REVIEW ARTICLE |
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Year : 2008 | Volume
: 14
| Issue : 1 | Page : 30--37 |
Keeping hospice palliative care volunteers on board: Dealing with issues of volunteer attrition, stress, and retention
Stephen Claxton-Oldfield1, Jane Claxton-Oldfield2
1 Mount Allison University, Sackville, NB, Canada 2 Tantramar Hospice Palliative Care Organization Inc., Sackville, NB, Canada
Correspondence Address:
Stephen Claxton-Oldfield Mount Allison University, Psychology Department, 49A York Street, Sackville, NB, E4L 1C7 Canada
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | Check |
DOI: 10.4103/0973-1075.41933
This article explores the issues of hospice palliative care volunteer attrition and retention (i.e., why volunteers leave and how to keep them interested). In addition, common sources of stress for volunteers will be identified and suggestions for alleviating stress will be offered. Volunteers are special people; patients and families greatly appreciate the care and support they provide and the other staff members' (e.g., nurses) jobs are often made easier because of them. Thus, maintaining a committed group of volunteers is an extremely important task for volunteer coordinators. The literature reviewed in this article focused mostly on North American studies and was limited to research that specifically involved hospice palliative care volunteers as participants.
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