Hospice and Palliative Care volunteering in the Netherlands. Practices of Being There
Abstract
Hospice and Palliative Care (HPC) volunteering is not easily comparable through European countries. Comparison of practices in different countries helps to acknowlegde, protect and improve the core of this unique source in palliative care. To this end this contribution describes volunteering practices at the end of life in The Netherlands. It presents quantitative characteristics about numbers of volunteers, type of hospices and hours worked and a qualitative description of the volunteering work guided by the concept of ‘ Being There’. Some reflections on education of volunteers is added. The satisfaction of relatives with services is discussed and some thoughts on quality assurance of volunteering are shared. All information and data in this publication is retrieved from several ‘grey’ documents like mission statements, year reports or registration fact sheets. All describe the Dutch situation of HPC volunteering and are written in the Dutch language.
Palliat Med Pract 2018; 12, 4: 193–197
Keywords: VolunteeringPalliative CareHospiceEnd of lifeNetherlands
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