Volunteering For Hospice

by lambsbottom 14 Replies latest jw friends

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  lambsbottom

  Hi y'all,

  So, I have some free time on my hands and decided to volunteer for a hospice company that is fairly large and well known.

  Anyway, I visit people that have a relatively short time to live and it is very fulfilling. However, the company that I am going through is for-profit. I knew this when I signed up, but I don't care because its all about the hospice patients for me.

  So, I get this email:

  I’ve selected just a handful of you to email about this. We are changing our branding and so the paperwork is set to change as well. We could use two or three volunteers to help restock our paperwork that the nurses use. Is anyone available around 2pm tomorrow? I’m thinking an hour and a half to two hours.

  END

  So, I'm thinking to myself...seriously? A for-profit company wants my unpaid help to work in the office? Anyone else think this is weird. I mean, on their website it has an 'investors' section.
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  Band on the Run

  I was a patient on a hospice unit once. It was where my mds admitted pain patients. I did not know they could be commercial. Many formerly nonprofit r gvmtal functins are subcontracted to private companies now. It sounds as though an ethicist might have problems. Could you call and see how common this arrangement is? I've done secretarial work for my church. My personal experience is that terminal patients want human contact. I despise secretarial work. It is not so much the work itself as the assumptions that go with it.

  Can't you transfer to a non profit unit? Therapy dogs and massage therapists were very welcome.
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  4thgen

  Always trust your instincts. They are trying to tell you something.
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  rip van winkle

  For profit. Those two words said it all.
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  lambsbottom

  @ripvanwinkle:

  non-profits can be just as bad. example: WT
• 

  rip van winkle

  Non-profit hospice vs. For profit.

  Volunteering to bring comfort, laughter, a listening ear, assistance to dying patients is a lovely thing. That is equal at a for profit or non profit. You are helping the patients.

  Restocking paperwork for nurses in a For Profit hospice is a completely different type of volunteering.

  That is equivalent to the W.T.

  __
• 

  Band on the Run

  Lambsbttom,

  I want to commend you for volunteering at a hospice. It must make a big difference in the patients' experience. I could not take it.
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  LisaRose

  I volunteered for a senior program for a while. It was not for profit, but I couldn't stick it out. I thought it was very disorganized. You would be assigned a "learning partner", I had to go to her house and show her Jazz Documentaries. It was silly. I liked the old ladies, but most were gaga or not really interested in what we were supposedly learning, plus she wasn't there or didn't want to do it most of the time. The DVD player of hers wouldn't work or she would loose the remote. I had too call her to set the appointments, she never put in her teeth, I couldn't understand her half the time. I had to use my Netflix acct to get DVDs, it was one thing after another. I sometimes did a book group at the church where they had offices, that was fun, but the one lady there I liked died (a hazard of the job I know), and it wasn't my group anyway, I was the sub. I always felt like a failure because I wasn't good at it, I might as well been going door to door. It was a lot of effort for little gain. They wondered why they couldn't get volunteers. I decided I needed something that I was better at. My sister in law volunteers for second harvest. I did it one time, it was fun, you chit chat with the other volunteers while you sort through the rotten green peppers or whatever. It's too far for me, but I would like something like that. You go, you pack, you're done, somebody gets food, it's all good.
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  Slidin Fast

  I have experienced the support offered in the UK hospice movement. These establishments are definately not for profit. The quality of the care and the thoughtfullness of the staff both paid and volunteer still warms my heart.

  I can't imagine this service being given for profit but we have the NHS here which means that no one is forced to pay for medical care. I believe that despite it's faults we have a magnificent model of health care. Dignified end of life care though tends to be handled by the local hospice. These tend to be well supported as charities and are held in the highest respect in the communties they serve.

  I would carry on giving your best to the patients but make it clear where your boundaries are.
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  jgnat

  As a volunteer, you have the power to say "NO". Simply reply you are not interested in restocking shelves.