Wow, that's some amazing stuff so far, guys. I just signed up for hospice but I still have some forms to do (TB skin test, hepatitis B immunization, etc.)
I must say that from what I hear from volunteers that already do hospice work, there seems to be no (bad) psychological effects. They seem to become friends with the hospice patients that they help to give palliative (comfort) care to. Sure, it sucks when you have a patient die on you, but as a hospice volunteer or worker, you have to think about the person that you got to know.
If anybody lives in Orange County, CA and is interested in doing hospice work, please send me a PM. I'll tell you who to call and also how to get there. We only have 30 volunteers, and that is not quite enough to take care of every single patient that requests a volunteer 🙁