Volunteer policy in palliative care in Flanders : a content analysis of policy documents

Background: Volunteers are considered a third resource of palliative care (PC), next to family and professional caregivers, and can potentially increase the quality of patient care. Yet, conflicting expectations exist regarding volunteer roles, which may lead to role strain and attrition. Moreover, it is unclear how policy pertaining to volunteering within PC services addresses these issues. Therefore, volunteering policies of PC services in Flanders (Belgium) were analyzed, in terms of measures to combat role strain and how these vary across services. Methods: A full-population sample of serv... Mehr ...