Top

Israel Journal of Health Policy Research

Published in:

Open Access 01-12-2020 | Original research article

Motivation of emergency medical services volunteers: a study of organized Good Samaritans

Authors: Michael Khalemsky, David G. Schwartz, Raphael Herbst, Eli Jaffe

Published in: Israel Journal of Health Policy Research | Issue 1/2020

Abstract

Background

Early professional care in emergencies is beneficial in general and its utility has been proven in many studies, particularly in regard to out-of-hospital cardiopulmonary arrest. A person in distress can expect help from two sources: bystanders, including family members, community members, and complete strangers; and professionals, including emergency medical services, first responders, firefighters, and police officers. Emergency Medical Services try to achieve faster first response times through various approaches. Recent technological and social developments have enabled a new form of Emergency Medical Services volunteering, called Organized Good Samaritans, which represents a new layer between occasional volunteers and time-donation volunteers. Organized Good Samaritans are people with a medical background, particularly off-duty medical professionals who are willing and able to provide first aid in emergencies in their vicinity.

Methods

A qualitative formalization of technology-enabled Organized Good Samaritans is presented. One thousand eight hundred Israeli National Emergency Medical Services volunteers were surveyed using Clary and Snyder’s Volunteer Functions Inventory instrument. Demographics, professional backgrounds, and volunteering functions of Time-Donation Volunteers and Organized Good Samaritans are compared.

Results

Significant differences between Organized Good Samaritans and Time Donation Volunteers were found. Demographically, Organized Good Samaritans are older and the percentage of males is higher. Professionally, the percentage of physicians and nurses among Organized Good Samaritans is higher. Motivation measures find that the motivation of Organized Good Samaritans is higher and the order of importance of the volunteering functions differs.

Conclusion

A clearly identifiable and differently motivated class of emergency services volunteers has emerged. An appropriate information technology infrastructure enables Emergency Medical Services organizations to integrate Organized Good Samaritans into core business processes to shorten response times to emergencies. Organized Good Samaritans provide a volunteering opportunity for highly skilled people unable to be Time-Donation Volunteers. Our findings provide an empirical basis for further research on Organized Good Samaritans integration into Emergency Medical Services operations. Emergency Medical Services administrators can use these findings to establish an Organized Good Samaritans infrastructure and adjust recruitment and retention. This study is limited to one national Emergency Medical Services organization in Israel. Cultural differences can impact results in other countries. Organized Good Samaritans effectiveness should also be studied in terms of response times and medical outcomes.

Available only for authorised users

Hansen CM, Kragholm K, Pearson DA, Tyson C, Monk L, Myers B, et al. Association of bystander and first-responder intervention with survival after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in North Carolina, 2010-2013. JAMA. 2015;314(3):255–64.CrossRef

Hasselqvist-Ax I, Riva G, Herlitz J, Rosenqvist M, Hollenberg J, Nordberg P, et al. Early cardiopulmonary resuscitation in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. N Engl J Med. 2015;372(24):2307–15.CrossRefPubMed

Sulovic LS, Pavlovic AP, Zivkovic JB, Zivkovic ZN, Filipovic-Danic SS, Trpkovic SV. Accidental drowning: the importance of early measures of resuscitation for a successful outcome [Internet]. Case Rep Emerg Med. 2018; [cited 2019 Aug 3]. Available from: https://www.hindawi.com/journals/criem/2018/7525313/abs/. https://doi.org/10.1155/2018/7525313.

Fitch J. Response times: myths, measurement and management. JEMS. 2015;30:47–56 [cited 2019 Aug 3]; Available from: https://www.jems.com/articles/2005/08/response-times-myths44-measure.html.

Rivera NT, Kumar SL, Bhandari RK, Kumar SD. Disparities in survival with bystander CPR following cardiopulmonary arrest based on neighborhood characteristics. Emerg Med Int. 2016;2016. https://doi.org/10.1155/2016/6983750.

Pew Research Center. “The smartphone difference” [Internet]. 2015. Available from: http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/04/01/us-smartphone-use-in-2015/.

Goldschmidt R. Privacy issues in smartphones. Jerusalem: The Knesset Research and Information Center; 2016.

