to be caressed, kissed, cried over, as sick children are caressed and comforted. He knew that he was an important functionary with a graying beard, and so this was impossible; yet all the same he longed for it. There was something approaching this in his relationship with Gerasim, and so the relationship was a comfort to him. Ivan Ilyich wanted to cry, wanted to be caressed and cried over, yet his colleague Shebek, a member of the court, would come, and instead of crying and getting some affection, Ivan Ilyich would assume a serious, stern, profound expression and, by force of habit, offer his opinion about a decision by the Court of Appeals and stubbornly defend it. Nothing did so much to poison the last days of Ivan Ilyich's life as this falseness in himself and in those around him.
If you are in a situation where you have a friend or loved one who is going through their dying process, you may find our resources helpful. Visit the Hospice Volunteer Association website and our Hospice Community Forum. If you are dealing with the serious illness of a child, you will also find our Hannah's Friends website helpful. Greg Schneider Founder & President Hospice Volunteer Association
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CAREGIVERS STORE

Recently Published!!
by Maryclaire Torinus

Surviving Hospice: A Chaplain's Journey into the Big Business of Dying Plus: How To Find a Trustworthy Hospice 

This narrative is an insider’s look into the hijacking of hospice by private equity and professional investors and the subsequent harm to patients, their families, and to the interdisciplinary clinical teams. It was released by a NYC publisher on October 31, 2023. For sale on Amazon.

The author, a hospice chaplain, tells end-of-life stories of her patients who were harmed by financially-motivated policies. This is a book for anyone who is embarking on making a choice about a hospice for their loved one, working chaplains, those in training, and those interested in what dying is like with a hospice who places patients as their primary stakeholders.

Maryclaire's experience working for an owner who sold to a private equity firm helped her to realize that the reputation and viability of hospice is in jeopardy. Her goal is to alert all who love hospice to rid it of professional investors.

— Stacy Juba, author, editor, and award-winning health journalist

"Powerful, beautifully written, and eye-opening, this book spotlights the inner workings of a multi-billion-dollar industry and the effect on patients, families, and hospice staff. The author shares poignant accounts of hospice at its best and worst and the hard-hitting truths she learned on her journey. A must-read for family members exploring hospice care."

— Laura Kukowski, CEO, editor, For-Profit Badger Hospice, LLC

"Maryclaire Torinus speaks with authority, providing this essential handbook for choosing a hospice care team and why that selection really matters."

— Greg Schneider President, HVA, co-author of The Changing Face of Hospice Volunteering in Hospice and Palliative Care 

"When I first found out that Maryclaire Torinus was writing this book, I immediately contacted her because in my 25+ years supporting hospice volunteers, I have seen a gradual decline in the quality of care volunteers are permitted to provide the dying and their families. There are a variety of reasons for this that I describe in the Foreward of this book. Maryclaire provides invaluable insights that everyone should know, along with solutions to help others make the right choice in choosing a hospice."

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The Changing Face of Volunteering in Hospice and Palliative Care
Contributing Author - Greg Schneider
HCF Creator & HVA President

Volunteers have a long history of supporting the development and delivery of hospice and palliative care in most countries throughout the world. As hospice and palliative care services anticipate significant increasing and changing demands, it is recognized that volunteers have a vital role to play in supporting the future delivery of services. However, as society changes so too does volunteering.

This multi-author text explores the complex phenomenon of hospice and palliative care volunteering from an international perspective and considers the influence on volunteering of different cultures and constructs. The book also explores the likely impact of changes in hospice and palliative care on volunteers and considers how and why volunteering itself is changing and the subsequent implications for managers, organizations, and policy makers.

This book does not attempt to offer solutions to the many challenges ahead, but rather poses questions that may help to reflect on new possibilities and opportunities.

Review

"The book is well laid out and written in an easy to use manner. It begins with setting the scene of volunteering and the modern context of hospice and palliative care. The book is well referenced and covers a range of topics making for a balanced and thought provoking read." -- Nursing Times

"If you run a palliative care volunteer service, or a palliative care service with a volunteer program, you need to read this book. Not only will it give you an in-depth view of where things are at, but also how things are changing in countries from around the world." -- Roger Woodruff, IAHPC Newsletter

 

Editors

Ros Scott, Honorary Research Fellow, University of Dundee, UK and Co-chair, EAPC Task Force on Volunteering in Hospice and Palliative Care. She is a researcher and voluntary sector consultant with a background in organisational development, research and the development of volunteering and of palliative care organisations. 

Steven Howlett, Deputy Director at Roehampton Business School, London, UK where he teaches undergraduate and post graduate courses in management and ethics. Previously he was Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Volunteering research where he completed many studies on volunteering.
 
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