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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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Blog Posts

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."

Buy Now

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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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