Chapman SA, Lindler V, Kaiser JA, Nielsen CS, et al. EMS Workforce for the 21st century: a national assessment 1. 2008; Available from: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.570.7542.

Haug JC, Gaskins JN. Recruiting and retaining volunteer EMTs: from motivation to practical solutions. Int J Sociol Soc Policy. 2012;32(3/4):197–213.CrossRef

10.

Pearce AP. Emergency medical services at the crossroads. London: British Association for Accident and Emergency Medicine; 2009 [cited 2017 Apr 25]. Available from: http://emj.bmj.com/content/26/9/685.extract.

11.

Ambulancezorg Nederland. Ambulance care in Europe [Internet]. 2010 [cited 2017 May 26]. Available from: http://www.eena.org/uploads/gallery/files/pdf/report-ambulancecare-in-europe-jan-2010%20(1).pdf.

12.

March JA, Ferguson JD. Volunteer EMS systems. 2009 [cited 2017 Apr 25]; Available from: http://emergencymedicine.health.pitt.edu/sites/default/files/Volunteer%20EMS%20Systems.pdf.

13.

Burt E, Taylor J. When “virtual” meets values: insights from the voluntary sector. Inf Commun Soc. 2001;4(1):54–73.CrossRef

14.

Kitamura T, Kiyohara K, Sakai T, Matsuyama T, Hatakeyama T, Shimamoto T, et al. Public-access defibrillation and out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in Japan. N Engl J Med. 2016;375(17):1649–59.CrossRefPubMed

15.

Kiyohara K, Kitamura T, Sakai T, Nishiyama C, Nishiuchi T, Hayashi Y, et al. Public-access AED pad application and outcomes for out-of-hospital cardiac arrests in Osaka, Japan. Resuscitation. 2016;106:70–5.CrossRefPubMed

16.

Murakami Y, Iwami T, Kitamura T, Nishiyama C, Nishiuchi T, Hayashi Y, et al. Outcomes of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest by public location in the public-access defibrillation era. J Am Heart Assoc. 2014;3(2):e000533.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

17.

Nakahara S, Tomio J, Ichikawa M, Nakamura F, Nishida M, Takahashi H, et al. Association of bystander interventions with neurologically intact survival among patients with bystander-witnessed out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in Japan. JAMA. 2015;314(3):247–54.CrossRefPubMed

18.

Claesson A, Bäckman A, Ringh M, Svensson L, Nordberg P, Djärv T, et al. Time to delivery of an automated external defibrillator using a drone for simulated out-of-hospital cardiac arrests vs emergency medical services. JAMA. 2017;317(22):2332–4.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

19.

Elsner J, Meisen P, Thelen S, Schilberg D, Jeschke S. EMuRgency–a basic concept for an AI Driven volunteer notification system for integrating laypersons into emergency medical services. Int J Adv Life Sci. 2013;5(3 and 4):223–36.

20.

Folke F, Lippert FK, Nielsen SL, Gislason GH, Hansen ML, Schramm TK, et al. Location of cardiac arrest in a city center strategic placement of automated external defibrillators in public locations. Circulation. 2009;120(6):510–7.CrossRefPubMed

21.

Marshall AH, Cairns KJ, Kee F, Moore MJ, Hamilton AJ, Adgey AAJ. A Monte Carlo simulation model to assess volunteer response times in a public access defibrillation scheme in Northern Ireland. In: 19th IEEE International Symposium on Computer-Based Medical Systems, 2006 CBMS 2006. 2006. p. 783–8.

22.

Rea T, Blackwood J, Damon S, Phelps R, Eisenberg M. A link between emergency dispatch and public access AEDs: potential implications for early defibrillation. Resuscitation. 2011;82(8):995–8.CrossRefPubMed

23.

Sakai T, Iwami T, Kitamura T, Nishiyama C, Kawamura T, Kajino K, et al. Effectiveness of the new ‘Mobile AED Map’to find and retrieve an AED: a randomised controlled trial. Resuscitation. 2011;82(1):69–73.CrossRefPubMed

24.

