Prospective Volunteers Research Articles

Promoting children’s health through community-led street interventions: analyzing sustained voluntarism in Canadian School Streets

BackgroundActive School Travel (AST) initiatives align with the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion, which calls for ‘creating supportive environments’ and ‘strengthening community action.’ However, their reliance on volunteers poses sustainability challenges. The main objectives of this study were to document the motivations, satisfaction, and experiences of volunteers involved in sustaining two AST initiatives in Ontario for an entire school year.MethodsTwo volunteer-led School Street initiatives in Kingston, Ontario successfully operated during pick-up and drop-off times of each school day. The first initiative operated for the entire 2021-2022 school year, and the second operated for the entire 2022-2023 school year. These initiatives were the first of their kind in the province of Ontario, Canada. Volunteers from both sites (n = 56) participated in online surveys and their motivations, satisfaction, and experiences of their role were compared using the 2-sided Fisher’s Exact Test.ResultsOver 80% of volunteers were highly motivated to promote safety and over 70% of volunteers were highly motivated to disrupt the status quo of unsupportive, car-centric urban environments by reimagining how streets can be used. By taking collective action to re-shape the environment around these public schools to support healthy, active living, our findings reveal that over 90% of volunteers were highly satisfied. Of the volunteers, 87% felt they contributed to child safety and 85% felt they had developed stronger community connections. They appreciated the short (i.e., 40 minute) time commitment of each shift, weekly email communications by the community organization leading the initiative, and the volunteer schedule. They also appreciated the positive social interactions during volunteer shifts, which they felt outweighed the minimal resistance they experienced.ConclusionsThis research demonstrates the importance of logistical, motivational, and social factors in recruiting and retaining volunteers for community-led School Streets. Our findings support appealing to prospective volunteers’ influence in achieving School Street objectives (e.g., improved safety) in recruitment efforts, as well as highlighting School Streets’ innovative approach. Communicating with volunteers throughout School Street planning and implementation processes and limiting traffic in the closed street zone (i.e., by excluding the school staff parking lot and private driveways from the scope) are additional recommendations based on the findings of this study.

Data 4 Climate Action Edinburgh

Data 4 Climate Action Edinburgh is a group of volunteers, donating our time and skills with data to support climate action and biodiversity in and around Edinburgh. The formation of the group was the idea of Pauline Ward, inspired on hearing discussions about the how climate action groups could be supported, and how they could help each other, through regional networks. Discussions with the Edinburgh Voluntary Organisations Council and the Scottish Secretariat for Climate Action Networks identified a role for D4CAE as part of such a network in Edinburgh. The Scottish Government has been working on a programme of support for such regional networks, the first being North East Scotland Climate Action Network. Specifically, there appeared to be great potential in facilitating the making of connections between local climate groups and prospective volunteers from among the staff and students of the University of Edinburgh. With practical support and dialogue with the University of Edinburgh Sustainability team and Community Engagement team, D4CAE carried out a survey of members of the public at the Edinburgh Climate Festival 2022. Underneath the University gazebo, individuals volunteered to help and talked with us about what areas of work would be most worthwhile in their view. The participants indicated their choices by placing chips into paper cups labelled with the options ‘mapping’, ‘sharing’ etc. The top result was ‘storytelling with data’. Volunteers asked us to create a mailing list so they could keep in touch and help. Climate activists told us they wanted help with presenting data about their activities for inclusion in funding bids, and mapping. We now have a facebook page, website and a github repository. We use free tools from Google for email and file sharing (Drive, Sheets, Docs). We hold a monthly online drop-in on Zoom. We’re working on building links into the university, and working with data. Biggest challenges – Many of our contacts who want to help are doing so in a professional capacity, and therefore mostly available during office hours, while the volunteer effort happens outside of working hours. Meanwhile, making the local groups aware of our offer is an area we need to work on, in partnership with the climate action network which is evolving and taking shape. Looking ahead – hoping to organise a datathon event near or at the university in the near future. Delivering skills – we’re in the business of sharing skills, and building our own skills with data along the way. We have fielded requests for help with non-climate data, both from professional life science researchers looking for help with data visualisation, and others through the community engagement network. The experience suggests there may be potential for a platform and other work to build more links for voluntary organisations to find help with specialised skills among the staff and students of the university.

