11th Hour Hospice Volunteers – Help Me Build My Dream – Medford, NJ

Too many patients still come to hospice too late. It is a service designed for 6-months of support, but people come to us for just days… Sometimes, with just hours left.

When patient stays on our service are that short, the bast way for the Volunteer Department to be part of their care is to offer vigil (11th Hour) support; that is keeping the patient company, attending to them with presence, so they are not alone as they head towards the unknown, and what lies beyond this tangible world.

For my Volunteer Department to be able to do vigil support right, I need many like-minded volunteers to share each request, so not all of it falls onto just a few people’s shoulders.

If you can appreciate the need to be present to others as they are actively dying, please consider joining me here at Ascend Hospice.

I’m new to the agency (but not new to being a Volunteer Coordinator), and found a department anemic from the wake of COVID. I would really love to see this post bring in many, many new Hospice Volunteers.

In this specific task, volunteers sit quietly with patients. Maybe you’ll play soft music from your phone, or maybe you’ll read religious texts appropriate to the specific patient, or maybe you’ll hold the patient’s hand, but the most important thing is that you are there, so they are not alone.

Now many volunteers do both regular companionship visits and are available for vigil requests, too, as companionship visits can be regularly scheduled and provides a constant activity, as vigil requests, by their nature, are always last minute (a day or so in advance).

When there are enough people, we want to have volunteers visit back-to-back, each doing 2- or 3-hours visits, so much of the day and night is covered. Sometimes we are supporting family who are with the patient, and sometimes we are working with family, visiting when they are not, to extend coverage for the patient, so they are not alone.

The reality for many that we serve, is that they have outlived their closest loved ones, and so they have no one to visit them at this transitional time. Your visits can give them the strength/confidence to do what they need to do to move on their final journey in this world.

I’d like to say that Hospice Volunteering was an easy activity to join, but regulations and best practice, all designed to ensure the safety of those we serve, make it an effort to be involved. For that reason, we need people who can volunteer at least for a year.

And, you really need to have time to give. If your schedule is so tight, with everything that you have to do, and want to do, then this won’t work.

And, you do need reliable transportation, we never know who will be the next patient to need this kind of support. If your willingness to drive somewhere is too short, you won’t have enough opportunities to serve to make it worth the onboarding. (Volunteer always have the option of accepting the assignments that work for them, but you should be willing to drive at least up to 15 miles to keep your opportunities at a decent level for vigil visits.)

With all that said, if your interest is peaked, please reply to this message. I’ll send you more information about onboarding, so you can make an informed decision about getting involved. Hopefully, like me, you’ll agree that it is a worthy endeavor to do. Perhaps share it with a friend or two, and we can all achieve my dream of providing vigil coverage for all our transitioning patients.