Investigating the Motives and Barriers Affecting the Participation of Nursing Students in Voluntary Activities in Jeddah, KSA

Abstract

The volunteer work has crucial role in providing and functioning the communities’ social services. Nowadays young volunteers are the major component of volunteer population around the world. Literature revealed significant benefits for volunteer activities such as enhancement of academic development and personal skills. However, motives and barriers affect the involvements in voluntary activities. Nursing students provide a unique sample of the young Saudis female in volunteerism. Objective: Investigate the motives and barriers that affect the participation of nursing students in voluntary activities. Setting: The study was conducted at King Saud Bin Abdul-Aziz University for Health Sciences - College of Nursing and College of Basic Sciences, Jeddah, KSA. Subjects: Non-probability convenient sample of 199 students were included. Tools: A questionnaire was developed by the researchers. Results: 52.3% of the nursing students’ participated in voluntary activities, 47.7% of them were single, and 45.2% enrolled in stream I. Improved communication skills was the most reported benefit as reported by 25.2% of senior students compared to 19.3% of junior students. Health related activities were the common type of activities among the participants. Regarding motives of participation, passion about charity and helping other were reported as the first motive among participants, following by improving personal skills. While time limitations and unaware about ways of participation were reported as priority barriers for non-participation. Conclusion: The study showed number of motives and barriers affecting the involvement of nursing student’s participation in voluntary activities. The more we understand the motivations and barriers underlying the volunteering among nursing students, the more informed the strategies that can be used to encourage them to engage in volunteering. Recommendations: All efforts should be collaborated to increase students’ awareness about the benefits of volunteering activities, ways of participation and different forms of volunteering activities as well to overcome all the barriers that prevent them to participate in voluntary activities.