The Professional Readiness of Hospice and Palliative Care Workers for Accompanying Dying People

Soňa Vávrová, Renata Polepilová

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The Professional Readiness of Hospice and Palliative Care Workers for Accompanying Dying People

Soňa Vávrová, Renata Polepilová

Medailon autora:

Mgr. Soňa Vávrová, Ph.D., studied sociology and andragogy at the Philosophical Faculty of Palacky University, Olomouc, and finished her postgraduate studies in social work at the Faculty of Health and Social Studies, University of Ostrava. She currently works at the Faculty of Humanities, Tomas Bata University in Zlín. The author deals with the issue of total institutions, and the issues of career and finality of life.

Mgr. Renata Polepilová, studied social pedagogy at the Faculty of Humanities, Tomas Bata University in Zlín. She works as an Assistant for Practice and Lifelong Learning at the Department of Pedagogical Sciences at the Faculty of Humanities, Tomas Bata University in Zlín. She focuses on the issue of accompanying the dying.

Abstrakt:

In the present article, the authors focused on identifying the training needs of hospice staff and other health care workers in palliative care. The authors conducted an extensive research project interviewing workers involved in the direct care of clients in the terminal stage of their life. The staff were interviewed on readiness for their existing professions in which they accompany the dying and encounter death on everyday basis. The research objective was to determine whether the respondents’ education is adequate, in their own view, for accompanying the dying and whether it enables them to come to terms with the finiteness of life.