Factors Related to the Willingness to Maintain Home Hospice Volunteer Activities

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to clarify the hypothesis that the experience of interpersonal volunteering at home hospice and the sense of belonging to the affiliated organization are related to the awareness of volunteer activities, and through this, the willingness to maintain activities is increased. A questionnaire was administered to 196 individuals from six home hospice volunteer organizations, and factor analysis was conducted using the complete data of 103 individuals. The findings suggested that the recognition of volunteer activities is composed of four factors: “delight in group activities,” “self-efficacy,” “social contribution through leisure time,” and “confidence in one’s self-ability.” Of these, only “delight in group activities,” in which the number of experienced interpersonal volunteers and the sense of belonging were significantly related, was significantly related to willingness to continue (standardized β0.52, p <0.001). In addition, low willingness to continue was associated with a lack of a reliable coordinator and sense of belonging. Therefore, satisfaction with the group organization was more of a motivation to continue volunteer activities than the individual factors.