• Steven Vanderstichelen, Dirk Houttekier, Joachim Cohen, Yanna Van Wesemael, Luc Deliens, and Kenneth Chambaere.
• 1 End-of-Life Care Research Group, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) & Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
• Palliat Med. 2018 Jul 1; 32 (7): 1233-1245.

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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