Student Volunteer Program Research Articles

Medical students rise to the COVID-19 vaccine challenge

Abstract
 Background
 The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted medical student education at a time when they were most eager to step up and help with the pandemic response. Indiana University School of Medicine (IUSM) leveraged an existing relationship with the Indiana Department of Health (IDOH) and the major healthcare systems in the state to assist with the state’s mass vaccination campaign. In this paper, we describe the development and implementation of a medical student volunteer program and highlight the main components of integrating community service programs into medical education.
 Methods
 IUSM appointed a taskforce to create a state-wide IUSM Medical Student Volunteer Vaccinator program to quickly train and deploy a medical student volunteer workforce. This taskforce was charged with (1) creating and delivering asynchronous and in-person training curriculum for all nine regional campuses and (2) coordinating medical student volunteerism for vaccine delivery across the state of Indiana.
 Results
 A total of 517 of 739 targeted medical students were fully trained in vaccine administration and contributed to over 2,000 hours of volunteer community service and delivered over 15,000 vaccine doses across the state of Indiana. Students also participated in other essential vaccination delivery roles, such as screening and registration of patients, exit monitoring, and pre-calling patients to remind them of their appointments.
 Conclusions
 Community service should be a critical component of medical student education. The IUSM Medical Student Volunteer Vaccinator program is an example of what the collaboration between medical schools, state health departments, and healthcare systems can achieve. This model can not only be disseminated to other medical school / healthcare system dyads for mass vaccination efforts but can also be expanded to other public health initiatives such as health screening programs, health education programs, contact tracing programs, community outreach programs, and global health initiatives.
 
 Conflicts of interest: None

Volunteering in an Aotearoa New Zealand Prison: Expanding Sociological Criminal Justice Learning

This article outlines an evaluation of a student-volunteer program at a corrections facility in Aotearoa New Zealand. The aim of the volunteer program was to offer students the opportunity to think critically on the criminal justice system and to give back to the community. This article explores the volunteering project evaluation in terms of the potentials and limitations of service-learning initiatives and unpacks the implications for teaching sociological criminology. While learning in a community setting is a powerful tool, this evaluation indicates that student learning initiatives may need to be adapted to initiate increased reflection upon the role of structure and agency in shaping lives, and to develop a framework that encourages students to engage in a critical consideration of taken-for-granted assumptions (about who is ‘dangerous’, about what ‘rehabilitation’ means). These findings point more broadly to some of the challenges in teaching sociological criminology in the contemporary era.

Geriatric Education on Telehealth (GET) Access: A medical student volunteer program to increase access to geriatric telehealth services at the onset of COVID-19

The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic placed an unprecedented demand on health systems to rapidly shift ambulatory in-person care to virtual care. Geriatric patients face more challenges with video visit access compared to younger patients due to discomfort with technology and less access to devices and internet. Medical students at the University of Michigan created an initiative to improve access to and comfort with video visits for geriatric patients. The program's goals were to (a) explore options for the delivery of personalized training to older adults, (b) create materials for volunteers to successfully navigate conversations with patients and caregivers, (c) provide patients one-to-one remote guidance while identifying and overcoming barriers—with practice sessions to increase comfort, (d) share with the larger health system, and (e) ensure program sustainability. Over a 10-week evaluation period, providers whose patients worked with our geriatric education on telehealth access volunteers had a video visit rate of 43% compared to 19.2% prior to participation in the program (adjusted odds ratio = 3.38, 95% confidence interval = 2.49, 4.59), ultimately providing a platform for geriatric patients to foster stronger connections with their providers, while increasing Michigan Medicine's overall proportion of video telehealth visits.

