Helping Them Live Until They Die: Volunteer Practices in Palliative Home Care

Volunteers traditionally play an essential role in palliative care. Without them, many community and institutional programs would not survive. Despite the significant number of volunteers involved in palliative care, the nature and scope of their actions remain ambiguous. The blurred boundaries of their contribution create tensions between professionals, families, and volunteers with regards to patient care and sharing of responsibilities. This article reports on a comprehensive and descriptive qualitative study aimed at understanding volunteer practices in home palliative care in Canada through analysis of volunteers’ discourse. The conceptual framework not only allows for a description of volunteer practices but also for an understanding of those practices in terms of the meaning volunteers ascribe to their actions and interactions. The information gathered provides a better understanding of the place of volunteers within the palliative care system, thereby allowing communities to optimize their contribution to the palliative care mission.