While many health care delivery systems are criticized for the dehumanizing way they treat patients, hospice care presents a refreshing alternative to health care for the terminally ill. Patients appropriate for hospice care are those with six months or less to live. Interpersonal communication education is an important component of hospice care…

Details communication-related portions of new volunteer training process for Hospice organization. Description covers both theoretical intentions of training and contextual applications. Topics addressed include trusting, listening, talking about death and dying, communicating/interacting effectively, being assertive, taking responsibility,…

Reviews findings regarding attrition of hospice volunteers. Suggests ways to improve retention relating to several aspects of volunteer administrator's job including selection of volunteers, training, overseeing transition from training to actual volunteering, structuring communication between volunteers and paid staff, and supervising and…

Presents interview with Dame Cicely Saunders, founder of international hospice care movement. Saunders describes her background and experiences that led her to form the hospice movement and discusses the need for pain control for terminally ill patients. Saunders also notes her opposition to euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide. (NB)

Analyzed response bias among 34 recipients of care in hospice. Found nonrespondents to have better bereavement prognoses and tended to care for patients who were younger, male, and in program for shorter time. Nonrespondents were in contact with staff less than were respondents. Data are consistent with earlier research showing significant…

Describes the elements of a program in hospice and palliative medicine that may serve as a model of an effective system of physician education. Topics for the palliative-care curriculum include hospice medicine, breaking bad news, pain management, the process of dying, and managing personal stress. (JOW)

No theories of communication can minimize the crisis of dying. But those who study commmunication can suggest ways of offering comfort and dignity to the dying person. Many of these ways go beyond words, for death cannot be addressed with verbal cliches. The theoretical work from which a communication scholar draws can help hospice volunteers and…

This extensive bibliography of books and articles provides an interdisciplinary overview of present day terminal care and the hospice alternative. Designed to aid in the development and implementation of terminal care programs stressing palliative and supportive services for both patients and their families, the bibliography includes abstracts of…

Without careful definition of "spiritual," hospice care will be little different in quality from that offered in acute and chronic care centers. Also discussed is the challenge to hospice care staff to defy trends in recent health care allowing staff rather than patients to determine what dignity means. (Author)

The authors integrate poetry and narrative into their self-study application of the research methodology known as Appreciative Inquiry (AI) focused on: (a) their personal and professional practice and development; (b) their teaching practice in universities and informal/popular education settings; and, (c) their educational research in the area of…

This monograph, the third in a series of five, provides training information for hospice staff in improving interdisciplinary team functions and humanistic care provisions. Its purpose is to describe the steps in designing a training program for a particular hospice and the activities undertaken between the selection of the trainers and the…

This volume contains papers presented at a symposium on death, dying, and bereavement. Papers were presented on: (1) "A Psychologist in Hospice Care" (Clifford Morgan and Barbara McCann); (2) "Assessment of the Kubler-Ross Stages in Counseling" (G. Michael Averett and Claire H. Averett); (3) "Making the Road Less Lonely: Role of Volunteers in…

Administered measures of generalized communication apprehension (CA), communication regarding the dying (CA-Dying), and death anxiety to 29 persons in a hospice volunteer training program and 30 persons on a hospice mailing list. Results suggest the CA-Dying scale possesses adequate reliability and validity to serve as useful index of difficulties…

Survey of 68 hospice volunteers found volunteers to be relatively young, well-educated, in good health, motivated by religious beliefs and personal experience, and prepared for jobs after training and some on-the-job experience. Volunteers were most satisfied when working in direct contact with patients and families and in the hospital.…

Factors contributing to the success of a hospice volunteer program, organized by a visiting nurse association, include patient involvement in defining agency expectations of a volunteer, careful selection of candidates, a well-planned training program, contractual agreements, and record-keeping. (CT)