Death competency: a study of hospice volunteers

Area of Science:

• Palliative Care and Hospice Research
• Psychology of Death and Dying
• Volunteer Training and Efficacy

Background:

• Hospice care relies on volunteers with specific skills to support patients facing end-of-life.
• Understanding volunteer competency and self-perception is crucial for effective hospice programs.
• Existing measures of death anxiety may not fully capture the nuances of hospice volunteer roles.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare death competency and self-efficacy across different levels of hospice volunteer experience.
• To evaluate the effectiveness of death anxiety, coping, and self-efficacy scales in distinguishing hospice volunteers.
• To explore the utility of these scales for volunteer selection and program evaluation.

Main Methods:

• Surveyed three groups of hospice volunteers (trainees, medium-term, long-term) and a control group.
• Administered Bugen's Coping with Death Scale, Templer/McMordie Death Anxiety Scale, and a novel self-efficacy scale.
• Analyzed scale scores to identify differences between volunteer groups and controls.

Main Results:

• No significant differences were found in death anxiety scores among the groups.
• Experienced hospice volunteers (medium and long-term) scored higher on the Coping with Death Scale than trainees and controls.
• All hospice volunteer groups reported higher self-efficacy in dealing with death compared to controls.

Conclusions:

• Death competency and self-efficacy scales appear more sensitive than death anxiety measures in identifying hospice volunteers.
• These findings suggest that competency-based assessments can be valuable for hospice volunteer selection and training.
• Further research should explore the predictive validity of these scales for volunteer performance and retention.