ArticlePalliative medicine2018
Palliative care volunteerism across the healthcare system: A survey study.
Article in Palliative medicine, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Factors associated with psychological distress among end-of-life care volunteers: a systematic review of quantitative and qualitative evidence.BMC palliative care · 2026Pooled it
- 'It's not what they were expecting': A systematic review and narrative synthesis of the role and experience of the hospital palliative care volunteer.Palliative medicine · 2020Pooled it
- Relational care in palliative care units: a qualitative study of low-threshold volunteer hospice conversations.BMC health services research · 2026Article
- Empowering community volunteers improves the well-being of family caregivers of musculoskeletal disorder patients: a randomized controlled trial.BMC nursing · 2026Article
- Development of the 'Attentive Visitors' workshop supporting community volunteers in their palliative care signposting role.Public health in practice (Oxford, England) · 2025Article
- Implementation and Evaluation of Peer Ambassador Support to Patients Newly Diagnosed With Hematological Cancer and Their Caregivers.Nursing research and practice · 2025Article
- Palliative care training programmes for community volunteers working with children and their families: a scoping review.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- What knowledge and skills are needed for community volunteers to take on a signposting role in community-based palliative care? A qualitative study.Palliative care and social practice · 2025Article
- Community-Based Interventions in People with Palliative Care Needs: An Integrative Review of Studies from 2017 to 2022.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- Moral Challenges of Nurses and Volunteers in Dutch Palliative Care. A Qualitative Study.Journal of palliative care · 2023Article
- ILIVE Project Volunteer study. Developing international consensus for a European Core Curriculum for hospital end-of-life-care volunteer services, to train volunteers to support patients in the last weeks of life: A Delphi study.Palliative medicine · 2022Review
- 'The more you give, the better it is for you. You know the reward is greater than the effort': the Compassionate Communities Connectors' experience.Palliative care and social practice · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundVolunteers fulfil several roles in supporting terminally ill people and their relatives and can positively influence quality of care. Healthcare in many countries faces resource constraints and some governments now expect communities to provide an increasing proportion of palliative care. However, systematic insights into volunteer presence, tasks and training and organisational challenges for volunteerism are lacking.
aimDescribe organised volunteerism in palliative direct patient care across the Flemish healthcare system (Belgium).
designA cross-sectional postal survey using a self-developed questionnaire was conducted with 342 healthcare organisations. SETTING/
participantsThe study included full population samples of palliative care units, palliative day-care centres, palliative home care teams, medical oncology departments, sitting services, community home care services and a random sample of nursing homes.
resultsResponses were obtained for 254 (79%) organisations; 80% have volunteers providing direct patient care. Psychosocial, signalling and existential care tasks were the most prevalent volunteer tasks. The most cited organisational barriers were finding suitable (84%) and new (80%) volunteers; 33% of organisations offered obligatory training (75% dedicated palliative care, 12% nursing homes). Differences in volunteer use were associated with training needs and prevalence of organisational barriers.
conclusionResults suggest potential for larger volunteer contingents. The necessity of volunteer support and training and organisational coordination of recruitment efforts is emphasised. Organisations are encouraged to invest in adequate volunteer support and training. The potential of shared frameworks for recruitment and training of volunteers is discussed. Future research should study volunteerism at the volunteer level to contrast with organisational data.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.