Volunteers in a hospital - opportunity or threat? Exploratory study from Finland

Journal of Health Organization and Management
Ulla-Maija Koivula, Sirkka-Liisa Karttunen

Abstract

Finland represents one of the Nordic welfare states where the role of the public sector as the organiser and provider of health and social care is strong. However, the amount of voluntary work in social and health care services is surprisingly big. The strongest advocates for keeping the volunteers outside are hospitals and health centres while at the same time they are suffering from shortages of staff and staff is reporting lack of time to provide needed care for their patients. The purpose of this paper is to report the results of a study of the attitudes of professionals towards voluntary work in hospitals. The paper is based on an exploratory study done in three hospitals, two from an urban area and one in a rural area. The interviewees represent nursing and care staff (n=21). The main questions were how staff members see options, constraints and drawbacks of volunteering regarding professional roles, work division, coordination and management. Attitudes of staff varied from positive to conditional. The approaches towards voluntary work varied from holistic to task-centred or patient-centred and were linked with organisational approach, professional approach or considerations of patients' well-being. Critical views were ex...Continue Reading

References

Aug 24, 2002·Health & Social Care in the Community·Peter Hoad
Dec 2, 2008·Journal of Gerontological Social Work·Fengyan Tang, Nancy Morrow-Howell

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Citations

Sep 10, 2020·British Journal of Nursing : BJN·Freya Mehta, Peter Griffiths

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