Body Work Hospice Volunteer (Non-profit)

• *The Northern New Mexico service area includes Santa Fe, Tesuque, Nambe, Pojoaque, La Mesilla, Santa Cruz, La Puebla, El Llano, Cordova, Chimayo, Espanola, Ohkay Owingeh, Alcalde, El Guique, Medanales, El Dorado, Lamy, Pecos**

Are you a Reiki, Therapeutic Touch, or massage practitioner looking for an opportunity to give back your time and make a difference in the lives of others? Consider joining our team as a volunteer to help us bring comfort to those who are at the end of life.

Presbyterian Hospice provides compassionate and holistic care to our patients to help alleviate pain and increase the quality of life for their final days. We seek to bring our patients peace and dignity through health, social, emotional, and spiritual support. As a volunteer you can play a key part in our service by providing companionship and forming valuable relationships, and by being a non-anxious presence with those who are less socially responsive. We are specifically looking for volunteers who have been trained to provide healing touch. For patients who have become less connected to their physical and social surroundings, light touch can be a valuable way to make a connection and help them feel comforted.

Would you help us with your techniques to bring relaxation, anxiety and pain relief, and harmony to our hospice patients? Anyone with a compassionate desire to sit with the dying can join our team as a companion volunteer. To practice healing touch, you must have proof of training and a certificate/licensure in Reiki, Therapeutic Touch, Massage, or similar practice.

Hospice Philosophy of Care

Hospice is a model and philosophy of care that focuses on providing palliative care to patients with life-limiting illness, focusing on palliating patients' pain and other symptoms, attending to their and their family/loved ones' emotional and spiritual needs, and providing support for their caregivers. The hospice philosophy accepts death as the final stage of life and affirms life but does not try to hasten or postpone death. The goal of hospice is not to hurry an impending passing or delay its arrival, but rather to bring an added level of comfort and quality of life to those dealing with a terminal illness. Hospice services are designed to provide comprehensive interdisciplinary team-based palliative care for patients with serious medical illness and a prognosis of six months or less if the disease follows its natural course. Hospice services in the United States are an insurance benefit reimbursed by Medicare, Medicaid, and other payers.

Getting started:

1. Fill out the volunteer application online at www.phs.org/community/volunteer
2. Pass a criminal background check.
3. Schedule screening interview with Volunteer Manager by contacting cverduzco@phs.org

Qualifications & Requirements:

• Proof of initial two COVID vaccinations and one booster.
• Proof of childhood vaccination records, or titer test.
• TB test
• Current seasonal flu vaccine, or mandatory masking during flu season.
• Completion of self-paced online volunteer training.
• Experience/ training in a related field and/or in volunteer activity preferred but not required.
• Comfortable with hospice philosophy, policy and practice.
• Good understanding of palliative care and support.
• Emotionally stable and willing to provide emotional support to the patient and family facing death if working directly with patients.
• Preferably no personal experience with a spouse/parent/child death within the last year.
• Strong written and oral communications skills.
• Ability to execute a supportive and sensitive approach to patient/family needs.
• New Mexico driver’s license and availability of a car.
• Commitment hours flexible, for a minimum of one year.