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Hospice volunteers learn from patients
By Pattie Greene
Staff Reporter
Two University of Nebraska-Lin
coln students are taking time from
their school schedules to make oth
ers’ lives more comfortable.
Lisa Hansen and Kim Olson, Ta
bitha Hospice volunteers, help the
terminally-ill and their families
through the patient’s last months —
and it’s not always easy.
“I didn’t know what to expect,”
said Hansen, a human development
major. “I had never been around
dying people before—this was a new
experience.”
Hansen said at first, it was hard to
accept that one day the patient was
living and the next day they were
gone, whereas she would goon living.
As a hospice volunteer, Hansen
said, she is a companion and listener
to the patients.
“I pretty much go in there and take
my cues from them,” Hansen said. “If
they’re having a bad day, then I try to
cheer them up as much as I can.
“They want to talk about what’s
wrong and to tell you about it,”
Hansen said.
Hansen, a senior, became involved
in the work because, she said, she
needed to work in an agency that dealt
with aging people for her degree in
human development. An adviser re
ferred her to the Tabitha Hospice
program.
Olson, a junior human develop
ment major, said she visits the termi
nally ill patients for two to three hours
a day.
Olson said the patients treat her
like one of the family.
“They tell stories and I see pictures
of their families,” she said.
Olson said she was encouraged to
become involved in the hospice pro
gram to get experience in home serv
ices for her degree in human develop
ment.
Hospice volunteers tend to pa
tients and keep them company so
relatives can have some free time.
They also follow up with bereave
ment volunteering after the patient
dies, so the family doesn’t feel aban
doned.
“We make life interesting for
someone who can’t leave their bed or
are home-bound to stay,” said Jane
Boehmer, Tabitha Hospice volunteer
for two years.
The volunteers stay with a patient
for two to three hours.
“We basically keep them com
pany,” said Ruth Kaar, a retired nurse
and hospice volunteer.
“There was one case that hit us the
hardest,” Boehmer said.
A 26-year-old mother of two pres
choolers was dying of cancer, she
said.
“It was amazing how the five
year-old daughter took charge,”
Boehmer said.
The daughter made sandwiches
and cereal for herself and her brother,
Boehmer said. She also showed a
great deal of concern for her mother’s
condition, Boehmer said.
“When somebody that young dies,
you feel the unfairness of disease that
takes away the life at that stage,”
Boehmer said.
That case was the most involved,
she said, because the volunteers had
to come every day to take care of the
patient.
“My first case is the one I remem
ber the most,” Olson said.
A 50-year-old woman was dying
of lung cancer. Her daughter in col
lege was taking care of her while
working.
“I was mentally prepared for an old
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Lisa Hauser, left, a Hospice volunteer, plays a game with Letha Vicar, also of Lincoln.
person in her 80s,” she said.
“The age thing bothered me,” she
said. She said it was like her own
mother dying.
Tabitha Hospice volunteers attend
15 hours of emotionally draining
classes, said Jenny Cardwell, Tabitha
Hospice volunteer coordinator. Vol
unteers arc asked tocommit their time
for one year.
Volunteers get an overview of the
program and learn what to expect
from a nursing viewpoint, Cardwell
said.
The program is strictly to provide
companionship to patients and family
members, she said.
“It is not Medicare,” Cardwell
said.
During training, volunteers talk
about death and how people deal with
death, Cardwell said. Volunteers also
learn to deal with normal and abnor
mal grief, how to meet a family, what
not to say and ethical issues of termi
nal illness.
Hansen said she found that older
patients are receptive to younger
volunteers.
“Seeing young people brings them
some energy,” Hansen said.
I
Hansen said there aren’t many
young people involved with the pro
gram, and they would like to sec
more.
7 had never been
around dying
people — this was
a new experi
ence.’
—Hanson
Many university students may not
be able to be volunteers because they
don’t have time or time conflicts
arise, Hansen said.
“The hospice families go out dur
ing the day,” she said. “So we, in turn,
need to provide volunteers during the
day.” Most students have classes
during the day or full-time jobs,
Hansen said.
“I’d encourage any students to
volunteer their time anywhere,
whether it’s a hospital, a retirement
home, or a hospice program,” Hansen
said.
“The experience in the establish
ments is a lot more educationablc
than the book,” she said.
The volunteer work doesn’t end
after patients die. It’s hard to work
with a family and then leave them
once the patient dies, Hansen said.
The Tabitha Hospice volunteers
keep in touch with families through
bereavement volunteering, Hansen
said.
Bereavement volunteering is like
hospice work, Hansen said. But the
volunteers go to lunch, play cards, or
do grocery runs for the families for a
year after the person dies, Hansen
said
Currently, Hansen said, she is
helping a husband who lost his wife.
“His whole world has changed,”
she said. “He has had to learn how to
cook and clean his house,” she said.
“It’s stereotypical,” she said, “but
look at the generation in which he was
brought up in.”
Now he asks her to sample his
cooking and they trade recipes, she
said.
Hansen and Olson said they have
learned a lot about themselves
through volunteering.
“I’ve learned that I can talk to
people I don’t know,” Olson said.
“You can always find something to
talk about.”
“I learned that if any of my family
members have cancer,” Hansen said,
“I’d like them to be in a hospice
program because the theory behind
hospice is to make the dying person as
comfortable as possible.”
“Just because they’re dying
people,” Hansen said, “doesn’t mean
they’ve died emotionally — they’re
still feeling and thinking.”
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