Factors affecting rural volunteering in palliative care – an integrated review

Abstract

To review factors shaping volunteering in palliative care in Australian rural communities using Australian and International literature. Identify gaps in the palliative care literature and make recommendations for future research. A comprehensive literature search was conducted using Proquest, Scopus, Sage Premier, Wiley online, Ovid, Cochran, Google Scholar, CINAHL and Informit Health Collection. The literature was synthesised and presented in an integrated thematic narrative. Australian Rural communities. While Australia, Canada, the United States (US) and the United Kingdom (UK) are leaders in palliative care volunteer research, limited research specifically focuses on volunteers in rural communities with the least occurring in Australia. Several interrelated factors influence rural palliative care provision, in particular an increasingly ageing population which includes an ageing volunteer and health professional workforce. Also current and models of palliative care practice fail to recognise the innumerable variables between and within rural communities such as distance, isolation, lack of privacy, limited health care services and infrastructure, and workforce shortages. These issues impact palliative care provision and are significant for health professionals, volunteers, patients and caregivers. The three key themes of this integrated review include: (i) Geography, ageing rural populations in palliative care practice, (ii) Psychosocial impact of end-end-of life care in rural communities and (iii) Palliative care models of practice and volunteering in rural communities. The invisibility of volunteers in rural palliative care research is a concern in understanding the issues affecting the sustainability of quality palliative care provision in rural communities. Recommendations for future Australian research includes examination of the suitability of current models of palliative care practice in addressing the needs of rural communities; the recruitment, training, ongoing education and support of volunteers in rural palliative care provision to ensure equitable care for all communities in Australia regardless of location.

Living, loving, dying: Insights into rural compassion

“…Applying a HPPC lens to the data, end of life care in a rural community can be seen to be characterised by compassion which is expressed in relational and innovative ways. Despite challenges associated with lack of services, social and geographical isolation and the demands of travel, and although issues of privacy and over-stepped personal boundaries plague rural communities (12) , a feature of this research were the expressions of caregiving that were seeped in compassion, both formal and informal services went beyond what was required of them to ensure people were well supported. As observed by Sinclair et al, people respond to suffering through relational acts of understanding and action (13) , and in this research they did so with a particularly rural slant.…”

“…Despite this, rural EofL issues are largely under-researched (5,6) . There are limited studies that address various aspects, such as transitioning to hospital (7) , commuting (8,9) , self-care (10) , support needs (11) , volunteering (12) , hospice services (13) and living alone (14) . Our study aimed to improve understandings of rural EofL experiences by exploring the ways bereaved carers living in a small community in rural Tasmania provided and received care.…”

Blurring and Bridging: The Role of Volunteers in Dementia Care within Homes and Communities

“…Social policy areas of housing, volunteering and dementia are traditionally disconnected. The role of volunteers in health, wellbeing and social careespecially the benefits -is welldeveloped (Naylor et al, 2013;Whittall et al, 2016;Darley, 2018) but often topically led.…”

A mixed-method evaluation of a volunteer navigation intervention for older persons living with chronic illness (Nav-CARE): findings from a knowledge translation study

“…Volunteer attrition was largely related to a delay in finding older persons. The underutilization of hospice volunteers, which is largely related to a lack of knowledge about their availability and capabilities, is well-documented in the literature [59,60]. In this study, volunteers indicated a need for further training and a desire to connect with other volunteers.…”