Texas hospice volunteers: Demographic and personality characteristics

The purpose of the present study was to examine demographic, background, and personality characteristics of highly effective hospice volunteers in Texas. The literature contains information about the demographic characteristics of hospice volunteers but little information about the motivations for volunteering with hospice or about the personality characteristics of volunteers. Volunteer coordinators of each Texas Hospice Organization member hospice were asked to select their most committed and effective volunteers to respond to the Texas Hospice Volunteer Survey and the Myers-Briggs Personality Type Indicator (MBTI). The demographic data of the 156 volunteers responding to the surveys were similar to that found elsewhere, except that the volunteers surveyed were slightly older. Volunteers were predominantly white, female, with above average incomes. The volunteers were active in their community in areas other than hospice, particularly church activities. A personal experience with the death of a loved one was a major influential factor in their volunteering for their hospice. Their personality preferences on three of the four scales (E-I, S-N, T-F) as defined by the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator were significantly different than estimated distributions for the adult population. Persons with extroverted, sensing, feeling, judging personality types (ESFJ), composed 27.3% of the female volunteers. Persons with introverted, sensing, thinking, judging personality types (ISTJ), composed 20.79% of the male volunteers. This information could be beneficial to hospices as they seek to recruit and train additional volunteers and retention of current volunteers. These findings could also be used by other organizations which recruit volunteers.