Brock Cara M, Herndon Christopher M
1 College of Pharmacy, Roosevelt University, Schaumburg, IL, USA.
2 School of Pharmacy, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, Edwardsville, IL, USA.
Am J Hosp Palliat Care. 2017 Jun;34(5):412-416. doi: 10.1177/1049909115625961. Epub 2016 Jan 12.
Currently more than 5800 hospice organizations operate in the United States. Hospice organizations are required by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to use volunteers for services provided to patients. Although CMS regulates the amount of hours hospice volunteers should provide, there are currently no national requirements for objectives of training. The purpose of this study was to gather information from a sample of hospices regarding volunteer coordinator background, current training for volunteers, importance of training objectives, and any comments regarding additional objectives.
Representative state hospice organizations were contacted by e-mail requesting their participation and distribution of the survey throughout their member hospices. The survey asked demographical questions, along with ratings of training components based on perceived level of importance and time spent on each objective.
A total of 90 surveys were received, and the response rate was undeterminable. Results showed the majority of hospices were nonprofit, had less than 100 currently trained volunteers, and maintained an average daily patient census of less than 50. Questions regarding training programs indicated that most use live lecture methods of approximately 19 hours or less in duration. Overall, responding hospice organizations agreed that all objectives surveyed were important in training volunteers.
The small number of respondents to this survey makes generalization nationwide difficult, however it is a strong starting point for the development of further surveys on hospice volunteer training and achieving a standardized set of training objectives and delivery methods.
目前，美国有超过5800个临终关怀组织。医疗保险和医疗补助服务中心（CMS）要求临终关怀组织在为患者提供服务时使用志愿者。尽管CMS规定了临终关怀志愿者应提供的服务时长，但目前对于培训目标并无全国性要求。本研究的目的是从临终关怀组织样本中收集有关志愿者协调员背景、当前志愿者培训情况、培训目标的重要性以及关于其他目标的任何意见的信息。
通过电子邮件联系具有代表性的州临终关怀组织，请求其参与并在其成员临终关怀机构中分发调查问卷。该调查问卷询问了人口统计学问题，以及基于感知的重要性水平和在每个目标上花费的时间对培训内容进行的评分。
共收到90份调查问卷，回复率无法确定。结果显示，大多数临终关怀组织是非营利性的，目前接受培训的志愿者少于100人，且平均每日患者普查人数少于50人。关于培训项目的问题表明，大多数采用时长约19小时或更短的现场讲座方法。总体而言，参与调查的临终关怀组织一致认为，所调查的所有目标在志愿者培训中都很重要。
本次调查的受访者数量较少，难以在全国范围内进行推广，然而，这是开展关于临终关怀志愿者培训的进一步调查以及实现一套标准化培训目标和授课方法的有力起点。
