Using Images in Hospice Volunteer Training

by Susan McDonald, Volunteer Coordinator
Toronto, ON

My challenge
I work in a hospice and am responsible for the recruitment and training of all of our volunteers including caregivers, cooks and cleaners. The caregivers receive 40 hours of training so that they have a very good understanding of palliative care by the time they come to work at the hospice.

Volunteer cooks and cleaners are harder to find, especially if I require that they do 36 hours of training.  Many of my cleaners are very new immigrants with English as a second language and have been ‘encouraged’ to volunteer by the benefits office while they undertake training or seek work.

My solution
I have devised a shorter training session for these volunteers (4 hours). This training necessarily includes the definition of the term “palliative care” itself and an introduction to some key principles (“medical” versus “physical” care, “boundaries” and “resident-centered care”). These can be quite abstract principles so I turned to images to try to convey their meaning.

I draw the image below on a flipchart along with the introductory text.

Medical and physical care is carried out by a team of caregivers including Doctors, Nurses, Personal Support Workers and Volunteers. Each has a specific role which is clearly defined.

I place the bullet pointed statements below on the image using colored post-its. This is to illustrate the defined roles (we also refer to some of the policies on what a volunteer can and can not do and compare these to other roles in the team).

Palliative Care
I then ask the group to write illustrations of how each role might deliver the different aspects of palliative care on post-its – the physical, emotional, psychosocial and spiritual care, and post them on a wall chart.

Role	Physical	Emotional	Psychosocial	Spiritual
Doctor	Alter drugs for better pain management.	Being guided by the request of the resident.	Making a personal connection.	Not judging the resident.
Nurse	Administering drugs, bathing and toileting residents.	Taking the resident seriously.	Ensuring resident concerns are followed up by the team.	Using therapeutic touch.
PSW	Ensuring bed-bound residents can reach the items they need.	Listening.	Sharing stories and jokes.	Being present while with the resident.
Volunteer	Holding a hand, giving a hug.	Putting flowers on the food tray.	Sharing activities with the resident.	Showing care and compassion while cleaning their room.

The benefit of this method
Finding volunteer cooks and cleaners is not easy, but finding people who will bring care and compassion to this work is even harder. I find that placing emphasis on the essential role that all volunteers play in a hospice in all aspects of palliative care and the importance of their role in the palliative care team raises their expectations of the job they are doing.

Being able to clearly explain palliative care and their role in it, is very important in their training and goes a long way to creating a committed and satisfied volunteer.

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