STEM volunteers

In response to Toni Feder’s item “The US is in dire need of STEM teachers” (March 2022, page 25), I would like to make note of the work being done by the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s STEM Volunteer Program (stemvolunteers.org), which I coordinate. We recruit STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) professionals to assist K–12 teachers in their classrooms.The program began in 2004 and currently has 110 volunteers in four school districts in the Washington, DC, metropolitan area. Our retired volunteers commit to a few hours one day a week in the classroom for the school year. Those still working commit to a few hours every two to three weeks. Many volunteers exceed those commitments.Volunteers help students learn subject matter through projects rather than by rote. They also present on technical subjects in the curriculum and organize “Ask a Scientist” sessions, in which they answer questions from groups of students.One teacher wrote an email to a volunteer thanking him for the gift of his time and stating that it was an “absolute pleasure” to work with him. “You make science come alive for our children and I am very grateful,” she wrote. “I will do all I can to encourage more schools to use the program and get visiting scientists.”Prospective volunteers are contacted through a variety of mechanisms—such as through societies’ local sections, newsletters, the DC MIT Club, and retirement associations. The American Physical Society has supported the program from the beginning, including annually sending recruiting notices to its members in the DC metropolitan area.I am convinced that a national program can be designed to produce a significant increase in the number of volunteers from the large number of STEM graduates. As of 2019, there were 12.3 million college graduates whose highest degree was in a science or engineering field, according to NSF’s National Survey of College Graduates. A consortium of STEM societies is the best approach for implementing a program in support of K–12 STEM education.Increasing the number of volunteers will not solve the teachers shortage, but volunteers can be a significant help, in particular with assisting teachers who have a limited background in STEM. And they can serve as substitute teachers, as several of our volunteers have done. Section:ChooseTop of page <<© 2023 American Institute of Physics.

Pembekalan Manajemen Kesehatan Pasien COVID 19 di Pusat Isolasi Mandiri Bagi Volunteer Keperawatan

The development of the COVID-19 pandemic is still increasing in the community. With the large population in Indonesia, especially the city of Bandung, the treatment of COVID-19 patients is not only carried out at health service centers but also in the community directly. Health volunteers who are community groups who are actively assisting the government in the implementation of public health need to be equipped with the management of COVID-19 patient care in terms of care, nutrition and exercise. This PKM aims to provide debriefing to prospective COVID volunteers regarding the care of individuals with COVID 19 in hospitals and self-isolation places in the community, sports training in handling COVID, debriefing knowledge and skills in the implementation of infection prevention and control in treating COVID patients. The method used is blended seminars and training, namely online and offline by implementing strict health protocols. This program is carried out for 2 days. Participants are 244 students, health workers who are prospective COVID 19 volunteers at health institutions in the city of Bandung. The results of the activity showed that there was an increase in the average knowledge of pretest (65.8), post test (73.49) of volunteers on nursing care management, and skills in safety preparation .

Pelvic thickness, sex, ethnicity, and age affect pelvic incidence in healthy volunteers of Multi-Ethnic Alignment Normative Study (MEANS) database.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the affecting factors on pelvic incidence (PI) and to test the hypothesis that PI changes even after skeletal maturity probably due to hypermobility of the sacroiliac joint using a large international multi-center database. A prospective and cross-sectional healthy adult volunteers, ages 18-80years, across 5 countries were used. Radiographic measurements included standard whole body alignment parameters. Bivariate regression analyses between PI versus demographics and spino-pelvic anatomical parameters were performed. An effect of sex on pelvic anatomical parameters was also investigated. Multivariate logistic regression with a forward stepwise procedure was performed to identify the contributing factors to PI, and an appropriate model was obtained. PI showed a significant positive correlation with age in pooled data. Divided by sex, however, there was no correlation in men, but women showed a significant higher correlation coefficient. Pelvic thickness (PTh) had a significant negative correlation with age in pooled data. Divided by sex, no correlation was found in men, but there was a significant correlation in women with higher correlation coefficient. The stepwise multivariate analysis for the factors on PI identified four significant factors: age, sex, ethnicity, and PTh. PTh, sex, ethnicity, and age affected PI. There was a positive correlation between PI and age. The tendency was more significant in woman than in man. The results support the hypothesis that PI increases with aging, but the change seems to be small and needs to be verified in a longitudinal evaluation.

