Hospice Volunteer Schedule Sign Up Sheet (free, online)

How to set it up

Hospice volunteers do a few distinct things, and the schedule should keep them separate: a weekly companionship visit with the same patient, a vigil shift in a patient's last hours, a few hours of respite so a caregiver can leave the house, and office work like bereavement mailings. Every volunteer on the schedule has already completed the program's background check and training before a first visit, and new people who find the page should see a kind note about when the next training is rather than an open shift.

A schedule like this is mostly steady, with one part that is not. Vigil comes with a day's notice or less. One tip: keep a standing vigil list on the page with four-hour blocks around the clock and no dates, and when a vigil begins, set the date, open the blocks and email everyone on the page. The first volunteer to claim a block gets a confirmation; the rest see it is covered and can rest.

Questions people ask

Can we keep patient and family names off the page?

Yes. Row labels are whatever you type, so use initials or a route name and keep the details in the confirmation email or a call. Volunteer names can be hidden on the public page too, so the list shows which visits are covered and nothing else.

How does a vigil request reach people fast?

Open the blocks and email everyone on the page in one step. Each person gets one message with the open blocks; they claim one from their phone, and the page shows the rest of the team what is still needed. No app, no login, no password to reset at two in the morning.

Our hours have to be reported. Does the schedule count them?

Every visit a volunteer signs up for and completes is logged to that person. The hours report gives each volunteer's total for the month or the year, exportable as CSV, with a printable letter per volunteer if one is needed.

Why not a paper sheet or a Google Form?

A paper sheet lives in one place and fills up with the first people who walk past it. A Google Form takes forty signups for a row that needed two, and you find out in the spreadsheet. An online sign-up sheet closes each row when it's covered, sends a reminder the day before, and gives every person a link to cancel so the spot reopens. See the side-by-side with Google Forms.