Maximising caring standards – Volunteer skills on a hospice unit

A visual presentation of the tasks that our male and female volunteers carry out during the course of their day will be presented. Their main role is to offer companionship and support to patients, their family and friends, and hospice staff. Their day begins by assisting with feeding breakfast from 7 am, right through to settling patients for a restful nights sleep about 8.30 pm. Volunteers are rostered three-four hours weekly to listen, read books, write letters, give hand massages, take patients for wheel-chair walks, attend to flowers, serve cuppas, do errands for patients and staff, and chat to relatives. They are also available to sit throughout the night with a restless patient when the family needs a break themselves, and sometimes sit with the patient and family during their last hours together if required.

At Mary Potter Hospice volunteers are rostered with primary nurses to enable the nurses to get to know individual strengths and weaknesses of volunteers. This also gives the volunteer the opportunity to enquire about patients who have returned home, similarly to avail themselves of information regarding the family or death of patients during the past week. This assists staff/volunteer relationships, provides beneficial use of volunteers' time and maximises the care offered to patients and family members in this time of need.

Good use of volunteer skills also means they are willing and able to drop their own chores and come in at short notice when the unit is busy or another volunteer is ill. Not only are they keen to assist in any way possible but they gain support from each other and willingly undertake extra training as appropriate.

Wider knowledge of volunteer skills amongst professional staff would enable more complete utilization and involvement of volunteers within units. They add a flexible personal caring, compliment from a wide range of individuals from our communities, including housewives and professionals aged from nineteen to seventy (+?) years.