Volunteer Engagement in a Stroke Self-Management Program: Qualitative Analysis of a Hybrid Team of Healthcare Providers and Trained Volunteers

Abstract

Stroke recovery is a complex, multidimensional and heterogeneous process. Volunteer engagement improves the delivery of interventions in stroke rehabilitation programs but is under-utilized due to poor role clarity and other program-related concerns. We evaluated healthcare providers’ and volunteers’ perceptions of volunteer engagement in an 8-week self-management program that provided self-management support for community-dwelling stroke survivors. Using a qualitative design, we conducted individual, semi-structured interviews with a purposive sample of 5 trained healthcare providers and 18 volunteers. The participants shared their experiences of supporting survivors, perceptions of volunteer engagement, and areas of improvement to optimize volunteer support. Three main themes and six subthemes emerged: bilateral exchange between healthcare providers/volunteers and survivors; adoption of individualized approaches; and suggestions for optimizing volunteer contributions. Volunteer engagement can be optimized by developing well-designed programs with sufficient role clarity, strengthened collaborations with healthcare providers and adequate training. Our findings highlighted the contributions of trained volunteers in supporting stroke survivors’ self-management. Future research should evaluate the use of peer and healthcare professional volunteers in such programs and build community capacity to support stroke survivors’ recovery.

Health Professional- and Volunteer-partnered Self-management Support (COMBO-KEY) to Promote Self-efficacy and Self-management Behaviors in People with Stroke: A Randomized Controlled Trial

“…A team of healthcare professionals and trained volunteers delivered the program, serving as Coach Leader and Coach respectively. Demographic details of the healthcare professionals and trained volunteers were described elsewhere [ 28 ]. All Coaches received training from the Principal Investigator, passed an exit quiz, and performed satisfactorily in scenario-based role plays and the first two sessions with the participant under supervision, before they delivered the program independently.…”

Experiences of participating in group‐based rehabilitation programmes: A qualitative study of community‐dwelling adults with post‐stroke aphasia

“…The first author is a registered nurse and a PhD degree holder with over 10 years' experience working with people with and without communication difficulties after stroke in the community setting. She had extensive experience in interviewing people with post-stroke aphasia and conducting thematic analysis (Lo et al, 2022a(Lo et al, , 2022b.…”