Changes in demographic characteristics and motives for becoming a hospice/palliative care volunteer: Results of single institution 9 years educational program.

e265 Background: Voluntary activities are essential in many different aspects of hospice and palliative care. The interest in becoming a volunteer lowers in many communities. Better knowledge of volunteers’ characteristics and wider understanding of their motivations seem to be crucial for more sufficient volunteers’ recruitment and retain. Methods: Self-reported demographic details and data on motives for hospice / palliative care volunteering were collected from initial questionnaire forms fulfilled by all consecutive participants of the teaching course for medical voluntary cancer patients caregivers (16 editions; April-2006-November-2014; no data for 2009) at Rev. Eugeniusz Dutkiewicz Hospice SAC, Gdansk, Poland. Results: all 562 records were analyzed: 1) mean volunteers age was 35,73+14,69 years and significant trend (p < 0.001) for increasing age was observed (e.g.: mean age values + SD were: 2007: 28.41+11.82; 2011: 37.19+14.93; 2014: 41.31+12.16); 2) the vast majority of volunteers were females (8...