Malgorzata Olszewska

Malgorzata Olszewska

Hospice Światło, Torun

Poland

ma.olszewska@interia.pl

 

 

 

Best Practices of hospice-palliative care volunteering in Poland. A case study of state of the art hospice volunteering management

Background

Increasing numbers of people living alone and dying from advanced diseases shows need to develop, explore and promote volunteering, as one of important form of social engagement.
Realising my personal project I want to study the subject of hospice volunteering, which is part of my personal experience, my job description as volunteers’ coordinator and a big part of the hospice-palliative care movement in Poland.Although volunteers are recognised as an essential part of the interdisciplinary team we can still observe a lack of scientific knowledge about this phenomenon.
My project will help to reduce this gap and give information which is not yet available in Poland.

Objectives

The goal of the project to is to assess and analyze state of the art hospice volunteering management in five hospice-palliative care centers in Poland. Parallel I would like to create network of support between those centers and area to exchange of experiences.

Methods

In my personal project I decided to use method of case study (a record of research in which detailed consideration is given to the development of state of the art hospice volunteering management). Observation during 4 weekends study tour, data analyzing and face-to-face structured interviews will be applied. Conversations will be recorded and transcribed. Transcripts will be analysed. Series of interviews will be conducted to achieve saturation of information. Afterwards, I plan to organize weekend conference for all partners of project.

Results/Conclusion

Work in progress. After researching phenomenon of volunteers in palliative care in context end-of-life care will be better known. Also, the project will give an opportunity to see volunteering as a big resource for social engagement of society.