Takei Y, Kamikura T, Nishi T, Maeda T, Sakagami S, Kubo M, et al. Recruitments of trained citizen volunteering for conventional cardiopulmonary resuscitation are necessary to improve the outcome after out-of-hospital cardiac arrests in remote time-distance area: a nationwide population-based study. Resuscitation. 2016;105:100–8.CrossRefPubMed

25.

Smith CM, Wilson MH, Ghorbangholi A, Hartley-Sharpe C, Gwinnutt C, Dicker B, et al. The use of trained volunteers in the response to out-of-hospital cardiac arrest – the GoodSAM experience. Resuscitation. 2017;121:123–6.CrossRefPubMed

26.

Berglund E, Claesson A, Nordberg P, Djärv T, Lundgren P, Folke F, et al. A smartphone application for dispatch of lay responders to out-of-hospital cardiac arrests. Resuscitation. 2018;126:160–5 [cited 2018 Feb 21]; Available froem: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0300957218300480.CrossRefPubMed

27.

Pijls RWM, Nelemans PJ, Rahel BM, Gorgels APM. A text message alert system for trained volunteers improves out-of-hospital cardiac arrest survival. Resuscitation. 2016;105:182–7.CrossRefPubMed

28.

Khalemsky M, Schwartz DG, Silberg T, Khalemsky A, Jaffe E, Herbst R. Childrens’ and parents’ willingness to join a smartphone-based emergency response Community for Anaphylaxis: survey. JMIR mHealth and uHealth. 2019;7(8):e13892.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

29.

Khalemsky M, Schwartz DG. Emergency response community effectiveness: a simulation modeler for comparing emergency medical services with smartphone-based Samaritan response. Decis Support Syst. 2017;102:57–68.CrossRef

30.

Bennett S, Banyard VL, Garnhart L. To act or not to act, that is the question? Barriers and facilitators of bystander intervention. J Interpers Violence. 2014;29(3):476–96.CrossRefPubMed

31.

Darley JM, Latane B. Bystander intervention in emergencies: diffusion of responsibility. J Pers Soc Psychol. 1968;8(4p1):377.CrossRefPubMed

32.

Latane B, Darley JM. The unresponsive bystander. New Jersey: why doesn’t he help? Prentice Hall; 1970. p. 131.

33.

Latane B, Rodin J. A lady in distress: inhibiting effects of friends and strangers on bystander intervention. J Exp Soc Psychol. 1969;5(2):189–202.CrossRef

34.

Wissenberg M. Association of National Initiatives to improve cardiac arrest management with rates of bystander intervention and patient survival after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. JAMA. 2013;310(13):1377.CrossRefPubMed

35.

Peterson C. Be safe, be prepared: emergency system for advance registration of volunteer health professionals in disaster response. Online J Issues Nurs. 2006;11(3):3 Available from: http://search.proquest.com/openview/9ff0b3ea4fbb33ba63c595dce2e4304d/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=43860.PubMed

36.

Burkholder TW, King RA. Emergency physicians as good Samaritans: survey of frequency, locations, supplies and medications. West J Emerg Med. 2016;17(1):15.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

37.

Garneau WM, Harris DM, Viera AJ. Cross-sectional survey of good Samaritan behaviour by physicians in North Carolina. BMJ Open. 2016;6(3):e010720.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

38.

Williams K. Doctors as good Samaritans: some empirical evidence concerning emergency medical treatment in Britain. J Law Soc. 2003;30(2):258–82.CrossRef

39.

Reuter SR. Physicians as good Samaritans: should they receive immunity for their negligence when responding to hospital emergencies? J Legal Med. 1999;20(2):157–93.CrossRef

40.

Varshney U. Pervasive healthcare computing: EMR/EHR, wireless and health monitoring. New York: Springer Science & Business Media; 2009. [cited 2017 Apr 28]. Available from: https://www.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=f5NoQDpVy8oC&oi=fnd&pg=PA1&dq=pervasive+healthcare+computing&ots=3gxy-ISfJL&sig=SL6iZ8WKU24kNs36IDymP1lUP0Y.CrossRef

41.

Swan M. Emerging patient-driven health care models: an examination of health social networks, consumer personalized medicine and quantified self-tracking. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2009;6(2):492–525.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

42.

Varshney U. Mobile health: four emerging themes of research. Decis Support Syst. 2014;66:20–35.CrossRef

43.

