J Korean Community Nurs.  2000 Jun;11(1):37-66.

A Study on the Demand and Utilization of Volunteers in Health Centers

• Choi ES

Abstract

Volunteers activities in Health Centers are strategically important for the efficient utilization of human resource and local people's health promotion in community. With these backgrounds. this study is conducted to examine significant factors in relation to demand and utilization of volunteers in Health Centers. and the factors are the characteristics of Health Centers. volunteer management factors and external environment factors. Subjects in this study were 245 Health Centers all chosen. Data were collected from April. 12. 1999 to May. 31. 1999. and the data for analyses were ones of 116 respondents. Then, the data coded and submitted to Fisher's exact test. NPAR1WAY ANOVA, Correlation analysis. multiple regression analysis, multiple logistic regression analysis with SAS program. The key results from this study can be epitomized as follows: 1. 43.1% of responding health centers answered that they "utilize volunteers". The average number of volunteers who were engaged in responding health centers was 43, out of which 7 were men and 36 were women. As for the adequacy of the number of the volunteers. 55.1% responded "not enough" and 30.6% responded "adequate". The more the number of volunteers needed. the more the number of utilizing volunteers is. When asked about their views concerning the utilization of volunteers in Health Centers. 88.7% of all respondents answered in the affirmative. The accountable factor for the utilization of volunteers was the present utilization of volunteers. 2. Concerning the reasons for using volunteers. "to induce local people's participation in health services" was the highest comprising 76% of the responding health centers. 3. Most of volunteers were housewives and independent enterprisers. The most type of volunteer activities was "just simple labor". 4. As for the action duration of volunteers. 69.4% answered "under 6 months". The factor was significant difference with the action duration of volunteers was "to provide social meeting" in the middle of rewards for volunteers. 5. Asked about the problem in utilizing volunteers. 53.2% answered "the difficulty of recruitment and education for volunteers". and 42.6% answered "lack of budget and manpower needed for the utilization of volunteers." 6. Concerning the evaluation of the performance by volunteers. 88% answered "satisfactory". With regards to the reason for that. 29.3% answered "volunteers can provide various kinds of services." 7. 88.7% of responding health centers answered that they will continuously or newly utilize volunteers in the future. 8. The main health program services which expect utilization of volunteers were visiting health services(63.2%). old people's health services (25.3%). These were not significant difference with any explanatory variable. 9. The average number of volunteer needed in responding health centers was 38. The more the average number of utilizing volunteers. the more the number of volunteers needed is. The more the degree of financial independence. the more the number of volunteers needed is. In conclusions. Health centers are necessary to promote their role of recruitment. education and training for volunteers. the development of volunteer activities programs.

MeSH Terms

Budgets
Surveys and Questionnaires
Education
Female
Health Promotion
Health Services
Humans
Logistic Models
Male
Reward
Volunteers*