Exploring Child Life Role and Impact of Providing Psychosocial Care During Short-Term Medical Missions

Certified Child Life Specialists (CCLSs) have been engaged with other health profession-als to provide care within international short-term medical missions (STMMs). However, there is minimal research describing the care they provide, their professional roles, and the impact of their services on the beneficiaries, as well as the volunteer CCLSs. This exploratory, survey-based, descriptive study reports findings regarding roles and experiences of 55 CCLSs who volunteered to provide psychosocial care for children and families on STMMs. They reported providing play, normalization, psychological preparation for medical procedures, and emotional support, resulting in observable reduction in patient and parent anxiety. Nonpharmacological pain management and education for capacity building regarding psychosocial care were not routinely provided. Using Campinha Bacote’s cultural compe-tency framework and Knowles’ adult learning theory, we explored the reciprocal impact for CCLSs volunteering on STMMs. CCLSs reported improvement in their own cultural competency, professional skills, and child life competencies. Findings suggest providing psychosocial care on STMMs benefited patients, families, and the CCLSs. A brief commentary on children’s rights and ethical considerations for those in a child life role on STMMs is included. Practice and research implications are provided to enable greater understanding of the child life role in STMM contexts and to inform prospective CCLS volunteers of this opportunity, as well as to educate STMM organizations about the role of child life.

In search of retention: volunteers in a Brazilian NGO

This study aims to analyse the motives that lead current and prospective volunteers to engage in volunteer activity at the Cidade Viva Foundation in the city of João Pessoa, state of Paraíba, Brazil. To that end, the model proposed by Cavalcante (2016) is employed to describe volunteers’ motivational profiles at different points in time: their prior expectations, at the moment when they join the organization, and when they quit. The methodology chosen includes descriptive research and analysis of data collected through questionnaire-based interviews with volunteers at the Cidade Viva Foundation using inferential statistics (Student’s t test and Bonferroni test -ANOVA). Among the most significant findings is the predominance of the altruistic profile, followed by the social justice profile, the learning profile, the affiliation profile, and the selfish profile, both in prior expectations and at the moment of joining. Similarly, the selfish profile was least common.

Peripheral Nerve Diffusion Tensor Imaging : Interreader and Test-retest Reliability as Quantified by the Standard Error of Measurement.

Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) is increasingly being used in magnetic resonance neurography (MRN). The purpose of this study was to determine the interreader and test-retest reliability of peripheral nerve DTI in MRN with focus on the sciatic nerve. In this prospective study 27healthy volunteers each underwent 3 scans of ashort DTI protocol on separate days consisting of aT2-weighted turbo spin-echo and single-shot DTI sequence of the sciatic nerve of the dominant leg. The DTI parameters fractional anisotropy (FA), mean diffusivity (MD), axial diffusivity (AD), and radial diffusivity (RD) were obtained after manual nerve segmentation by two independent readers. Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC), standard error of measurement (SEM), and Bland-Altman plots were calculated as measures for both interreader and test-retest agreement for all readout parameters. The mean ± standard deviation was 0.507 ± 0.05 for FA, 1308.5 ± 162.4 × 10-6 mm2/s for MD, 905.6 ± 145.4 ×10-6 mm2/s for RD and 2114.1 ± 219.2 × 10-6 mm2/s for AD. The SEM for FA was 0.02 for interreader and test-retest agreement, the SEM for MD, RD, and AD ranged between 46.2 × 10-6 mm2/s (RD) and 70.1 × 10-6 mm2/s (AD) for interreader reliability and between 45.9 × 10-6 mm2/s (RD) and 70.1 × 10-6 mm2/s (AD) for test-retest reliability. The ICC for interreader reliability of DTI parameters ranged between 0.81 and 0.92 and ICC for test-retest reliability between 0.76 and 0.91. Peripheral nerve DTI of the sciatic nerve is reliable and reproducible. The measures presented here may serve as first orientation values of measurement accuracy when interpreting parameters of sciatic nerve DTI.

What Preevent Motives Determine the Decision to Volunteer at a Sporting Event: How Can Herzberg's Two-Factor Theory Help?

This article examines the preevent motivations of volunteers recruited from the local community for a sporting event. Using empirical data and Herzberg's two-factor theory as a framework, satisfaction attributes impacting upon volunteer expectations prior to the actual event were investigated. The researchers sought to determine why volunteers involved themselves with the event, and what key factors underpinned their decision-making process. A paper-based survey administered to registered volunteers probed volunteers' preevent motives. The emergent themes from analysis of the respondents' (N = 97) feedback ranged from altruism (helping others) to self-interest (a complimentary round of golf). The predominant theme was the respondents' "love of the game," which encompassed the subthemes of self-interest and perceived personal benefits. Also, community benefits such as the building of community identity, social recognition, and pride were deemed as important due to the affiliative nature of the local golfing fraternity, the primary distinguishing factor for volunteering at the material event. The study found that hygiene factors were crucial in forming the foundations for a positive volunteer experience, whereas satisfaction was closely linked to the presence of motivational attributes of the event. The identification of hygiene and satisfaction factors can be invaluable input for event organizer's strategy to recruit volunteers. Furthermore, by putting into place hygiene factors volunteers are less likely to experience dissatisfaction and by targeting the primary motivators of their volunteers, the attention of prospective volunteers can be captured and then effectively converted into an interest in the event eventually leading to making the commitment to participate. The effective engagement with volunteers can engender a positive experience, which increases the likelihood of repeat volunteering.

