Being a hospice volunteer

The aim of this study was to obtain an understanding of what it means to be a hospice volunteer in a country without a tradition of hospice or palliative volunteer care services. Ten volunteers from three different hospices in Sweden were interviewed. Their narratives were interpreted with a phenomenological hermeneutic method. Three themes were disclosed: motives for becoming involved in hospices, encountering the hospice and encountering the patient. The interpretations disclose a need for the volunteer to be affirmed as a caring person and received in fellowship at the hospice. Positive encounters with a hospice are closely related to personal growth. Volunteers feel rejected if their need for meaning and for belonging to the hospice is not satisfied. This shows that hospices need to set goals in terms of volunteer support, particularly regarding existential issues following the encounter with the hospice and the patient.