Differences in well-being and fear of death among female hospice employees and volunteers in Hungary

Ágnes Zana,Edit Czeglédi,Adrienne Kegye,Katalin Hegedűs

doi:10.1186/s12904-020-00550-z

Abstract

BackgroundVoluntary work plays a significant role in hospice care, but international research has mainly been conducted on the mental health and fear of death of paid hospice staff. The aim of the present study was to compare the Hungarian hospice volunteers with paid employees with regard to attitudes and fear of death, as well as mental health in order to see their role in hospice work and their psychological well-being more clearly.MethodsThe target population of the cross-sectional questionnaire study was hospice care providers in Hungary (N = 1255). The response rate was 15.5% (N = 195); 91.8% (N = 179) of them were women. The mean age of female hospice workers was 45.8 years (SD = 10.46 years, range: 23–73 years). One-quarter (27.9%, N = 50) of the female respondents were volunteers. The instruments were: the Multidimensional Fear of Death Scale, the Perceived Stress Scale, the WHO-5 Well-Being Index, and a shortened versions of the Beck Depression Inventory and the Maastricht Vital Exhaustion Questionnaire.ResultsVolunteers scored significantly lower on 5 dimensions of fear of death than paid employees, and showed significantly lower levels of vital exhaustion and significantly higher levels of psychological well-being than paid employees. Fear of the dying process was associated with an increased perceived stress, depressive symptoms, and vital exhaustion in both groups. Psychological well-being showed a significant negative, moderate correlation with four aspects of fear of death among paid staff; this pattern did not appear in the volunteer group. In addition, the association between fear of premature death and perceived stress, vital exhaustion, and depressive symptoms was more pronounced is case of paid workers.ConclusionHigher levels of psychological well-being and lower levels of fear of death among hospice volunteers suggest that they are less exhausted than paid employees. Increasing the recruitment of volunteers in hospices may help reduce the overload and exhaustion of paid employees.

Highlights

Voluntary work plays a significant role in hospice care, but international research has mainly been conducted on the mental health and fear of death of paid hospice staff
Concerning death-related fears, our findings show that the mean of Fear of the dying process, Fear of the dead, Fear of premature death, Fear for significant others and Fear for the body after death were significantly lower for volunteer workers than those of the paid staff
Higher levels of psychological well-being and a lower fear of death among hospice volunteers indicate that they are less exhausted than paid employees

Summary

Introduction

Voluntary work plays a significant role in hospice care, but international research has mainly been conducted on the mental health and fear of death of paid hospice staff. It is important to preserve volunteers’ mental health In accordance with this objective, in Hungary it is obligatory for every healthcare worker and volunteer to complete a 40-h basic training course, 20 h of which are based on personal experience, dealing with death, personal reflection, and awareness related to loss. In international hospice and palliative care, in line with the improvement of volunteering, the number of studies investigating volunteering has increased in recent years (searching for keywords “volunteer” and “hospice” in PubMed results in 153 hits between years 2000–2009, 274 hits between years 2010–2019). In the latter period, the quality of volunteering changed. Altruism was a significant factor for hospice volunteers of both cultures, but German non-hospice volunteers were motivated by self-improvement and learning opportunities as well [6]

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