Health TAPESTRY: co-designing interprofessional primary care programs for older adults using the persona-scenario method

BackgroundWorking with patients and health care providers to co-design health interventions is gaining global prominence. While co-design of interventions is important for all patients, it is particularly important for older adults who often experience multiple and complex chronic conditions. Persona-scenarios have been used by designers of technology applications. The purpose of this paper is to explore how a modified approach to the persona-scenario method was used to co-design a complex primary health care intervention (Health TAPESTRY) by and for older adults and providers and the value added of this approach.MethodsThe persona-scenario method involved patient and clinician participants from two academically-linked primary care practices. Local prospective volunteers and community service providers (e.g., home care services, support services) were also recruited. Persona-scenario workshops were facilitated by researchers experienced in qualitative methods. Working mostly in homogenous pairs, participants created a fictitious but authentic persona that represented people like themselves. Core components of the Health TAPESTRY intervention were described. Then, participants created a story (scenario) involving their persona and an aspect of the proposed Health TAPESTRY program (e.g., volunteer roles). Two stages of analysis involved descriptive identification of themes, followed by an interpretive phase to extract possible actions and products related to ideas in each theme.ResultsFourteen persona-scenario workshops were held involving patients (n = 15), healthcare providers/community care providers (n = 29), community service providers (n = 12), and volunteers (n = 14). Fifty themes emerged under four Health TAPESTRY components and a fifth category - patient. Eight cross cutting themes highlighted areas integral to the intervention. In total, 414 actions were identified and 406 products were extracted under the themes, of which 44.8% of the products (n = 182) were novel. The remaining 224 had been considered by the research team.ConclusionsThe persona-scenario method drew out feasible novel ideas from stakeholders, which expanded on the research team’s original ideas and highlighted interactions among components and stakeholder groups. Many ideas were integrated into the Health TAPESTRY program’s design and implementation. Persona-scenario method added significant value worthy of the added time it required. This method presents a promising alternative to active engagement of multiple stakeholders in the co-design of complex interventions.

Make Your Website User‐Friendly for Prospective Volunteers

Make Your Website User‐Friendly for Prospective Volunteers

Selling volunteering or developing volunteers? Approaches to promoting sports volunteering

This article considers the balance between promoting volunteering in sport by emphasising the personal rewards to prospective volunteers themselves – the dominant management approach – and promoting it by the long-term development of the values of volunteering. We review the motivations and rewards of sports volunteers and how these can be used to promote volunteering as being a transaction between the volunteer and the organisation. This is contrasted with a lifecourse approach to understanding volunteering, and evidence that an understanding of the value of volunteering can be inculcated that underpins continued volunteering. The two approaches regard potential volunteers respectively as ‘consumers’ and as ‘citizens’. We suggest that a shift to treating volunteers as consumers can lead to volunteering being regarded as transactional. The discussion has implications for volunteering in general – in particular, how it can be promoted in a society where narratives of ‘the consumer’ increasingly dominate over those of ‘the citizen’.