PulsePoint [Internet]. PulsePoint. [cited 2019 Apr 20]. Available from: https://www.pulsepoint.org/.

44.

AllergyHero [Internet]. [cited 2019 Apr 20]. Available from: https://www.facebook.com/AllergyHero/.

45.

UNITYPHILLY - give naloxone, save a life [Internet]. UNITYPHILLY - Give naloxone, save a life. [cited 2019 Apr 20]. Available from: https://www.unityphilly.org/.

46.

Gaziel Yablowitz M, Schwartz DG. A review and assessment framework for mobile based emergency intervention apps. ACM Comput Surv. 2018;51(1):1–32.CrossRef

47.

Jaffe E, Dadon Z, Alpert EA. Wisdom of the crowd in saving lives: the life guardians app. Prehosp Disaster Med. 2018;35:1–3.

48.

Dury S, De Donder L, De Witte N, Buffel T, Jacquet W, Verté D. To volunteer or not: the influence of individual characteristics, resources, and social factors on the likelihood of volunteering by older adults. Nonprofit Volunt Sect Q. 2015;44(6):1107–28.CrossRef

49.

Gutierrez IA, Mattis JS. Factors predicting volunteer engagement among urban-residing African American women. J Black Stud. 2014;45(7):599–619.CrossRef

50.

Wu W-N, Tsai C-C. What motivates citizens to volunteer in schools? Determinants in the local context. Educ Urban Soc. 2017;50:769–92 0013124517714308.CrossRef

51.

Brayley N, Obst PL, White KM, Lewis IM, Warburton J, Spencer NM. Examining the predictive value of combining the theory of planned behaviour and the volunteer functions inventory. Aust J Psychol. 2015;67(3):149–56.CrossRef

52.

Clary EG, Snyder M. The motivations to volunteer: theoretical and practical considerations. Curr Dir Psychol Sci. 1999;8(5):156–9.CrossRef

53.

Dunn J, Chambers SK, Hyde MK. Systematic review of motives for episodic volunteering. Voluntas. 2016;27(1):425–64.CrossRef

54.

Kulik L. Volunteering during an emergency: a life stage perspective. Nonprofit Volunt Sect Q. 2017;46(2):419–41.CrossRef

55.

Kulik L, Arnon L, Dolev A. Explaining satisfaction with volunteering in emergencies: comparison between organized and spontaneous volunteers in operation protective edge. Voluntas. 2016;27(3):1280–303.CrossRef

56.

Lavelle JJ. What motivates OCB? Insights from the volunteerism literature. J Organiz Behav. 2010;31(6):918–23.CrossRef

57.

Unger LS. Altruism as a motivation to volunteer. J Econ Psychol. 1991;12(1):71–100.CrossRef

58.

Studer S, von Schnurbein G. Organizational factors affecting volunteers: a literature review on volunteer coordination. Voluntas. 2013;24(2):403–40.CrossRef

59.

Clary EG, Snyder M, Ridge R. Volunteers’ motivations: a functional strategy for the recruitment, placement, and retention of volunteers. Nonprofit Manag Leadersh. 1992;2(4):333–50.CrossRefPubMed

60.

Forbes D, Bussell H. Understanding the volunteer market: Thewhat, where, who and why of volunteering. Int J Nonprofit Volunt Sect Mark. 2002;7(3):244.CrossRef

61.

Houle BJ, Sagarin BJ, Kaplan MF. A functional approach to volunteerism: do volunteer motives predict task preference? Basic Appl Soc Psychol. 2005;27(4):337–44.CrossRef

62.

Anderson JC, Moore LF. The motivation to volunteer. Nonprofit Volunt Sect Q. 1978;7:120–9.

63.

Stukas AA, Hoye R, Nicholson M, Brown KM, Aisbett L. Motivations to volunteer and their associations with volunteers’ well-being. Nonprofit Volunt Sect Q. 2016;45(1):112–32.CrossRef

64.

Timmons S, Vernon-Evans A. Why do people volunteer for community first responder groups? Emerg Med J. 2013;30:e13.CrossRefPubMed

65.

