Reflections on volunteer nurses' work and caring experiences during COVID-19: a phenomenological study

Global Rate of Willingness to Volunteer Among Medical and Health Students During Pandemic: Systemic Review and Meta-Analysis

BACKGROUND

During health crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic, shortages of health care workers often occur. Recruiting students as volunteers could be an option, but it is uncertain whether the idea is well-accepted.

OBJECTIVE

This study aims to estimate the global rate of willingness to volunteer among medical and health students in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

METHODS

A systematic search was conducted on PubMed, Embase, Scopus, and Google Scholar for studies reporting the number of health students willing to volunteer during COVID-19 from 2019 to November 17, 2023. The meta-analysis was performed using a restricted maximum-likelihood model with logit transformation.

RESULTS

A total of 21 studies involving 26,056 health students were included in the meta-analysis. The pooled estimate of the willingness-to-volunteer rate among health students across multiple countries was 66.13%, with an I2 of 98.99% and P value of heterogeneity (P-Het)<.001. Removing a study with the highest influence led to the rate being 64.34%. Our stratified analyses indicated that those with older age, being first-year students, and being female were more willing to volunteer (P<.001). From highest to lowest, the rates were 77.38%, 77.03%, 65.48%, 64.11%, 62.71%, and 55.23% in Africa, Western Europe, East and Southeast Asia, Middle East, and Eastern Europe, respectively. Because of the high heterogeneity, the evidence from this study has moderate strength.

CONCLUSIONS

The majority of students are willing to volunteer during COVID-19, suggesting that volunteer recruitment is well-accepted.

Reflections of volunteer counselors working remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic-Implications for policy and practice

PURPOSE

We reflect on our experience of running a remote volunteer counseling service, known as the Counseling Collective, to support patients and their families during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Cape Town, South Africa, and the learning and implications for practice and policy regarding the effective utilization of volunteers during a crisis or disaster context.

BACKGROUND

The Beta SARS-Co-2 variant dominated the second COVID-19 wave which gained momentum in December 2020, as public sector health teams prepared to deescalate services over the South African summer season. The ferocity with which the wave hit the city soon made it clear that volunteers would be needed to assist with counseling services as the Beta variant caused serious disease, resulting in a significant upswing in hospitalisations and deaths.

METHODS

Four counselors and a colleague with oversight responsibilities of the volunteers reflected on the service we provided. This was done with the benefit of hindsight a year after the activities of the Counseling Collective were wrapped up.

LESSONS LEARNED

Virtual volunteers are a largely untapped resource in the South African health care system. Much is to be gained by using this underutilized resource to deliver patient-centred services, especially in times of crisis.

CONCLUSION

Networks of retired and self-employed health professionals, particularly nurses,-skilled volunteers-are a valuable resource and can be deployed for critical work using their versatile skillsets, in public health emergencies. Telephonic consultations are a useful modality for providing quality care and need to be built into the business of health services. Skills to conduct such consultations and for the provision of palliative care services need to be mainstreamed into the skillsets of health professionals.

POLICY AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE

Public health disaster plans should include a blueprint for the rapid recruitment and deployment of volunteer counselors to assist permanent staff in providing crucial patient-centred care.

Social responsibility and subjective well-being of volunteers for COVID-19: The mediating role of job involvement

Aim

Our study aimed to investigate the effect of social responsibility on the subjective well-being of volunteers for COVID-19 and to examine the mediating role of job involvement in this relationship.

Background

Nowadays, more and more people join volunteer service activities. As we all know, volunteer work contributes to society without any return. Volunteers often have a strong sense of social responsibility and reap subjective well-being in their dedication. Although research shows that social responsibility will drive them to participate in volunteer work actively, it is less clear whether job involvement will impact their subjective well-being.

Methods

The data were collected in the precaution zone in Shanghai, China, from April to May 2022. A sample of 302 volunteers for COVID-19 completed the social responsibility scale, subjective well-being scale and job involvement scale in the form of an electronic questionnaire on their mobile phones. A structural equation model was adopted to verify the research hypotheses.

Results

Social responsibility was significantly and positively related to volunteers’ subjective well-being and job involvement (p &lt; 0.05). Job involvement fully mediates the relationship between volunteers’ social responsibility and subjective well-being.

Conclusion

Social responsibility is critical to predicting volunteers’ subjective well-being. Job involvement plays an intervening mechanism in explaining how social responsibility promotes volunteers’ subjective well-being.

Lessons from the COVID-19 epidemic in Hubei, China: Perspectives on frontline nursing

Background

The emergence of COVID-19 has been an ordeal for nurses worldwide. It is crucial to understand their experiences at the frontline, attempt to allay their concerns, and help inform future pandemic response capabilities.

Aims

To explore nurses’ lived experiences at the frontline in order to identify and address their concerns and help enhance future responses to infectious disease outbreaks.

Methods

A qualitative study was carried out. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 60 registered nurses who came to Hubei from different parts of China to care for patients with COVID-19. Interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim for thematic analysis.

Results

Six major themes emerged: emotional turmoil due to personal and professional concerns, quality issues with personal protective equipment and associated physical discomfort, witnessing and managing patient distress, readiness of emergency response mechanisms in the health system, collective community awareness and preparedness, and heightened professional pride and confidence in future epidemic control.

Discussion

Nurses were placed in challenging and unfamiliar situations to deal with unexpected and unpredictable events which caused considerable psychological and physical distress. Support in the form of government edicts, hospital management policies, community generosity and collegiality was highly welcomed by the nurses. Policy makers and managers should ensure that nurses are provided with the support and resources necessary for dealing with large-scale infectious disease outbreaks. Priority should be given to risk assessment, infection prevention and control, and patient and staff health and safety.