Understanding the role and deployment of volunteers within specialist palliative care services and organisations as they have adjusted to the COVID-19 pandemic: A multi-national EAPC volunteer taskforce survey.

Background: Early indications were of a major decline in specialist palliative care volunteer numbers during COVID-19. It is important that ongoing deployment and role of volunteers is understood, given the dependence of many palliative care services on volunteers for quality care provision.

Aim: To understand the roles and deployment of volunteers in specialist palliative care services as they have adjusted to the impact of COVID-19.

What it means to be a palliative care volunteer in eight European countries: a qualitative analysis of accounts of volunteering.

This paper addresses the stories of volunteers in hospice and palliative care (HPC) from eight European countries. The aims of the paper are to explore the experiences of volunteers in HPC from their insider perspective, to understand why volunteers choose to work in this field and to understand what it means to them to be involved in palliative care in this way. Stories were collected by the European Association for Palliative Care (EAPC) Task Force for Volunteering contacts in each of the eight countries.

Exploring the relationship between volunteering and hospice sustainability in the UK: a theoretical model.

Aim: To explore the relationship between volunteering and the sustainability of UK voluntary hospices.

Methods: A narrative literature review was conducted to inform the development of a theoretical model. Eight databases were searched: CINAHL (EBSCO), British Nursing Index, Intute: Health and Life Sciences, ERIC, SCOPUS, ASSIA (CSA), Cochrane Library and Google Scholar.

Understanding the relationship transitions and associated end of life clinical needs of young adults with life-limiting illnesses: A triangulated longitudinal qualitative study.

Background: Care of young adults with life-limiting illnesses can often be complex due to the fact that they are growing and developing within the continuing presence of their illness. There is little research conducted nationally and internationally, which has examined the life issues of young adults or taken a longitudinal approach to understand such issues over a period of time.

Aim: To gain clear understanding of one particular and pertinent life issue-relationship transition-occurring in the context of being a young adult with a life-limiting illness and the clinical needs arising from this.