The hospice volunteer serves the dying and their families from a very unique position as they are not constrained by time and money. Hospice professionals employed by hospices and other caregiving agencies generally do not have the freedom to ignore time and money in the context of their services to the dying as they must serve a larger number of hospice patients each day.

This unique aspect of hospice volunteering presents an opportunity for an extraordinary intimacy that serves both the dying and the volunteer. It is our belief that all potential volunteers have the innate ability to compassionately serve the dying with little or no training. It was the norm for families to care for their own at home before the modern technological age which most commonly moves the dying from their homes into medical institutions.

Prior to this age of technological care, family members would simply follow their hearts with a loving intention, then with guidance from medical professionals compassionate service often resulted with their loved ones dying at home surrounded by the family. While all of us have this innate ability inside of ourselves, our lack of confidence in our caregiving abilities and fears associated with confronting death in such an intimate way, interferes with our instincts to serve.

Hence the value of an effective hospice volunteer training program. Well-structured training gives the volunteer sufficient confidence to move to the bedside and begin the work, most likely still with some hesitation.

The HVTI philosophy for training hospice volunteers is one that combines information and knowledge imparted through online courses with mentor guidance and actual experience at the bedside. This combination most effectively integrates awareness with the experiential elements that are so important to achieving the most compassionate caregiving possible.

HVTI will offer a logical progression of courses for each certification level that will be considered "core" and "continuing education". Training for each certification level will take approximately one year.

Training will start with the core courses, which are those that establish the minimum training requirements necessary to allow the hospice volunteer to begin work at the specified certification level. The core courses will generally be scheduled over a 3-month period.

Continuing education courses are those that are required to complete the training for the specified certification level. Generally the continuing education courses will be scheduled over approximately a 9-month period. This strategy for training allows the hospice volunteer's actual experience at the bedside to complement their course work thereby broadening the educational experience.