what requirements, or attributes must one have to be a hospice volunteer, or worker?

Question

Curious about this one, since taking a Death and Dying course in college, I've become interested in this field.

Answer 1

I've never been a hospice worker, but I will tell you some of the things I remember from when they came in to visit my Dad. Besides being a nurse, or have proper training. First and foremost you need to be compassionate. Dying affects the whole family, and hospice helps deal with that. You need to be able to smile when you really want to cry. Jennifer, my favorite nurse, would have these big tears in her eyes, but would smile at my Daddy like he was the only man on earth. You need to be able to seperate your personal life from work, because you cannot take this home with you at night. You need to be able to listen, not talk, just listen. Don't be afraid to hold someones hand and just listen to how they feel, and what they need to say.

Answer 2

Personally, I think you'd have to be nuts! (But thank goodness for such crazy people.)

I think the most important thing you'd have to learn is that very little of what you learned about how people die applies to people or families who are actually facing death. Remember, *they* didn't take the classes!

All the "stages" of acceptance of death are a pattern that one person noted, then her ideas became a standard that everyone (except the dying) believes. We want to explain things we don't understand, and we will do it, even if it means shaping people to fit our theories.

Fortunately, each person dies in his or her own way. Some visit those stages, others do not. They should NOT be led through anything. The dying will lead the helper. How arrogant it would be if we believed that we knew the best way for another to approach the end of their life, or to grieve for a loved one. So humility would probably be an important attribute of a hospice worker.

Also remember that when we think of hospice, we are probably imagining an old person in pain, who has lived a long, full life. Unfortunately, sometimes the hospice patient is a child, a teen, a young mother desperate not to leave her children, or a mean, selfish, grumpy person that we may not feel like caring for at all!

But if you have something in you that makes you want to do this work, bless you. You'll learn all that and way, way more. And you will make the world a gentler place.

Answer 3

To work in a HOSPICE you must be "insensitive" to human death. NOT that you don't have compassion for the people and their families but you'll be surrounded by dying people and see people die every day. I hope you are not easily depressed! You should make sure you can keep a positive attitude in the face of death and know how to communicate with someone to make them feel safe and not afraid to die I guess. Also I would think you would have to be able to "guide" patients through the phases of death and handle treating the symptoms of death without freaking out. Like if they start rattling and stiffening up in the days right before they die... or lose all of their senses but their hearing. Or when they lose enough oxygen to start jerking uncontrollably as if in a seisure. That seems like just a few things. Above all of that you have to put on your smile and try your best to make people feel comfortable for example dripping water in the corners of the mouth of a patient who has now refused all food and drink. You still have to apply chapstick and drip water into their dry mouth... lots of maintenence I would think, but it REALLY does take a lot of the burden and stress off of the family members who would otherwise be doing all of that instead of being able to sit and talk with their loved one to enjoy their last days together.

Answer 4

Well, being a caring person who can keep themselves from emotional attachment is the biggest hurdle.

You have to keep yourself stable in the fact that people die and you can not get upset about it.

Also NOT having a diagnosis of schizophrenia helps out a lot.

They don't like it when they have to give two pay checks to one person...

At least that is what they told me and me