title: Hospital volunteer's role and accident-prevention systems: a nationwide survey of Japanese hospitals.
abstract: This study aimed to examine the scope of activities performed by hospital volunteers. A survey was conducted on 3055 hospitals, randomly selected throughout Japan. Attention was also paid to the accident-prevention systems instituted by those facilities. Almost one-third (36.5%) of all hospitals had some hospital volunteers. About 60% (59.9%) of hospitals conducted volunteer activities more than once a week. Recreation (50.1%) was the most common role of the volunteers. The other activities in decreasing order were: conversation partners (45.8%), music and entertainment (43.7%), wheelchair pushing (41.8%) and helping administration (36.3%). Both direct and indirect contact between volunteers and patients was prevalent. Less than half of the hospitals had accident-prevention systems, such as guidelines for volunteer activities (except for Volunteer Insurance). Hospitals that had a volunteer coordinator tended to have significantly more accident-prevention systems. It is, therefore, important to establish volunteer coordinators in order to prevent accidents during hospital volunteer activities.
authors.affiliation: Department of Social Gerontology, School of Health Sciences and Nursing, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan. madoka-tky@umin.ac.jp
authors.forename: Madoka
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Aragaki
authors.forename: Tami
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Saito
authors.forename: Miyako
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Takahashi
authors.forename: Ichiro
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Kai
mesh_terms: D000056:Accident Prevention / Q000379:methods*; D019538:Health Care Surveys / Q000379:methods; D006758:Hospital Volunteers / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D012380:Role; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires