What is it about?
Palliative care volunteers have a unique position between patients and professionals. Due to this in-between position, they are able to fulfil two important roles in palliative care: 1) 'being there' and 2) 'liaison'. They are crucial in communicating patient needs and wishes that professionals often miss. However, they require communication opportunities with nursing staff, leadership and support from professionals.
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Why is it important?
It's the first paper to provide extensive role descriptions that are at the same time flexible enough not to be reduced to or defined by simple tasks. It offers professionals and organisations a way to think about their volunteers as part of the care provision and evaluate the nature of their contribution.
Perspectives
I'm excited about this paper because it offers new and useful insights into what volunteers are and do, but at the same time corroborates the idea of presence, of 'being there' as a crucial part of what makes volunteering in palliative care so important. It is a finding that several independent studies share in some way, which indicates we are touching on something important here.
Steven Vanderstichelen
Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: The liminal space palliative care volunteers occupy and their roles within it: a qualitative study, BMJ Supportive & Palliative Care, December 2018, BMJ,
DOI: 10.1136/bmjspcare-2018-001632.
You can read the full text:
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