A Pilot Study Evaluating the Effectiveness of a Training Module Designed to Improve Hospice Palliative Care Volunteers’ Ability to Deal With Unusual End-of-Life Phenomena

Abstract

The need for training to help healthcare professionals and hospice palliative care volunteers deal with unusual experiences at or around the end of a person’s life is an oft-repeated theme in the scientific literature. A pilot study was conducted to examine the effectiveness of a training module designed to improve volunteers’ ability to recognize, understand, and respond to unusual end-of-life phenomena (EOLP) in their work with dying patients and their families. Twenty-four volunteers from two community-based hospice palliative care programs completed the 25-item Coping with Unusual End-of-Life Experiences Scale (CUEES) prior to and immediately after attending a lecture and PowerPoint training module. A series of paired samples t tests revealed significant pre- and post-training differences on 14 items, suggesting that volunteers felt more knowledgeable about EOLP, better prepared to deal with EOLP, and more comfortable talking about EOLP with others following the training. The need for additional data is discussed.