How to Attract More Males to Community-Based Hospice Palliative Care Volunteer Programs

Abstract

Two separate studies were conducted to better understand why so few middle-aged and older men volunteer in hospice palliative care; only about 10% of the patient/family care volunteers in New Brunswick's community-based hospice palliative care volunteer programs are men. In study 1, 15 (22%) of the 68 men who read a brief description about the kinds of things that hospice palliative care volunteers do expressed an interest in this type of volunteerism. The main reasons given for their lack of interest included ''being too busy'' and ''not being able to handle it emotionally.'' At least one third of the men who said ''No'' to becoming a hospice palliative care volunteer expressed an interest in 10 of 13 other common volunteer activities (eg, driving). In study 2, 59 men were presented with a list of 25 tasks that hospice palliative care volunteers might perform when providing emotional, social, practical, and administrative support. The men were asked to indicate which tasks they would be willing to perform if they were a hospice palliative care volunteer. The men were least willing to serve on the board of directors (28%), provide hands on patient care (38%), and work in the volunteer program's office (42%); they were most willing to talk to the patient (97%), share hobbies and interests with the patient (92%), listen to the patient's memories and life stories (90%), and provide friendship and companionship (88%). The results of these studies may have implications for the recruitment of male volunteers to work with dying patients and their families.

Stand by me: a volunteer's reflection on working on an academic palliative care unit in Germany

“…It is well known that much more women are engaged in hospice/palliative care volunteer programs than men [5]. This assumption is confirmed by the authors in their recent study showing that significantly more women than men were interested in this kind of volunteer experience, whereas men, in general in Canada seem to volunteer on similar levels as women.…”

“…This assumption is confirmed by the authors in their recent study showing that significantly more women than men were interested in this kind of volunteer experience, whereas men, in general in Canada seem to volunteer on similar levels as women. The authors of this study [5] suggest that, in order to attract male volunteers, a special 'job description', including the tasks they would like to perform, should be established. Of those men who vocalized an interest in volunteering in hospice or palliative care, the desire to help was a common motivation.…”

German Version of the Inventory of Motivations for Hospice Palliative Care Volunteerism: Are There Gender Differences?

“…In 2 studies, Claxton-Oldfield and colleagues investigated why relatively few men volunteer for hospice palliative care. 3 In their studies of middle-aged and older men, less than a quarter expressed an interest in hospice palliative care volunteerism after reading a brief description of typical volunteer tasks although 80% indicated that they knew about hospice palliative care (study 1). The few men who reported some interest in hospice palliative care volunteerism reported altruistic and humanitarian motives ("I see the need or enjoy helping others"), existing similar volunteer activities ("I already do this kind of work"), and/or self-serving motives ("I might need help myself or would like help for my family").…”

“…In study 2, participants were asked to choose from a list of tasks the ones that they could imagine themselves performing as hospice volunteers. 3 Males chose most of the social (eg, talk to the patient), practical (eg, drive the patient to the doctor), and emotional support tasks (eg, listening to a patient's life story) and were less interested in administrative tasks (eg, work in the volunteer program's office), tasks that involve direct hands on (physical) patient care/contact (eg, help with feeding), and tasks involving provision of grief and bereavement support. Kolnick and Mulder 13 conducted focus groups with males in order to develop effective recruitment strategies for male volunteers in a care context.…”

“…Similarly, in the United States, Canada, Britain, and New Zealand, less than 20% of hospice/hospice palliative care (note 1) volunteers are men. [3][4][5] Having more male hospice volunteers would be beneficial for both patients and volunteers. For example, male patients or their families may sometimes prefer to be accompanied by a male volunteer rather than a female one.…”