Spotlight on Special Interest Group 10, Issues in Higher Education

You have accessThe ASHA LeaderSIG Spotlight1 Mar 2018Spotlight on Special Interest Group 10, Issues in Higher Education Monica Gordon PersheyEdD, CCC-SLP Monica Gordon Pershey Google Scholar More articles by this author , EdD, CCC-SLP https://doi.org/10.1044/leader.SIGS.23032018.np SectionsAbout ToolsAdd to favorites ShareFacebookTwitterLinked In 1. When did you join your SIG—and what made you want to join? I joined a few SIGs in the 1990s, early in my academic career, to stay current in my teaching areas. SIG 10 provided me with a new peer group in higher education. Before the Internet and social media, Perspectives newsletters were a vital mechanism for keeping affiliates up-to-date. 2. How has your involvement with the SIG helped you in your career? First, I was delighted to publish in Perspectives and review manuscripts. Next, becoming involved as a SIG leader has been significant. It was an honor to be elected to the SIG 10 Coordinating Committee by the SIG affiliates, and to be elected by the committee to be the coordinator. Programming SIG 10’s ASHA Convention short course and invited session, hosting online chats and bringing Perspectives to publication have been the principal ways that I have grown in my knowledge of higher education issues and offered my services to benefit my academic peers. 3. How do you carve out time to volunteer with the SIG while working in your full-time job and balancing other commitments? What advice would you give to someone who’d like to get more involved in the SIG, including how you get support from your supervisor/institution? I factor ASHA service into my overall amount of service time. Academics deal with certain crunch times and we arrange our SIG commitments to not conflict. I’d say to people who are interested in SIG involvement, that everyone has been collegial and supportive when family or personal commitments take precedence. Being an active volunteer leader, I know that managing volunteers is different from managing employees. Volunteers are welcomed with gratitude for what they can do. As for seeking employers’ support, the SIG’s record speaks for itself. Prospective volunteers can share recent convention programs, Perspectives articles and SIG-crafted policy statements to convey that it is a distinction for employees to participate. 4. What upcoming events related to or sponsored by your SIG should everyone know about Chats, conferences, or convention events? Events for 2018 are not yet confirmed, but we anticipate a convention invited session and at least one short course, and several web chats. 5. What is your favorite recent Perspectives article, and why? I have so many favorites! I probably read something from past Perspectives weekly. My main research interest is analysis of written discourse. Perspectives has excellent articles that meet my needs for studies of written language in young writers and in people with communication disorders. Currently I am using an article published in SIG 15 Perspectives on Gerontology, “A Longitudinal Posthumous Study of Letter Writing in a Late Elderly Case,” as I analyze the diary writings of a person with aphasia. Author Notes Monica Gordon Pershey, EdD, CCC-SLP, is associate professor in the Speech and Hearing Program in Cleveland State University’s School of Health Sciences. She is the coordinator of SIG 10 and an affiliate of SIG 11, Administration and Supervision. [email protected] Advertising Disclaimer | Advertise With Us Advertising Disclaimer | Advertise With Us Additional Resources FiguresSourcesRelatedDetails Volume 23Issue 3March 2018 Get Permissions Add to your Mendeley library History Published in print: Mar 1, 2018 Metrics Downloaded 78 times Topicsleader_do_tagleader-topicsasha-article-typesCopyright & Permissions© 2018 American Speech-Language-Hearing AssociationLoading ...

When Trust Is Not Enough: A Serial Mediation Model Explaining the Effect of Race Identity, eHealth Information Efficacy, and Information Behavior on Intention to Participate in Clinical Research.

Black participants remain significantly underrepresented in clinical research. Mistrust in medical researchers has been named a key barrier to the successful enrollment of minority study participants. However, trust is a social-interactional construct, and its effects on behavior are complex. This study hypothesized that intention to participate in clinical research is mediated by trust in medical researchers, eHealth literacy, and information seeking behavior. The data were collected through an online survey ( N = 340) and analyzed to identify serial mediation. The model showed insignificant direct effect of race identity on behavioral intention, c' = -0.19, t(335) = -1.22, p = .22, but a significant total effect, c = -0.44, t(335) = -2.59, p < .01. The indirect effect of race identity on behavioral intention was also significant. The positive effect of trust in medical researchers on decisions to participate in clinical research can be amplified by stronger eHealth literacy and active information seeking, which can be supported through focused strategic health education and communication interventions. A focus on the development of information literacy that could provide prospective minority research volunteers with skills for informed decision making should be explored as an option for increasing mindful, informed participation in clinical research among currently underrepresented racial and ethnic groups.

Nurses' contribution to short-term humanitarian care in low- to middle-income countries: An integrative review of the literature.

