title: Physicians' Perceptions of Volunteer Service at Safety-Net Clinics.
abstract: Volunteer physicians are crucial for the operation of safety-net clinics, which provide medical care for uninsured and underinsured populations. Thus, identifying ways to maximize the number of physicians volunteering at such clinics is an important goal.
  
  
  
  To investigate the perceptions, motivations, functions, and barriers associated with physician volunteering in four safety-net clinics in San Bernardino County, Southern California, a location of great medical need with many barriers to care.
  
  
  
  The study participants are physicians belonging to the Southern California Permanente Medical Group who use a combination of discretionary time (during regular work hours) and personal time in evening and weekend hours to volunteer their services. The experimental design incorporates a mixed methodology: an online survey of 31 physicians and follow-up interviews with 8 of them.
  
  
  
  Physicians conveyed uniformly positive perceptions of their volunteer service, and most were motivated by humanitarian or prosocial desires. Volunteering also provided a protective "escape hatch" from the pressures of the physicians' regular jobs. Physicians cited few challenges to volunteering. The most common personal barrier was a lack of time. The most common professional barriers were organizational and supply issues at the clinic, along with the patients' social, transportation, and financial challenges.
  
  
  
  The results suggest that appealing to physicians' values and faith, and highlighting the burnout-prevention qualities of volunteering, may be key to recruitment and retention of volunteer physicians who serve underserved and underinsured populations in community clinics.
authors.affiliation: Instructor of Anthropology in the Department of Biological Sciences at Mt San Antonio College in Walnut, CA, and a Research Fellow in the School of Advanced Studies at the University of Phoenix in CA. lmcgeehan2001@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Mcgeehan
authors.affiliation: Assistant Area Medical Director for the Southern California Permanente Medical Group in Fontana, CA. michael.a.takehara@kp.org.
authors.forename: Michael A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Takehara
authors.affiliation: Senior University Research Chair in the School of Advanced Studies at the University of Phoenix in CA. ellen.daroszewski@phoenix.edu.
authors.forename: Ellen
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Daroszewski
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000533:Altruism; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D002055:Burnout, Professional / Q000517:prevention & control; D002140:California; D005260:Female; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006801:Humans; D017057:Medically Uninsured; D008875:Middle Aged; D009042:Motivation; D010820:Physicians; D064876:Safety-net Providers; D013315:Stress, Psychological; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D017748:Time Management; D014838:Volunteers