Age-related variation in roles performed by hospice volunteers

This study examines age-related variation in the roles performed by volunteers in hospice pro-grams. Volunteers of varying age groupings display much similarity in their motivations for vol-unteering, how they learned about the opportunity to serve, the levels of satisfaction experienced from serving, and various measures of retention. The age of the volunteer significantly influ-enced the roles they performed at the hospice. Significantly more younger volunteers provide direct patient care services; and significantly more older volunteers provide both clerical and fund-raising services. Implications for future research and recruitment and retention of hospice volunteers are discussed. The hospice movement began as a volunteer effort, and without the con-tinued active involvement of volunteers many hospice programs would not survive. In fact, hospice programs must have a volunteer staff sufficient to provide administrative or direct patient care in an amount equal to 5 % of the total patient care hours provided by all paid employees to receive federal reimbursements (Department of Health and Human Services, 1993). More than three quarters of the people who work in hospice programs across the United States are unpaid (Ray, 1997), and the need for volunteers in hospice programs is almost certain to continue to increase in the future (Scott & Cald-well, 1996). Numerous studies examine various aspects of volunteerism among olde