Additional File 2 Characteristics of included studies
Study (year of
Country
Setting
Study aims
Sample
publication)
Andersson [29]
Data collection
method/analysis
Sweden*
3 Hospices
To understand what it means to be a hospice
Convenience sample of 10
Individual ‘narrative’
volunteer in a country without a tradition of hospice
volunteers (9 women, 1
interviews/
or palliative care volunteer services.
man), aged 30-70, 4
phenomenological
retired, 6 months to 10
hermeneutic approach
years’ experience as
Opening question: what made you become a
volunteer
volunteer here? Then the volunteers were asked to
describe personal experiences from their voluntary
work.
Berry [30]
US
Hospice
1. To investigate ethical issues that arise for
Convenience sample of 39
Semi-structured individual
program,
hospice volunteers in working with patients,
hospice volunteers
interviews/ thematic
mostly home
families, and caregivers at the end of life.
(probably self-selected),
analysis following Miles &
care.
2. To identify general types of ethical situations or
mean age 64 years, 76%
Huberman 1994
dilemmas experienced by hospice volunteers that
women, median 4 years’
fall outside of guidelines suggested by their
hospice experience. 33
volunteer training.
volunteered with large
3. To learn more about the resources hospice
hospice program (home
volunteers use to manage ethical issues and
care) and 6 with smaller
challenges.
programs.
Opening statement about ethical issues. Questions:
1 Describe a situation in which you were not sure
about the right of wrong thing to do from a moral or
ethical point of view.
2 How did you feel about it?
3 What did you do?
4 Did you talk to anybody or consult any other
sources of information? If so, please explain.
5 How was the issue resolved and if it was not, why
not?
6 Say you are asked to help train the next group of
volunteers. Dream big here. Tell us how you might
better prepare volunteers to deal with issues similar
to the ones you have described.
Field-Richards [31]
Finn-Paradis [32]
UK
US
Day care
To understand volunteers’ experiences of working
Volunteers with patient-
Semi-structured individual
hospice
in a day care hospice with a particular emphasis on
facing roles; self-selecting
interviews/ inductive and
their perception of the boundaries that exist between
following distribution of
thematic analysis following
paid and unpaid hospice workers.
invitation letters from
guidelines by Braun and
volunteer coordinator; 12
Clarke (Qual Res Psychol.
No details of the questions asked other than the last
participants, 10 female,
2006; 3:77-101)
question: Is there anything that we haven’t
18-73 years, with 6 weeks
discussed which you feel is important in terms of
to 6 years’ experience
your motivations and experiences as a volunteer?
(mean 16 months)
Hospice
To identify primary stressors experienced by
17 volunteers from
Telephone semi-structured
program
volunteers providing direct patient care. However,
hospice programs plus
interviews/ catalogued
including
data are from a study focusing on volunteer
unknown number spoken
responses into 4 areas
home and
personality characteristics – they did telephone
to at a conference
inpatient care
interviews with a subgroup of participants from
wider study.
Four open-ended questions used to elicit concerns
related to stress and burnout among volunteers.
Guirguis-Younger
Canada
To enrich our knowledge and understanding of the
3 palliative care settings –
Focus groups/ grounded
rewards, challenges, and unique commitments that
acute care hospital-based
theory
define the experience of a palliative care volunteer
setting (7 participants, 5
Hospice and
[1]
acute-care
hospital
women); freestanding
No details of the questions but ‘Participants had the
community-funded
opportunity to share their feelings, perceptions, and
hospice (6 women);
understanding of their role as a palliative care
shelter-based hospice
volunteer and its impact on their lives.’
facility for homeless (4
women)
Respite care for
Alzheimer’s Disease
patients at home
Harris [33]
US
Home care
To determine differences and similarities in 1) the
15 - 5 paid workers, 5
Semi-structured individual
service provided by volunteers and that provided by
volunteers, 5 families
interviews/no details
paid workers; 2) characteristics brought to the
served by participants
respite situation by each group that had the potential
to enhance the home care giving situation; and 3)
quality of the relationship of the worker with the
family
‘…subjects were probed for their perceptions of
worker motivation, role, and competence’ no further
details.
Jack [3]
Uganda*
Home care
To evaluate the impact of a palliative care
Convenience sample of 21
community volunteer programme.
patients, 32 volunteers, 11
Semi-structured individual
interviews and focus groups/
hospice clinical staff
thematic analysis
Separate questions for each sample – too many to
list here (18 in all) but all pragmatic questions about
volunteers.
Luijkx [5]
Holland
Home care
To understand the experiences of families of
Relatives of deceased
terminally ill patients with volunteer support.
former patients – 6 were
Semi-structured individual
interviews and focus
interviewed and 22 took
groups/no details
What went right? What went wrong and what could
be improved in the last phase of life?
What roles do professional caregivers and
volunteers play in palliative care?
What are the implications of all of this for the
quality of life of patients and their families?
part in focus groups
McKee [34]
Canada
Home care
To understand the role of hospice volunteers are in
13 Volunteer coordinators
Telephone
rural communities.
from all local independent
interviews/grounded theory
hospice volunteer visiting
Questions:




Sevigny [35]
Canada
programs
Please describe what volunteers do in your
community?
What would be the ideal role of hospice
volunteers in your community?
What are the motivations and expectations
of your volunteers, and how do you
address those in your community?
What differences do you perceive between
hospice volunteering in rural as opposed to
urban communities?
Home care
58 volunteers and 6
To understand and describe volunteer practices
Semi-structured individual
coordinators
within palliative care system.
interviews and focus
groups/thematic analysis
approach to classify data
Watts [36]
UK
Hospice
‘Questions were developed to tackle all important
using a mixed categorization
themes linked to the study’s aim: volunteers’
model (reference is to a text
motivations, objectives, tasks, and experiences.
in French)
To understand the experience of becoming and
being a hospice volunteer
10 volunteers at 1 hospice
Focus group and 2 semistructured individual
interviews/ thematically
Used topic guide for both focus group and
analysed using the topic
interviews, but no further details.
guide as a framework reference to Braum & Clark
2006
Weeks [37]
Canada
Home care
in this research we endeavoured to gain a clearer
10 bereaved women
Semi-structured individual
understanding of what impact hospice palliative
interviews/methodological
care volunteers have on family caregivers.
hermeneutics
‘Questions on accessing services, services received,
satisfaction, and experiences related to the
volunteer’…
* Data collected in local language although published report is in English