VCHS Offers Hospice Volunteer Training

January 31, 2011

ORD - Valley County Health System's Home Health and Hospice Department will be conducting hospice volunteer training in Ord during March.

The 16-hour training program will be held on Tuesday evenings, March 1, 8, 15 and 22, from 5-9 p.m. at Valley County Home Health/Hospice Department, 400 S. 23rd Street.  Pre-registration and regular attendance is required to complete the program and become a hospice volunteer. There is no cost to prospective volunteers.

Hospice affirms life while providing support and care for persons in the last phases of an incurable disease so they might live as fully and comfortably as possible.  Betty Smedra, a VCHS Hospice volunteer says, "I have found an inner peace and serenity from volunteering with the Hospice Program.  In general, people are not afraid of death, but of the dying process.  Through hospice we are able to give them the courage to cope with the process of dying.  My experiences have not been somber, but rather fun-filled in many instances. I have learned from patients that it is important to do things while you can and to reminisce on what mattered most.  We help them remember their life and that they made a difference in the lives of others."

For more information or to register, call the VCHS Home Health and Hospice Department at 800-352-2171 or 308-728-4355 or Marilyn Winkelbauer at 308-728-4315.