Mobilizing college students to provide caregiver support at end-of-life

Background: With a growing elderly population, more palliative care professionals are needed.  End-of-life ethical issues and dilemmas are inherent when providing care to older adults and their families.  Training, philosophy and codes of ethics (assimilated by healthcare students) influence the attitudes that come from these relationships; which potentially sway their future career choice(s).

Method: The Time-Out Respite Program (Time-Out), (established by the Intergenerational Center at Temple University) mobilizes college students and reimburses them for providing respite services to those who are caring for frail elders. Bethune-Cookman University (B-CU), serving as a pilot replication site, partnered with local hospice agencies to deliver services.  Students received program orientation and hospice training.  The students were then matched with a hospice client and assigned to visit their home two days/week at two-hour intervals. 

Students were asked to participate in focus groups to talk about these experiences.  They were also asked to summarize their encounters and submit photos that expressed their relationship with the client and family members.  This project allowed them to process and validate the relationship formed with the client and family.

Conclusion: The Time-Out program builds on B-CU’s initiatives through their many outreach programs to foster relationships between older adults and university students.  The program is truly distinctive as it utilizes our students as respite workers and focuses intentionally on building meaningful relationships across generations.  The information from the focus groups and the photo voice projects are utilized to contribute to the continued success of the program.