The Motivations and Effectiveness of Hospital Volunteers

Abstract

The effectiveness of volunteers was examined in a sample of 98 volunteer workers at a community hospital in central North Carolina. The volunteers were asked to provide demographic information about themselves and to respond to a 20-item questionnaire designed to assess their motives for volunteering. Their effectiveness was also evaluated by a hospital administrator who was familiar with the quality of their work. The older volunteers were rated as more effective than the younger volunteers, and the women were rated as more effective than the men.