To appraise the literature related to voluntary humanitarian work provided by international nurses in low- to middle-income countries. Nurses and other health professionals are engaged with both governmental and nongovernmental organisations to provide care within international humanitarian relief and development contexts. Current literature describes accounts of charitable health professional activity within short-term health-focused humanitarian trips; however, there is minimal research describing the care that nurses provide and the professional roles and tasks they fulfil whilst participating in international volunteer healthcare service. Integrative review. A search of articles published between 1995-2015 was conducted using seven bibliographic databases. Inclusion criteria incorporated nurses and allied health professionals' involvement in a volunteer short-term medical team capacity. Papers describing military and/or disaster response with a service-learning focus were excluded. Nineteen papers were selected for review, description and discussion of findings. Findings revealed limited data describing the care nurses provide and the professional roles and tasks they fulfil within the context of international humanitarian short-term medical trips. Issues raised included a description of demographic data regarding participants and sending agencies, motivation for volunteer participation, perceptions of effectiveness of particular programmes and sustainability issues related to cultural, ethical or moral obligations of foreign health professionals working in a low- to middle-income countries. Study findings highlighted that although nurses are recruited and participate in health-focused humanitarian activities in low- to middle-income countries, there is extremely limited documented research about the amount and type of care that nurses specifically provide in this context. Furthermore, when identified, it is most often hidden within studies outlining services provided by healthcare teams and not specific to the discipline of nursing. Further research is therefore required to enable greater understanding of nursing care in this context and to inform prospective volunteers of expected nursing practice. This article provides an analysis of available literature describing nursing involvement within the particular context of short-term medical teams delivering charitable health care.

Help Prospective Volunteers Know What to Expect

Help Prospective Volunteers Know What to Expect

Book review

[Extract] Until recently, the ethical context of international volunteering has been missing in the travel health literature despite prospective volunteers forming part of travellers seeking pre-travel care. The enormous increase in international volunteering has triggered a large body of literature in other disciplines including raising questions about the benefits to the host communities, yet, much of this literature is inaccessible to those who would benefit from its perusal. This book remedies this situation to a large extent. Hoping to Help is based on research, including fieldwork, but presented in a highly readable style.

Techniques for Interviewing Prospective Volunteers

Techniques for Interviewing Prospective Volunteers

Nipple-areolar Complex Reconstruction following Postmastectomy Breast Reconstruction: A Comparative Utility Assessment Study.

Background:Nipple-areola complex (NAC) reconstruction occurs toward the final stage of breast reconstruction; however, not all women follow through with these procedures. The goal of this study was to determine the impact of the health state burden of living with a reconstructed breast before NAC reconstruction.Methods:A sample of the population and medical students at McGill University were recruited to establish the utility scores [visual analog scale (VAS), time trade-off (TTO), and standard gamble (SG)] of living with an NAC deformity. Utility scores for monocular and binocular blindness were determined for validation and comparison. Linear regression and Student’s t test were used for statistical analysis, and significance was set at P < 0.05.Results:There were 103 prospective volunteers included. Utility scores (VAS, TTO, and SG) for NAC deformity were 0.84 ± 0.18, 0.92 ± 0.11, and 0.92 ± 0.11, respectively. Age, gender, and ethnicity were not statistically significant independent predictors of utility scores. Income thresholds of <$10,000 and >$10,000 revealed a statistically significant difference for VAS (P = 0.049) and SG (P = 0.015). Linear regression analysis showed that medical education was directly proportional to the SG and TTO scores (P < 0.05).Conclusions:The absence of NAC in a reconstructed breast can be objectively assessed using utility scores (VAS, 0.84 ± 0.18; TTO, 0.92 ± 0.11; SG, 0.92 ± 0.11). In comparison to prior reported conditions, the quality of life in patients choosing to undergo NAC reconstruction is similar to that of persons living with a nasal deformity or an aging neck requiring rejuvenation.

Insuring That Good Deeds Go Unpunished: Instituting State‐Provided Malpractice Protection for Pro Bono Family Lawyers

In the face of an economic downturn, more litigants are attempting to handle family law actions without representation and the consequences could be disastrous for them. Although some legal aid is available, more pro bono services are needed, and many family lawyers who would otherwise volunteer do not do so because they fear becoming defendants in a legal malpractice suit. Most prospective volunteers do not have the right malpractice insurance and are not covered by current state or federal law. This Note proposes that all states recognize the increasing malpractice exposure risk for family lawyers and incentivize them to volunteer by implementing statewide programs that provide free malpractice insurance for volunteer family lawyers modeled after existing programs in Missouri and Texas. Such programs would recognize that volunteer attorneys are doing a good deed, but also protect every client's right to adequate legal representation, by preserving their right to sue for malpractice. Key Points for the Family Court Community More litigants in family court actions are deciding to represent themselves due to their inability to pay market rates for legal services. Although some legal aid is available, more pro bono services are needed. Many family lawyers do not volunteer due to fear of being sued for malpractice. A state‐implemented malpractice insurance plan for volunteer family lawyers would be a low‐cost program that would minimize attorney fears, create incentives to volunteer, and serve as an effective solution to the increasing rate of self‐represented litigants in family court actions.