This paper deals with the question: To what extent do individual religious characteristics, in addition to collective religious characteristics, contribute to the explanation of formal and informal volunteering in the Netherlands at the beginning of the 21st century? To answer this research question, we used the SOCON 2005-2006 dataset. Our main finding concerns informal volunteering: we found that spirituality increases the likelihood of informal volunteering, implying that openness to other people's needs increases the likelihood of the actual provision of help. There are no other aspects of religiosity that are related to informal volunteering. With regard to formal volunteering we found that, in line with previous research, religious attendance is related positively to formal volunteering, religious as well as secular volunteering, which can be regarded as support for the proposition that religious involvement is important for norm conformity. Further, having a more religious worldview decreases the likelihood of formal volunteering which might show that those with a strong religious worldview are more concerned with the 'otherworldly' and less so with what they do in this world. We found no influence of Voluntas (2011) 22:365-389 DOI 10.1007 individual religious characteristics on formal volunteering. These results confirm the idea that integration into a religious community plays quite a large role in explaining formal volunteering. Informal volunteering, however, seems to be independent of social networks: it rather depends on individual motivation.Résumé Cet article traite de la question : Dans quelle mesure les caracte´ristiques religieuses individuelles, en plus des caracte´ristiques religieuses collectives, contribuent-elles a`e´clairer le be´ne´volat formel et informel aux Pays-Bas au de´but du 21 e`me sie`cle ? Pour traiter ce sujet de recherche, nous avons utilisé les données issues de l'étude SOCON 2005-2006. Notre conclusion principale concerne le bénévolat informel : nous avons déterminé qu'être porteur d'une spiritualité augmente la propension au bénévolat informel, ce qui implique que l'ouverture aux besoins d'autrui augmente la probabilité de fournir une aide active. Aucun autre aspect de la religiosité n'est lié au bénévolat informel. En ce qui concerne le bénévolat formel, conformément aux résultats des autres recherches, nous avons conclu que le fait de pratiquer une religion est lié de manière positive au bénévolat formel ainsi qu'au bénévolat religieux et laïque, ce qui peut être considéré comme une contribution à la proposition selon laquelle l'engagement religieux est un élé-ment important de la conformité à la norme. Par ailleurs, plus le monde se trouve perçu selon une approche religieuse, moins grandes sont les chances d'être engagé dans une activité de bénévolat formel, ce qui pourrait indiquer que les personnes ayant une vision très religieuse du monde se sentent plus concernées par « l' au-delà » que par leurs actions dans ce monde. Nous n'avons décelé aucune influence...

BackgroundIn the Netherlands, consent from relatives is obligatory for post mortal donation. This study explored the perspectives of relatives regarding the request for consent for donation in cases without donor registration.MethodsA content analysis of narratives of 24 bereaved relatives (14 in-depth interviews and one letter) of unregistered, eligible, brain-dead donors was performed.ResultsRelatives of unregistered, brain-dead patients usually refuse consent for donation, even if they harbour pro-donation attitudes themselves, or knew that the deceased favoured organ donation. Half of those who refused consent for donation mentioned afterwards that it could have been an option. The decision not to consent to donation is attributed to contextual factors, such as feeling overwhelmed by the notification of death immediately followed by the request; not being accustomed to speaking about death; inadequate support from other relatives or healthcare professionals, and lengthy procedures.ConclusionHealthcare professionals could provide better support to relatives prior to donation requests, address their informational needs and adapt their message to individual circumstances. It is anticipated that the number of consenting families could be enlarged by examining the experience of decoupling and offering the possibility of consent for donation after circulatory death if families refuse consent for donation after brain-death.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12910-016-0120-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Our study is the first to investigate the different ways of relating to contingency in clinical practice. The defined modes will improve our understanding of the various ways in which cancer patients relate to their disease, allowing caregivers to better target and shape individual care.

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In this article, we aimed to set out current problems that hinder a fully fledged integration of spiritual and medical care, which address these obstacles. We discuss the following five statements: 1) spiritual care requires a clear and inclusive definition of spirituality; 2) empirical evidence for spiritual care interventions should be improved; 3) understanding patients' experiences of contingency is paramount to deliver effective spiritual care; 4) attention to spiritual needs of patients is a task for every health care practitioner; 5) courses on spirituality and spiritual care should be mandatory in the medical curriculum. Current problems might be overcome by speaking each other's language, which is crucial in interdisciplinary research and in good interdisciplinary collaboration. Using a clear and inclusive definition of spirituality and substantiating spiritual care using medical standards of evidence-based practice is a way to speak each other's language and to increase mutual understanding. Furthermore, including spirituality in the medical curriculum would raise awareness of medical practitioners for their task of attending to patients' spiritual needs and, subsequently, to better and more appropriate referral for spiritual care.