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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| The evolution of volunteerism and professional staff within hospice care in North Carolina | | Author(s) | Karen E Steinhauser, George L Maddox, Judi Lund Person |
| Journal title | The Hospice Journal, vol 15, no 1, 2000 |
| Pages | pp 35-52 |
| Source | Haworth Document Delivery Service, The Haworth Press, 10 Alice Street, Binghamton, NY 13904-1580, United States. |
| Keywords | Voluntary workers ; Medical workers ; Terminal care ; Management [care] ; Longitudinal surveys ; United States of America. |
| Annotation | Although the pursuit of Medicare certification has been one of the most controversial events in hospice history in the US, no study has examined its impact using data from a defined population of hospices before, during and after enactment of federal legislation. This paper revisits the debate on the changing role of volunteers using such a longitudinal data source. Over time, as the patient population grew, aggregate levels of volunteers and professional staff increased. However, the ratios of professional staff and volunteers to patients reveal that regardless of certification status, hospices retained more professional staff per patient and fewer volunteers per patient over time. These data suggest hospices - particularly certified organisations - have changed from voluntary organisations to professionally staffed organisations with a strong volunteer component. The most important issue for future research is whether the observed changes have affected the quality of hospice care. (KJ/RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-000522244 A |
| Classmark | QV: QT: LV: QA: 3J: 7T |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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