Hospice volunteers work in many capacities, including helping in the office and with fund raising, providing transportation for patients, cooking or assisting with yard work, and staying in the patient's home for several hours at a time so caregivers can take a break.  Volunteers also act in a liaison capacity with the community to maintain and increase community awareness and support of hospice care.  Most importantly, volunteers act as loving companions who listen with "long ears" to their patient's/family's concerns, anxieties, and joys.

In most other health care settings, volunteers help by delivering mail and assisting with clerical work or fund raising, but rarely are they considered integral parts of the patient's health care team.  In hospice, volunteers are an important part of the care team and have the opportunity to contribute greatly to a patient's quality of life.  Because patients/family members are sometimes more comfortable talking to a "regular person," volunteers can act as extra ears and eyes for paid staff.  And by working without financial remuneration, volunteers help contain the rapidly escalating cost of health care.

Many hospice programs in the United States were developed by members of the community who volunteered their time to plan and deliver hospice care for the terminally ill.  To encourage the continued use of volunteers, Medicare requires hospice programs to provide documentation proving that volunteers provide the equivalent of 5% of the paid staff's hands on patient care.