Hospice Volunteer Coordinators: Who Are They and What They Do
A hospice volunteer coordinator is a vital team member responsible for selecting and training volunteers and coordinating their work. Basically, he or she is the “liaison” that ties together the work of medical staff, administrative staff, and volunteers.
The mission of such a coordinator is to find and identify reliable and motivated people who have a high level of compassion and empathy.
Who Is a Hospice Volunteer Coordinator
A hospice volunteer coordinator is required to have excellent administrative skills. Without them, it’s impossible to ensure that all hospice processes, including volunteer work, are seamless. He or she should also have good time management skills, excellent communication skills, and a high level of stress tolerance.
Although a coordinator is supposed to have a standard workday, it often turns into a non-standard day. This happens because sometimes, they have to answer phone calls and deal with urgent problems 24/7.
What kind of education does a volunteer coordinator need?
A hospice volunteer coordinator should have a college degree in management. Preferably, it should be a bachelor’s or master’s degree in social work, psychology, business administration, or related disciplines.
In addition to proven management skills, this person should boast the following:
- Experience working with palliative patients, their relatives, and loved ones;
- Experience working with and supervising hospice volunteers or other healthcare workers for 2 or more years;
- Excellent knowledge of hospice rules and regulations.
Some institutions also require mandatory certification from the American Hospice Foundation.
Basic Skills
The coordinator should have the following professional and personal skills:
- Excellent communication skills, both verbal and written;
- Excellent organizational skills;
- Ability to work productively in a multi-tasking environment;
- A strong sense of empathy and compassion;
- Ability to maintain confidentiality.
They should also have leadership skills and the ability to motivate all team members to be highly productive.
Duties of the Hospice Volunteer Coordinator
The responsibilities of the coordinator include:
- Being a main point of contact for volunteers that provides professional assistance and support if needed;
- Developing and continuing relationships with potential workers, offering them positions that best fit their abilities and skills;
- Developing a schedule that fully covers all hospice needs;
- Training new volunteers in the basic rules and principles of hospice work, working with palliative patients and their relatives;
- Training already working people, providing them with comprehensive assistance and support;
- Conducting an annual review of the effectiveness of each worker;
- Keeping track of all activities conducted by volunteers and other types of their work.
This person is also responsible for monitoring current trends in hospice work, searching for relevant grants, and applying for them.
Volunteer Selection
Before a potential volunteer is trained and allowed to work in the institution, he or she has to go through a rigorous screening process. It involves:
- A background check;
- Verification of references that are provided by the candidate.
The coordinator also interviews potential volunteers to identify their motivation and whether the person has experience taking care of palliative patients at the end of life.
Coordination of Volunteer Training
The coordinator is responsible for organizing the training of future workers.
The main areas of training are:
- The basic principles of hospice work;
- What tasks a volunteer will need to perform;
- The principles of working with the family of a palliative patient;
- Dealing with bereavement.
After successful training, a new person is assigned a supervisor who assists them in the adaptation process. The coordinator is responsible for creating training programs and finding new ways to work with the worker.
On-Call Responsibilities
The coordinator’s responsibilities include emotional support for volunteers who find themselves in a difficult situation, which is beyond their competence to handle properly. For example, it is the coordinator who can determine exactly when to call an office staff member to address a palliative patient’s or family’s problem.
Also, the coordinator provides emotional support to workers at all stages of their work. This includes counseling on finding the right solutions in difficult situations, such as improving communication with the palliative patient’s family.
Bereavement Counseling
Bereavement after the death of a patient is another challenge that hospice volunteers face. It is the hospice counselor who should emotionally support workers in such a situation and monitor their emotional state.
Conclusions
The hospice volunteer coordinator not only manages the work of the team but is also responsible for the interaction between workers and the families of palliative patients.
The list of required knowledge, competencies, and skills of a coordinator includes excellent communication and organizational skills, a high level of empathy, and compassion for people.
A bachelor’s or master’s degree in psychology, sociology, business administration, or a related discipline may also be required. Two or more years of volunteer experience in a hospice or other healthcare setting won’t go amiss as well.