Nancy Liggett has had several volunteer roles with Hospice of the Northwest in her approximately 10 years of volunteering, each one enriching her life and providing her the opportunity to give back to her community. Her current volunteer duties include attending regular meetings with Hospice of the Northwest clinicians and dispersing relevant information to other volunteers, so they can better assist hospice patients.
“In all my roles with Hospice of the Northwest, I am continually impressed by the attitude of caring, respect and kindness of the staff,” Nancy said. “And I’m also impressed by the knowledge and professional way they carry out their duties. I am so proud to be part of this organization.”
Of the many volunteer roles she’s had in 10 years, her favorite was being a companionship volunteer. She enjoyed getting to know each patient, sometimes over many months, and developing genuine relationships with them. Nancy enjoyed learning how to best support each patient, add joy to their life, and give them a friend who would listen and understand.
“I got to have one patient for almost a year,” she said. “That was a very wonderful experience. That was a different era when I could take her for rides and bake cookies for her every week. We loved to go for “cloud watching drives” around the Skagit Valley.”
Nancy also served for two years on the Quality Assurance and Performance Improvement Committee.
“That was such an eye-opening experience for me,” she said. “I learned how many details need to be tracked in order to track how well hospice is servicing its patients and meeting its standards of service. I have a new and large appreciation for statistics and an understanding of why they are so important!”
Nancy felt drawn to volunteer with Hospice of the Northwest because she wanted to support people going through the end-of-life process, something that she experienced when her mother died when she was in high school.
“I was hoping to be useful, to be of service, to support and aid in any way that I could,” said Nancy of wanting to become a hospice volunteer.
When Nancy is not volunteering, she loves to hike, travel, sketch, paint with watercolors, and read. She also enjoys spending time with friends over coffee or lunch.