Stress and Burnout in the Social World of Hospice

SUMMARYThis research explores how the ideology of the hospice movement creates stress and the possibility of burnout for hospice volunteers and staff. Data are drawn from 12 months of field research, 75 in-depth interviews, and a mail survey of 260 respondents representing 27 hospices. The analysis examines sources of stress within the dramaturgical, sentimental, spatial, and temporal orders of hospice as a social world. The findings suggest that stress and the possibility of burnout may be reduced among volunteers and staff by substituting the ideal of the “better death” for the “good death” in hospice training and practice.