A study of the motivations of British hospice volunteers.
In all, 162 British hospice volunteers completed the Inventory of Motivations for Hospice Palliative Care Volunteerism (IMHPCV) of Claxton-Oldfield, Wasylkiw, Mark, and Claxton-Oldfield.(1) The IMHPCV taps into 5 different categories of motives for becoming a hospice palliative care volunteer: altruism, civic responsibility, leisure, self-promotion, and personal gain. Altruistic motives were the most influential reasons for choosing to join hospice; personal gain motives were the least influential reasons for becoming a hospice volunteer. Altruistic motives were found to be a significant predictor of volunteers' length of service to the hospice. Compared to previously collected data from a sample of Canadian hospice palliative care volunteers,(1) the current study's sample of British hospice volunteers scored significantly different on 2 of the 5 categories of motives on the IMHPCV.
Department of Psychology, Mount Allison University, Sackville, New Brunswick, Canada. sclaxton@mta.ca
Stephen
S
Claxton-Oldfield
Jane
J
Claxton-Oldfield
Stefan
S
Paulovic
Louise
L
Wasylkiw
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000533:Altruism; D005260:Female; D006738:Hospices / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009042:Motivation; D012941:Social Responsibility; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D006113:United Kingdom / Q000453:epidemiology; D014838:Volunteers / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D000078329:Workforce; D055815:Young Adult