Levis E. Magen David Adom launches “life guardian program” to bolster existing emergency response services. New York: American Friends of Magen David Adom; 2016. [cited 2017 May 26]. Available from: https://afmda.org/magen-david-adom-launches-life-guardian-program-to-bolster-existing-emergency-response-services/.

66.

Leeuwenburg T, Hall J. Tyranny of distance and rural prehospital care: is there potential for a national rural responder network? Emerg Med Australas. 2015;27(5):481–4.CrossRefPubMed

67.

Levine G, Parkinson S. Experimental methods in psychology. Hove: Psychology Press; 2014. p. 578.

68.

Rokach L, Maimon OZ. Data mining with decision trees: theory and applications. Singapore: World Scientific; 2008. p. 263.

69.

Jenkins LN, Nickerson AB. Bystander intervention in bullying: role of social skills and gender. J Early Adolesc. 2017;39(2):0272431617735652.

70.

Phillips B. Gender as a variable in emergency response. The Loma Prieta earthquake: studies of short-term impacts; 1990. p. 84–90.

71.

Zijlstra JA, Beesems SG, De Haan RJ, Koster RW. Psychological impact on dispatched local lay rescuers performing bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Resuscitation. 2015;92:115–21.CrossRefPubMed

72.

Sporer CR. Sex differences in stress, burnout and coping in emergency medical service providers. New York: CUNY Academic Works; 2016. p. 225.

73.

McLennan J, Birch A. Why would you do it? Age and motivation to become a fire service volunteer. Australas J Organ Psychol. 2008;1:7–11.

74.

Eid T. Why do physicians volunteer at Medical Schools and Free Clinics? [Internet] [Thesis]. The University of Arizona.; 2018 [cited 2018 Jul 22]. Available from: https://repository.arizona.edu/handle/10150/627153.

75.

Grande D, Armstrong K. Community volunteerism of US physicians. J Gen Intern Med. 2008;23(12):1987–91.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

76.

Darves B. Physician volunteer work. Waltham: NEJM CareerCenter; 2011. [cited 2018 Jul 21]. Available from: http://www.nejmcareercenter.org/article/physician-volunteer-work/.

77.

Elseed E. Volunteerism among physicians: motivational causes and reaped benefits; 2012.

78.

Switzer CL, Switzer GE, Stukas AA, Baker CE. Medical student motivations to volunteer. J Prev Interv Commun. 1999;18(1–2):53–64.CrossRef

79.

Stukas AA, Snyder M, Clary EG. Understanding and encouraging volunteerism and community involvement. J Soc Psychol. 2016;156(3):243–55.CrossRefPubMed

80.

Newton C, Becker K, Bell S. Learning and development opportunities as a tool for the retention of volunteers: a motivational perspective. Hum Resour Manag J. 2014;24(4):514–30.CrossRef

81.

Anheier HK, Salamon LM. Volunteering in cross-national perspective: initial comparisons. Law Contemp Probs. 1999;62:43.CrossRef

Title: Motivation of emergency medical services volunteers: a study of organized Good Samaritans
Authors: Michael Khalemsky
David G. Schwartz
Raphael Herbst
Eli Jaffe
Publication date: 01-12-2020
Publisher: BioMed Central
Published in: Israel Journal of Health Policy Research / Issue 1/2020
Electronic ISSN: 2045-4015
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s13584-020-00370-9

Keynote webinar | Spotlight on sleep in brain health

Springer Medicine

Motivation of emergency medical services volunteers: a study of organized Good Samaritans

Abstract

Background

Methods

Results

Conclusion

Keynote webinar | Spotlight on sleep in brain health

Springer Medicine

Abstract

Background

Methods

Results

Conclusion

Please log in to get access to this content

Other articles of this Issue 1/2020

The future of telemedicine visits after COVID-19: perceptions of primary care pediatricians

Motorcycle-related head and neck injuries: increased risk among ethnic minorities

Inequality in in-hospital mortality due to road traffic accident between ethnic populations in specified groups living in the same country

Assisted life termination and truth telling to terminally ill patients – a cross-sectional study of public opinions in Israel

Differences in substance use by sexual orientation and gender among Jewish young adults in Israel

Opportunities for diversifying and enriching our article mix