How To Become A Hospice Volunteer: What It Is and Career Path

What is a hospice volunteer and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Hospice care is emotionally demanding yet essential work. Hospice Volunteers have helped so many people at the end of their life comfortably pass in peace, feeling cared for and supported. They have to demonstrate at least some knowledge in patient care and have good communication skills. Hospice Volunteers are compassionate individuals who pursue this job out of the kindness of their hearts.

Hospice Volunteers don't need to have a college education. A high school diploma or GED is enough to get you through the door. Prior experience will often give you a more significant advantage in the job market than formal education.

On average, Hospice Volunteers in the United States earn a yearly salary of roughly about $20,000. That's more or less $9 an hour. As a volunteer, you expectedly won't be making a lot of money. However, this does give you valuable experience to pursue more sustainable careers in nursing or health care in the future.

ScoreHospice VolunteerUS Average

Salary

2.4

Avg. Salary $30,239

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability Level

10.0

Growth Rate 6%

Growth Rate 0.3%

Diversity

6.2

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.44%

Asian 10.08%

Black or African American 9.67%

Hispanic or Latino 9.52%

Unknown 4.30%

White 66.00%

Gender

female 79.77%

male 20.23%

Age - 43

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 43

Stress Level

10.0

Stress level is very high

7.1 - high

Complexity Level

9.1

Complexity Level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work Life Balance

7.8

Work Life balance is good

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a hospice volunteer

Explore hospice volunteer education requirements

Most common hospice volunteer degrees

Bachelor's

63.3 %

Associate

14.4 %

Master's

11.8 %

Start to develop specific hospice volunteer skills

Skills	Percentages
Patients	21.37%
Home Health	19.47%
PET	7.64%
Emotional Support	6.35%
Infection Control	5.93%

Complete relevant hospice volunteer training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 3-6 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New hospice volunteers learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a hospice volunteer based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real hospice volunteer resumes.

Research hospice volunteer duties and responsibilities

Manage patient care monitoring vital signs, performing physical assessment, checking patients medications for effectiveness.
Provide compassion and care to patients and families, promoting comfort, independence, and dignity.
Develop communication, presentation, and public speaking skills by presenting in a one-on-one or one-to-many setting
Develop relationships and provide spiritual and emotional support to patients and families through active listening and a compassionate presence.

Prepare your hospice volunteer resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your hospice volunteer resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a hospice volunteer resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose From 10+ Customizable Hospice Volunteer Resume templates

Build a professional Hospice Volunteer resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your Hospice Volunteer resume.

Apply for hospice volunteer jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a hospice volunteer job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

How do hospice volunteers rate their job?

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Hospice Volunteer reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Nov 2019

Pros

I enjoy working with people allowing them to know they are not alone and I will be with them until the end.