To Volunteer or Not? Perspectives towards Pre-Registered Nursing Students Volunteering Frontline during COVID-19 Pandemic to Ease Healthcare Workforce: A Qualitative Study

Abstract

COVID-19 has caused a shortage of healthcare workers and has strained healthcare systems globally. Pre-registered healthcare students with training have a duty of care and can support the healthcare workforce. This study explored factors influencing the willingness of final-year nursing students to volunteer during the COVID-19 pandemic, the role of professional identity in volunteering as healthcare workers, and strategies to improve future volunteering uptakes and processes. A qualitative study using focus-group discussions was conducted. Final-year nursing students who volunteered, students who did not volunteer, and lecturers who supervised student volunteers were recruited. Interviews were conducted online, video-recorded, and transcribed verbatim. A thematic analysis was used. The themes were “wavering thoughts on volunteering”, “bringing out ‘the nurse’ in students through volunteering” and “gearing up to volunteer”. Findings suggested the need to look beyond the simplicity of altruism to the role of professional identity, operational, and motivational factors to explain nursing students’ decision to volunteer and their volunteer behavior. Providing accommodation, monetary and academic-related incentives, supporting the transitionary phase from students to “professional volunteers”, promoting cohesive and positive staff–student volunteer relationships, and establishing a volunteer management team are strategies identified to improve volunteering uptake and operational processes. Our findings advocate strategic partnerships between hospitals/communities and academic institutions in providing various healthcare services during pandemics.

Willingness of Healthcare Students in Vietnam to Volunteer During the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Crucially, the findings include the motivating factors and barriers influencing their decision to volunteer or not, as well as the associations of willingness with socio-demographic and health-related characteristics of the students and their previous volunteering and training experiences. Although numerous reports have explored student volunteer work [ 11 , 14 – 17 , 21 ], the specific aspect of student willingness has not yet been explored in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic in Vietnam. As such, this report contributes novel findings to the current understanding of the volunteer workforce in Vietnam, and provides vital context to policy-makers making decisions during the COVID-19 emergency.…”

“…In such situations, the capacity for a national government to respond might be inadequate, but is likely to depend on a volunteer workforce. Volunteers from the healthcare sector, specifically medical students, are often provide a significant contribution, as reported in Saudi Arabia [ 6 ], China [ 7 , 8 ], Indonesia [ 9 ], the United Kingdom [ 10 , 11 ], Germany [ 12 ], Nigeria [ 13 ], Poland [ 14 ], Brazil [ 15 ], India [ 16 ], and Singapore [ 17 ]. In Vietnam, due to a shortage of medical workers (i.e., doctors, nurses, and laboratory technicians), students studying healthcare-related subjects at various medical universities have been employed in roles related to COVID-19 control, prevention, testing, diagnosis, and treatment [ 18 , 19 ].…”

“…To maximize the benefit to the Vietnamese people, these students must be adequately trained and, more importantly, willing to be involved [ 20 ]. The willingness of healthcare students to volunteer is dependent on several factors, including, but not limited to, availability of time, knowledge, expertise, previous experience and training, fear of COVID-19, and the accessibility of personal protective equipment (PPE) [ 11 , 14 – 17 , 21 ]. To date, no previous research has investigated the willingness of Vietnamese healthcare students to volunteer during the COVID-19 pandemic.…”

Enhance Volunteering Education Through Overseas Volunteer Service

“…In recent years, overseas volunteer services have gradually gained value among educators (Davies & Jaimangal-Jones, 2020;Duerden et al, 2018;Henry, 2019;Lili & Yingjin, 2020;Owen, 2018). Students can increase their international perspectives through volunteer services (Duerden et al, 2018;Guo et al, 2021;Holmes et al, 2021;Lili & Yingjin, 2020;Seah et al, 2021), and educators can provide the travel services needed in the process of overseas volunteer services; in addition, volunteering overseas is a very important market for learning, as culture sharing during volunteer service while volunteering overseas will enhance volunteers' service experience and attract more volunteers in the future. It is thus particularly important to continue volunteer activities.…”

“…Volunteering could include conferences and exhibitions, scientific research projects, medical assistance in remote areas, the development of environmental protection plans (Fleming & Pretti, 2019), and cultural restoration (Huang & Crotts, 2019). In addition to helping others, volunteering service can help people meet volunteers from all over the world (Dyson et al, 2021;Paull et al, 2017;Seah et al, 2021), as well as affording volunteers opportunities to build social capital and facilitating unique cultural exchanges and learning experiences.…”