Volunteering Activity as A Source of Life Satisfaction among Medical and Dental Students of Karachi, Pakistan

Abstract

Background: Community Service is an integral component of undergraduate medical education. A volunteer is an individual who, without pay, reaches out beyond the confines of their normal responsibilities; freely and willingly contribute in different ways. Volunteering and serving others can help decrease tension, mentally empower volunteers and offer purpose in life. This study aimed to assess the motivation behind volunteering activities among medical students. Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted comprised of a total of 450 students of different private and government sector medical colleges of Karachi, Pakistan. A volunteer functional inventory (VFI) questionnaire was used for the study. Predictability of motivation behind volunteerism was analyzed by student’s t-test through SPSS software. Results: Out of the 450 participants in this study, 286(64%) of respondents were found to be volunteers and 164(36%) were non-volunteers, the largest respondents constituting 154 (66.7%) had been volunteering for 1-5 months, 63(14%) spent time in volunteering for 6-10 months. It was found that 228(50%) of the students were influenced by their friends to start the act of volunteering. About 72(42%) of respondents were involved in community volunteering in health and emergency services. The various variables of the motivation (protective factor, value factor, career factor, social factor, understanding factor and enhancement factor) among medical students were determined significant (p< 0.05). Conclusion: Medical students can effectively contribute in the training and healthcare initiatives. To the best of our knowledge, the involvement of healthcare volunteering is beneficial both at a personal and academic level for medical students.

Understanding volunteerism among dental students and professionals to reach Saudi Arabia Vision 2030 goals

“…Our results indicated that 74.50% of our respondents had volunteered previously, which is higher than studies conducted in Japan (43%) [13], Pakistan (64%) [20], and even the previous study from Saudi Arabia (30.31%) [21] that investigated dental students. The reason for this difference could be due to our study including working dentists, who had a significantly higher percentage of previous volunteers than did the students.…”

“…In fact, many volunteering studies have included dental students under the larger umbrella of other specialties, such as medicine and others, instead of investigating dental professionals in depth. These studies have shown the percentages of dental students in their studies who volunteered in Japan (43%) [ 13 ], Pakistan (64%) [ 20 ], and Saudi Arabia (30.31%) [ 21 ]. In addition, studies have shown high levels of interest and willingness to participate in volunteer activities among medical and dental students during disasters in Japan (89.9%) [ 13 ] and Nigeria (82.9%) [ 22 ].…”

“…A recent systematic review noted the importance of researching the motivations for and barriers to volunteering among health-care professionals for better support and utilization of such a group [ 24 ]. The extant studies are varied in focus, with some investigating local volunteering in the same city or country [ 16 , 20 , 21 ]; volunteering abroad, in a different country [ 23 , 25 ]; and volunteering in the case of a disaster, such as COVID-19 [ 13 , 19 , 22 ]. This might explain the differences in the main motivations found in these studies.…”

“…A systematic review indicated that the main motivation for volunteering among health-care students was moral responsibility (including a sense of duty and social dedication), personal interest, chance to learn, and monetary compensation [ 24 ]. One interesting study in Pakistan found that friends were the main motivation for volunteering among medical and dental students [ 20 ]. This factor might be important when studying highly social communities, such as in Saudi Arabia.…”

Assessing dental students’ attitudes towards the dental care of the underserved in community

“…Since most of the community programs were run and implemented by students themselves, they were able to nurture the desire to be involved and participate as opportunity arise. This is because volunteering can help reduce stress, mentally empower participants, and provide a sense of purpose in life (Emad et al, 2021), a phenomenon seen among medical students who can make a significant contribution to teaching and healthcare activities. Volunteering in healthcare is advantageous to medical students on both a personal and academic level.…”