Hospice and End-of-Life Doula Volunteers Needed

Parker Jewish Institute’s Comprehensive Community Hospice has been providing highly specialized care to terminally ill patients since 1997 and is looking for of all ages and backgrounds. Hospice volunteers are a special group of people that use their time and talents to enrich the quality of life for our patients and their families as the end of life approaches. Hospice volunteers enhance the quality of life and help reduce the burden for family caregivers by providing support, assistance, in patient’s homes, in nursing homes, and assisted living facilities.

Hospice volunteers can commit to as little or as much time as they wish. Some volunteers provide several hours of service each week while others commit to a few hours each month. Serving as valued members of the hospice team, for just a few hours of your time you can make a significant impact on the lives of patients and their loved ones. Click to Learn More .

Hospice Volunteer Opportunities

There are many opportunities to share your time and talents as a volunteer and support patients, their loved ones dealing with end of life. There are many opportunities to share your time and talents as a volunteer and support patients, their loved ones dealing with end of life. Opportunities include: Doulas, bereavement/grief, patient friendly visits, legacy projects, administrative support, community education, and help recruiting other volunteers. Click here to learn more .

Hospice Doulas support patients in their final days of life and work as part of a team, providing a cocoon of support to help ensure that no patient dies alone by keeping vigil with the patient and their loved ones in their final days of life. Click to learn more .

Friendly Visitors: Visit patients and families at home, nursing home, and assisted living facility. Pay a friendly visit; relieve a family caregiver for a short break; accompany a patient on a walk together; read to a patient; listen to music.

While volunteering at our facility is restricted amid the COVID-19 emergency, we are still looking for volunteers and are offering interviews and training through virtual platforms.

Please attend our upcoming trainings below and help make a difference!

Getting Started as a Hospice Volunteer

Volunteers are the heart of our hospice program. Volunteers provide an extra level of comfort that makes that warms the heart, and the words that say everything will be okay. By being a hospice volunteer, you can gain personal satisfaction from knowing that you have made a difference in someone’s life. An interview and meeting with the hospice staff is required to help prospective volunteers understand the requirements for volunteering for our program. Hospice volunteers must also attend training. In support of our social distancing efforts, we have made our training available online. Click here to learn more .

Click the link below to enroll and start on your journey to helping patients and their caregivers at the most vulnerable time in their lives.

Parker encourages learning about becoming a Hospice Volunteer. If you're interested in learning about volunteering for our Hospice program, or if you want to orient yourself with our guidelines, please email

volunteer-nerken@parkerinstitute.org or call 718-289-2100 x 4116.

Click to Apply

Hospice Volunteer Orientation

We believe that it is essential to train our volunteers appropriately for the role that they will play in the organization and with our patients and families.

We want our volunteers to know everything they can about our organization and our mission before we ask them to serve our patients. Orientation is very important in helping our volunteers to understand the philosophy of care that we provide. It is through o ur orientation that you will better understand the hospice program and the important contribution you will make towards it. This self-paced on-line training includes the following areas:

The history and philosophy of hospice care
Concepts of death and dying
Psychosocial issues in death and dying
Care and comfort measures with terminal illness
Spiritual and cultural issues in death, dying and grief
Communication skills
Grief and bereavement
The volunteer role in hospice care

Clikc Here for Hospice 101 - Day 1

Clikc Here for Hospice 101 - Day 2

Click Here to Complete our Hospice Competency Assessment

End-of-Life Doula Training

Ready to take the next step in supporting patients at the end-of-life? Parker Jewish Institute has partnered with INELDA to provide a free 2 day intensive online Doula Training Workshop for volunteers who have completed the Hospice Orientation.

A certificate will be awarded upon completion of this workshop. Click here to learn more .

Participants must complete an application, both parts of our hospice orientation, and complete a competency assessment. The Doula Workshops will take place on Saturday 5/9/20 and Saturday 5/16/20 from 9:00am-4:00pm.

If you are interested in registering please call the Hospice Program's Volunteer Doula Coordinator at

718-289-2100 x 4116 or volunteer-nerken@parkerinstitute.org .

After speaking with the Coordinator you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the training .