Friendly Calls to Seniors: an Interprofessional Student Volunteer Program

<h3>Introduction</h3> Older adults compose a segment of the population who are especially vulnerable to loneliness and isolation and have been disproportionately impacted by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.^{[1],[2],[3],[4]} Evidence shows traditional social support programs enhance their health and well-being; the current pandemic provides an opportunity to understand the potential benefits of virtual social support.^[5],[6] Friendly Calls to Seniors (FCS) is an interprofessional student volunteer program that is part of Columbia University's COVID-19 Student Service Corps (CSSC), founded at the outset of the pandemic. Utilizing a script developed by student leaders and faculty advisors from Columbia University Irving Medical Center (CUIMC), volunteers regularly call older adults with underlying mental health conditions. The calls provide social support and opportunities to identify and refer health concerns to care providers, thereby addressing both medical and social needs this group faces, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. <h3>Methods</h3> FCS is a phone call-based social support program in which student volunteers provide companionship and conduct health risk assessments for interested clients, who are older adults with underlying psychiatric conditions referred by clinical providers in the Washington Heights region of Manhattan. Student volunteers are on-boarded, HIPAA-trained, and supervised by two student leaders, as well as two faculty members of CUIMC, a geriatric psychiatrist and an occupational therapist. Volunteers use a HIPAA-compliant platform to securely call clients, using a translator if necessary. Calls are conducted using a script, which includes a suggested introduction, sample conversational topics, and a risk assessment for health and functioning that incorporates psychiatric and occupational considerations. The script also includes an escalation flowchart to refer client issues to the attention of the faculty supervisors to be connected with social workers, medical professionals, or community resources. Calls are tracked through secure survey forms and project metrics are tabulated weekly. The volunteer team convenes in weekly Zoom meetings to review volunteer-client interactions and pose questions that may have arisen. The project has integrated educational workshops from other organizations such as Columbia's Narrative Medicine Program. The student and faculty leadership also collaborates with community-based organizations and naturally occurring retirement communities (NORCs) in the Washington Heights region. <h3>Results</h3> At the time of writing, a total of 400 calls have been made by FCS student volunteers to 72 unique clients, ranging in age from 61 to 96. Of these, 38 are English-speaking and 34 are Spanish speaking; 49 clients elected to continue receiving calls. All clients have existing mental and physical health conditions, including depression, anxiety, neurocognitive disorders, bipolar disorder, and PTSD. Medical comorbidities, which were highly prevalent, existing in 45% of clients, included diabetes mellitus and hypertension. In total, 48 escalations have been made since the start of the program. Table 1 displays a breakdown of the escalation reasons: There have been 41 total volunteers since the program's inception, of whom 18 are currently active. The volunteers represent a wide range of health professions and undergraduate programs at Columbia, as seen in Table 2. Qualitative volunteer feedback about FCS was obtained through call log responses and reflection sessions. Volunteers cited increased knowledge of community resources and improved skills in relationship-building and addressing geriatric-specific concerns, such as discussing mental health concerns in an age-attuned and culturally sensitive manner. Additional skills gained included the ability to properly coordinate with an interpreter and communicate across language barriers; many students had never worked with an interpreter prior to being a part of FCS. <h3>Conclusions</h3> The FCS program exhibits promising qualitative results supporting vulnerable older adults. Using a script with a systematic risk assessment, volunteers have performed regular outreach to seniors and referred them to appropriate social services and/or healthcare professionals as needed. Clients and the FCS team have mutually benefited from the interprofessional perspectives informing this program, which have led to improved understanding of professional roles, available community resources, and opportunities for comprehensive care. Looking ahead, FCS will continue to be relevant as the COVID-19 pandemic draws on and many seniors remain socially isolated. The team will develop quantitative outcome metrics to better understand the impact of its work. The interprofessional, community-based education model, exemplified by the FCS interprofessional project, will be developed as a generalizable model for ensuring quality of care and best practice. <h3>Funding</h3> none

Programu Projektor- wolontariat studencki przestrzenią do realizacji autorskich projektów edukacyjnych

Teza. Wolontariat to bezpłatna, bezinteresowna i świadoma praca na rzecz innych. Obecnie istnieją jego różne formy i rodzaje, a każda osoba dobrowolnie może zaangażować się w określone działania.&#x0D; Omówione koncepcje. Jedną z form wolontariatu, w którą mogą włączyć się młodzi dorośli jest Program Projektor- wolontariat studencki. Jego celem jest dotarcie do dzieci i młodzieży z małych miast i wsi z aktywnością oraz wiedzą studentów. Oferta adresowana jest do placówek oświatowych, takich jak szkoły podstawowe, gimnazja, szkoły średnie, a także świetlice, ośrodki kultury, OSP oraz stowarzyszenia. Studenci mogą realizować autorskie scenariusze w ramach projektów startowych, specjalistycznych, systematycznych, feryjnych, wakacyjnych oraz akcji specjalnych. Ich tematyka zależy od wiedzy, umiejętności i zainteresowań wolontariuszy. Mogą to być zajęcia artystyczne, psychologiczno- pedagogiczne, humanistyczne, matematyczne, przyrodnicze, historyczne, sportowe, turystyczne itp.&#x0D; Wyniki i wnioski. Realizując projekty edukacyjne w miejscowościach do 20 tysięcy mieszkańców, wolontariusze wzbogacają ofertę szkół, ale i rozwijają własne zdolności pedagogiczne, organizacyjne i zarządcze. Dodatkowo przekazuje się pozytywne wzorce, zachęca się do własnego rozwoju, kształtuje się postawy społeczne, rozwija pasje i umożliwia realizację pomysłów.&#x0D; Oryginalność/wartość poznawcza podejścia. Studenci dzięki zaangażowaniu się w Program Projektor- wolontariat studencki zyskują doświadczenie pedagogiczne, umiejętności zarządzania projektem, czasem, zespołem, a także możliwość rozwoju w programie, poprzez różne kursy i szkolenia.

A Student Volunteer Program Takes Patient Satisfaction to the Next Level

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Additional informationNotes on contributorsApril AlexanderApril Alexander, MSW, ASW, is an oncology social worker and supervisor of the student volunteer program at Providence St. Joseph Health Cancer Program, Eureka, Calif. She can be reached at april.alexander@stjoe.org.

Using the Health Physics Student Volunteer Program for a Research Project Sponsored by the Medical Section of the Health Physics Society.

The Health Physics Society (HPS) Medical Health Physics Section (MHPS) received a request to research data on radiation safety guidance related to the death of patients who have recently received therapeutic doses of sealed or unsealed therapy sources. The MHPS elected to use student volunteers to perform this research. The purpose of this manuscript is to describe and provide a template for the process used by the MHPS to develop a student volunteer program. To implement the student volunteer program, the MHPS collaborated with the HPS Student Support Committee to develop a research proposal and a student volunteer selection process. The research proposal was sent to HPS student members in a call for volunteers. Two student volunteers were chosen based on predetermined qualifications to complete the work effort outlined in the research proposal. This project progressed with the use of milestones and culminated with the students presenting their findings at the annual HPS meeting. The students received HPS student travel awards to present at the conference. This work effort proved to be extremely beneficial to all parties involved.

The Effectiveness of a Student Volunteer Program for Research in a Pediatric Emergency Department

BackgroundEmergency Department (ED) student-based research assistant programs have been shown to be effective in enrolling patients when the students receive university course credit or pay. However, the impact on research outcomes when university students act as volunteers in this role is relatively unknown. ObjectivesThe main objective of this study was to determine how often potentially eligible children were accurately identified by volunteer research assistants for enrollment into prospective research in the ED. We also examined the frequency of successful enrollments and the accuracy of data capture. MethodsThis was a prospective cross-sectional study of university student volunteer research assistant performance in a tertiary care pediatric ED between March 2011 and July 2013. The participant's primary role was to screen and facilitate enrollment of ED patients into clinical research. For each volunteer, we recorded demographics, number of screenings, enrollments, and data capture accuracy. ResultsOver five 6-month sessions, 151 student volunteers participated. Of these, 77.3% were female, 58.8% were undergraduate students, and 61.1% were interested in medical school. Student volunteers accurately screened 11,362/13,067 (87.0%) children, and they accurately identified 4407/4984 (88.4%) potentially eligible children for study enrollment. Of the 3805 eligible for enrollment exclusively by the students, 3228 (84.8%) families/children consented and completed all study procedures. Furthermore, students correctly entered 11,660/12,567 (92.8%) data points. ConclusionsUtilizing university student volunteers to facilitate research enrollment in the ED is effective and allows for the capture of a high percentage of potentially eligible patients into prospective clinical research studies.

Having a student volunteer program is a win‐win

PurposeThis paper aims to focus on the use of a formal student volunteer program to offset budgetary shortfalls as well as provide opportunities for student learning.Design/methodology/approachThe paper builds the case by citing findings from case studies in the field.FindingsThis paper concludes that a formal strategic program along with identified learning outcomes for the student volunteers will be of benefit to both parties.Originality/valueThe paper is the foundation for the development of the author's own formal program.

Volunteer opportunity at Office of Science and Technology Policy

The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) is accepting applications for its fall 2013 student volunteer program. The application deadline is 11:59 P.M. Friday, 28 June.

Student Volunteer Program

Student Volunteer Program

Student Volunteer Program

Student Volunteer Program

Student Volunteer Program

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Student Volunteer Program

Student Volunteer Program

Who is Being Served? The Impact of Student Volunteering on Local Community Organizations

This research investigated how local community-based and nonprofit organizations benefit from cooperation with community-based learning (CBL) initiatives such as service learning, internships, and volunteering. By examining data from local organizations that cooperate with a campus-based student volunteer program, the authors empirically assessed the extent to which local organizations benefit from cooperation with CBL initiatives. The data enabled comparisons of the relative contributions of university student volunteers and off-campus volunteers recruited from the larger community. The authors found that student volunteers constitute a substantial pool of volunteer labor for local organizations, yet they play different roles than community volunteers, roles that vary by organizational form. Student volunteers are generally the least likely to provide or help plan and coordinate services compared with community volunteers. These differences can be offset by a modest amount of training for student volunteers. The findings do not support the notion that students are used exclusively for routine tasks.

What People are Saying about the Student Volunteer Program

What People are Saying about the Student Volunteer Program

The CHI student volunteer program

The CHI student volunteer program

A Student Volunteer Program for Elementary School Children

This article reports on a program called 'Psychological help for disadvantaged children.' It was part of a course in psychology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The main purpose of the course was to help student volunteers to engage in community work as non-profes sionals in schools, and it took place for three successive years (1975-1978). Each year, different students and children participated, but the frame work remained the same — teams of three to five students working with groups of eight to ten children from schools in deprived neighbourhoods in Jerusalem.

Book Reviews

Journal Article Book Reviews Get access A Manual for Students—Volunteering National Student Volunteer Program, 1972, 72 pp, $0.40 A Manual for Communities—Student Volunteers National Student Volunteer Program, 1972, 69 pp. $0.40 Student Community Action Alan Barr, Bedford Square Press, 1972, 135 pp, £1.00 JOHN CARTLEDGE JOHN CARTLEDGE Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Community Development Journal, Volume 8, Issue 1, January 1973, Page 49, https://doi.org/10.1093/cdj/8.1.49 Published: 01 January 1973

Evaluation of a college student volunteer program with primary graders experiencing school adjustment problems

Evaluation of a college student volunteer program with primary graders experiencing school adjustment problems