Hospice is a vital community resource that provides palliative and end-of-life care. “Death and dying in the US: the barriers to the benefits of palliative and hospice care” by Albert Finestone and Gail Inderwies explores the challenges facing hospice facilities today. They found that sending patients to the ICU for end-of-life care remains a common practice in the United States. ICU care becomes very expensive with the use of futile technology, and patients end up not receiving the necessary emotional support that hospice can provide. Since Hospice of Laramie is the only entity providing hospice care in the city, they have been very busy and struggling to have enough volunteer staff to keep up with their high patient volume. During discussion with the director of volunteers, she explained that hospice receives little funding and heavily relies on volunteers in order to provide services and end-of-life care. She expressed that while patient volume tends to fluctuate, it has been exceptionally high throughout the last year and a half and that WWAMI students would be able to provide a huge help to Hospice of Laramie by joining the team of volunteers. Hospice Medicare reimbursement does not cover the cost of care. Hospice programs across the country rely on volunteers to provide needed services (e.g., short-term respite care, companionship, etc.).