For hospice volunteers the short answer is always, YES.

Here’s the long answer. Hospice volunteering is often a solitary endeavor and it’s easy to see how we begin to question the effectiveness of our time and effort when faced with challenging cases. I’m referring to challenging volunteer cases, not clinical cases with patients in pain or families experiencing  turmoil.

For example, we visit a non-responsive, bed bound patient in a skilled nursing facility. The patient is asleep, and at the request of the family we sit for an hour reading a chapter from the patient’s favorite book. We say goodbye, let the patient know when we’ll be back, and leave.

“Am I making a difference?”

We might not ask this question on the first week, or the second, but what about the third month? We have no contact with the out of state family, no movement or sign of recognition from the patient, no change in condition, no acknowledgement from the staff at the facility. It’s easy to see how we may start to question our usefulness, especially when other volunteers are actively engaged with their patients hearing fabulous stories about their interesting lives.

I believe volunteering and selfless giving is a learned skill. Yes, we may have an innate desire to serve, but to do it week after week for the long haul is the challenge. Developing our volunteer skills lies in the ability to look behind the scenes at what is really going with the visit.

Back to our example with the bed bound patient, what else is happening?

1. The patient has a visitor. You are providing a bridge of relatedness between the facility staff and your patient (often referred to as ‘humanizing’ a patient), so their care will often be extra attentive when you’re not there.
2. The family knows that the patient has a visitor. Guilt plays a huge role in creating anxiety for families living out of town, or families who are conflicted over placing their loved ones in a facility. Knowing that there is a hospice representative at the bedside does a lot to reduce those feeling of anxiety for the family. (Remember: the family and the patient are seen as one ‘unit of care’ in hospice.)
3. The hospice team knows the patient is being taken care of. We are a valuable extra set of eyes, often after hours, to respond immediately to patient needs.
4. And finally, we have no idea what the patient may or may not be experiencing. Although the patient may look to be asleep, they may be enjoying every word and relish each of our visits.

At the end of the day we may never know the true value of our contribution. The ripple effect of selfless giving expands far beyond what we could ever know or comprehend. Trusting that we are in the right place, with the right patient, at the right time, for the right reason will help conquer our doubts.

If you’re beginning to question your value as a volunteer, here are a few suggestions:

1. Call your volunteer manager, set up a time to grab coffee or stop by the office. Discuss your thoughts and feelings.
2. Attend volunteer support meetings. More than likely other volunteers have the same issues.
3. Reach out to experienced ‘mentor’ volunteers.
4. Schedule a joint patient visit with a member of the hospice clinical team. Accompanying a nurse may give you new insights into the patient’s condition and your contribution to the team.
5. Experiment with creative ways to engage with your patient. In the case of our example we could contact our hospice nurse or social worker and ask if it’s appropriate to get in touch directly with the family. Ask the family if they would like to send their loved ones recorded messages or have us hold a phone to the patient’s ear so they can express their love or relay family updates. Perhaps the patient once had a dog and would like to feel the fur of a pet therapy volunteer. Challenging ourselves to create new and meaningful ways to interact with our patients can work wonders in getting us out of a rut and help us to find new meaning in our work.

Thanks for reading, and have a great visit.

PS. If you have any thoughts on this issue, please share them in the comments section below or on our Facebook or Google + pages.