Death competency: a study of hospice volunteers

Abstract

Three groups of hospice volunteers, trainees (N = 52), medium-term (2 to 42 months, N = 94), long-term (48 months or more, N = 96), and nonhospice and nonpatient care controls (N = 78) completed Bugen's Coping with Death Scale, the Templer/McMordie Death Anxiety Scale, and a new self-efficacy scale related to hospice and the ability to deal with death in general. The groups did not differ on the Death Anxiety Scale. However, on the Coping with Death Scale, experienced volunteers scored higher than trainees and controls; and on the self-efficacy scale all hospice volunteer groups believed themselves more able to deal with death than controls. In this study, the death competency scales appear more useful than the death anxiety measure in distinguishing hospice patient care volunteers from controls. The potential usefulness of these scales in future efforts at selection and evaluation are noted.