Hospice Palliative Care Volunteers’ Experiences With Unusual End-of-Life Phenomena

Abstract

Forty-five Canadian hospice palliative care volunteers responded to a survey examining whether they had witnessed or been told about any unusual end-of-life phenomena (EOLP) in their work with dying patients and their families in the past year. The most commonly witnessed EOLP were patients talking to or reaching out their hands toward deceased relatives or friends (34%), occurrences of terminal lucidity (33%), and patients seemingly getting ready for a trip or journey (28%). At least a third of the volunteers indicated that a patient or a patient’s family member had told them about visions or dreams of deceased relatives or friends (47% and 44%, respectively), seeing beautiful places or colors or hearing wonderful music (38%), terminal lucidity (38%), and deathbed coincidences (33%). The majority of volunteers were accepting of spiritual explanations for EOLP and rejecting of scientific or medical ones. Ninety-six percent of the volunteers felt that information about EOLP should be included as part of their volunteer training.