Psychological correlates of interest in volunteer terminal care work

This study investigated possible relationships between reported level of interest in volunteering to work with terminally ill patients and psychological characteristics associated with perspectives on death. 117 subjects (aged 18-54 yrs) indicated their level of interest after watching a training video produced by a terminal care agency which provides support to dying patients and their families in their homes. Level of interest was related jointly to scores on measures of intrinsic religious orientation and positive affectivity, and to nominating a metaphor describing one's own personal death. Scores on 2 self-report measures of death concerns were not related to subjects' levels of expressed interest in terminal care work. The findings of this study suggest that initial level of reported interest in such work may be related to acceptance of the fact of death