Changes in demographic characteristics and motives for becoming a hospice/palliative care volunteer: Results of single institution 9 years educational program.

Abstract

e265 Background: Voluntary activities are essential in many different aspects of hospice and palliative care. The interest in becoming a volunteer lowers in many communities. Better knowledge of volunteers’ characteristics and wider understanding of their motivations seem to be crucial for more sufficient volunteers’ recruitment and retain. Methods: Self-reported demographic details and data on motives for hospice / palliative care volunteering were collected from initial questionnaire forms fulfilled by all consecutive participants of the teaching course for medical voluntary cancer patients caregivers (16 editions; April-2006-November-2014; no data for 2009) at Rev. Eugeniusz Dutkiewicz Hospice SAC, Gdańsk, Poland. Results: all 562 records were analyzed: 1) mean volunteers age was 35,73+14,69 years and significant trend (p < 0.001) for increasing age was observed (e.g.: mean age values + SD were: 2007: 28.41+11.82; 2011: 37.19+14.93; 2014: 41.31+12.16); 2) the vast majority of volunteers were females (82.03%), who already completed education; 3) 67 of study participants declared professional connections with medicine (19.47%), 42 (12.21%) - pedagogy or 38 (11.05%) – psychology; 4) 241 (42.88%) volunteers declared full current professional activity, 174 (30.96%) were unemployed, 50 (8.89%) - retired; 5) participants mostly reported motives for volunteering which might be categorized as altruistic (67.08%: “I want to help others”) – the percentage increased significantly during the study period (p < 0.012); 6) the next two most frequently indicated motives represented category of personal gain (29.36%: “I want to improve my skills”; 26.87%: “volunteering is the way of my personal development” – not significant trend for time). Conclusions: 1) Results showed that some demographic features as well motives for hospice / palliative care volunteering changed over the time in our community - it warrants some individualization in recruitment process recognition for volunteers coordinators; 2) the study will continue to identify the volunteers’ subgroup with the greatest probability to retain at service for longer period of time.

Volunteering in medical oncology

“…With rising disparities in cancer care, volunteering in oncology may potentially bridge the gap and improve cancer services in less developed nations. include a sense of responsibility, awareness and concern for the welfare of others [7,8]. Improved mental and physical well-being has also been reported [9].…”