Investigating predictors of medical students' intentions to engagement in volunteering during the health crisis

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of the present paper is to investigate Algerian medical students' intention to participate in volunteer work during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.Design/methodology/approachThe authors adopted an extended theory of planned behavior (TPB) framework by integrating the constructs of personal moral norms and perceived risk of COVID-19 and followed a self-administered questionnaire survey to collect data among a convenience sample of medical students (n = 267) in five Algerian universities. The data obtained were analyzed through a hierarchical multiple regression process in which three models were considered.FindingsFindings of this study show that attitude toward volunteering, perceived behavior control (PBC), personal moral norm and subjective norm significantly and positively predicted medical students' intention to engage in volunteer work during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, students' perceived risk of COVID-19 significantly and negatively predicted students' intention to participate in volunteer activities. Moreover, the authors' analyses showed that the extended TPB model explained 75.1% of the variance of intention.Practical implicationsThe findings of this study have implications for understanding medical students' volunteer behavior during health crises. Some implications are provided for the crisis and emergency managers of hospitals and policymakers to attract and recruit enough medical students' volunteers for future waves of COVID-19 or other similar health crises.Originality/valueThis is the first paper from Algeria and one of the few from Africa that identifies predictors of intentions to participate in volunteer activities among medical students.

Antecedents of physicians' intentions to engage in digital volunteering work: an extended technology acceptance model (TAM) approach

“…(2011). Perceived risk of COVID-19 infection was measured with the scale drawn from Mouloudj and Bouarar (2023) and Sánchez-Cañizares et al. (2021).…”

“…The second change involves adding two constructs, level of self-efficacy and perceived risk of COVID-19 infection, into the original TAM. As a consensus, some studies have proven that self-efficacy was positively related to volunteering intention (Grano et al, 2008;Laguna et al, 2017), and other studies have shown that the perceived risk of COVID-19 contributed to reducing the intent to volunteer in the context of the COVID-19 crisis (Lazarus et al, 2021;Maietti et al, 2021;Mouloudj and Bouarar, 2023).…”

“…Similarly, Saura et al (2020) found that attitude toward using a web platform that promotes volunteering influences intention to use it. Several studies revealed that positive attitudes exert a significant influence on the formation of volunteer intentions (Hyde and Knowles, 2013;Mouloudj and Bouarar, 2023;Sallam et al, 2021;Tiraieyari et al, 2019). Therefore, we can assume the following:…”

“…Level of self-efficacy was measured with the scale adapted from Wang et al (2011). Perceived risk of COVID-19 infection was measured with the scale drawn from Bouarar (2023) andS anchez-Cañizares et al (2021). Physicians' intentions to engage in digital volunteering were measured with the scale used in the Hyde and Knowles (2013) and Wang et al's (2011) studies.…”

“…During the COVID-19 crisis, there was widespread social solidarity, especially in areas which recorded the largest number of infections. In this context, the government has provided great aid to the needy and the poor, and non-profit organizations (such as charities) have played an active role in providing aid, and the Algerian army has contributed to supporting the health system, such as helping to bring medicines from abroad and opening military hospitals to receive COVID-19 patients (Mouloudj and Bouarar, 2023). Also, many employees (including the army members) donated part of their salaries to face this health crisis.…”