Characteristics of Volunteers Who Deliver Health Education and Promotion: A Comparison with Organization Members and Program Participants

Abstract

The use of volunteers in this culture for community health endeavors is an understudied area. Yet, there may be many potential benefits for utilizing volunteers in the delivery of community health education and promotion. Volunteers may have more immediate access to their peers, credibility, and familiarity with the cultural environment and organization elements. An assumption of volunteer use is that persons drawn from a targeted organization (or community subgroup) will be like other members. Such an assumption, however, should be confirmed or disproved. This article compares a sample of volunteers to a sample of members from organizations from which the volunteers were recruited. The paper also compares the volunteers to a sample of program participants. The participants were persons to whom the volunteers delivered CVD prevention programming and, in most cases, were also organization members. Collectively using the variables under investigation, multivariate analyses of variance found that the volunteers were different from the organization members, and different from program participants. To assess differences between the samples on each individual variable, univariate tests were conducted stratifying the samples by age. Statistically significant differences were found regarding organization activity, formal education level, success with past health habit change, health self-assessment, occupation, gender, and marital status.

Valuing Volunteers: The Impact of Volunteerism on Hospital Performance.

“…By supplementing existing staff, they relieve the workload of medical and technical employees. Wells et. al.…”

Key Elements for Church‐Based Health Promotion Programs: Outcome‐Based Literature Review

“…CBHPP have shown promise in promoting health in individuals and communities. Women are likely to participate in and value church experiences and therefore may be more likely to attend health promotion programs in churches (Wells, DePue, Lasater, & Carelton, 1990). Physical activity programs centered in the church need to be further explored as a successful approach to promote midlife women to attain 30 min of moderate physical activity most days, as recommended by the American Heart Association and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.…”

Voluntariado hospitalar: um estudo sobre a percepção dos profissionais de saúde

“…Então, as análises realizadas permitem concluir que o trabalho voluntário tende a se aproximar do trabalho profissional, constituindo-se em uma categoria que precisa ser incorporada e entendida na instituição hospitalar (Cantril, 1991;Fusco-Karmann & Tamburini, 1994;MacEarchern, 1962;Wells et al, 1990). Parece pertinente pensar que se por um lado o voluntário deve compreender o funcionamento e necessidades do hospital, por outro lado, este deve compreender a importância e potencialidade do voluntariado para a organização.…”