Exploring Volunteers' Experiences in Health TAPESTRY
Study Details
Study Description
Brief Summary
This study is meant to evaluate the Health TAPESTRY volunteer program. The objective of this study is to explore volunteer experiences in Health TAPESTRY in terms of implementation and to understand how participation in Health TAPESTRY as a volunteer is related to compassion, self-reported physical activity, quality of life, and attitudes toward older adults.
| Condition or Disease | Intervention/Treatment | Phase |
|---|---|---|
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Detailed Description
Health TAPESTRY aims to help people stay healthier for longer in the places where they live. As a person-focused, proactive approach, Health TAPESTRY incorporates trained community volunteers into the primary care team in a way that is seamless and complementary to the essential work that clinicians are undertaking each day. In the program, volunteers conduct home visits with older adult clients, complete questionnaires, and connect their clients to primary care and community resources. This study offers the opportunity to fill a major gap in the literature by investigating the experiences of volunteers within Health TAPESTRY and the effect on them of participation as an intervention in its own right.
Specifically, the study seeks to understand volunteers' experiences in the program and evaluate any effects that volunteering with the program has on the volunteers including with the volunteers health and wellness (specifically physical activity and quality of life), empathy, and attitudes toward older adults. The investigators will also look at how the volunteers patterns of compassion fatigue and compassion satisfaction might change throughout involvement in the program, and how that connects to volunteer demographic characteristics like age and gender, as well as other characteristics like empathy, how many home visits are conducted, and the initial motivation to volunteer with the program.
This program evaluation study will employ qualitative and quantitative data collection strategies including surveys, narratives written by volunteers, and volunteer focus groups.
Study Design
Arms and Interventions
| Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
|---|---|
| Health TAPESTRY volunteers Volunteers in a primary care setting connecting with Health TAPESTRY clients |
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| Health TAPESTRY Volunteer Coordinators The coordinators of volunteers |
Outcome Measures
Primary Outcome Measures
- Volunteers' Experiences [12 months]
Volunteers' and volunteer coordinators' perceptions about their experiences in Health TAPESTRY overall, and specifically in regards to their understanding of their role; the training that was offered and how it did or did not support them in carrying out their role effectively; the process of engagement in the program from onboarding through the volunteer coordination to conducting home visits with clients; and the perceived outcomes of volunteering, including the impact of volunteering on their own health and wellness. This will be collected through qualitative data: focus groups for volunteers and interviews for volunteer coordinators at the 12-month mark, and volunteer narratives which are written post-client-visits.
Secondary Outcome Measures
- Compassion satisfaction and compassion fatigue [Baseline, 3 month, 6 month, 9 month, 12 months]
The change in compassion over time during participation as a Health TAPESTRY volunteer will be measured via the Professional Quality of Life survey (ProQOL), which measures both compassion fatigue and compassion satisfaction through 30-items on 5-point scales ranging from "never" to "very often". Collected every 3 months for a 12 month period.
- Physical Activity [Baseline, 12 months]
Volunteers' physical activity will be measured via the International Physical Activity Survey (IPAQ). Respondents indicate how many days in the past seven days, and for how many minutes, they have engaged in vigorous and moderate intensity activity and walking activity. Scores for vigorous and moderate intensity activity, and walking activity are calculated by multiplying the days by the number of minutes on one day by the metabolic equivalent of task (MET) value for the activity. The MET values used for vigorous and moderate intensity activity and walking are 8.0, 4.0, and 3.3 respectively. Collected at baseline and 12 months.
- Quality of Life [Baseline, 12 months]
Volunteers' quality of life will be measured via the five-level EuroQol five-dimension (EQ-5D-5L). The EQ-5D-5L asks respondents to rate their current ability in five domains: mobility, self-care, usual activities, pain, and anxiety/depression, on a five-level scale. In addition, respondents are asked to rate their current health state on a scale from 0 ('worst health you can imagine') to 100 ('best health you can imagine'). A score from the five domains is calculated using a macro program and ranges from 0 to 1. Collected at baseline and 12 months.
- Attitudes Toward Older Adults [Baseline, 12 months]
Volunteers' attitudes toward older adults will be measured via the UCLA Geriatric Attitudes Scale.This 14-item survey measures volunteers' attitudes of older adults on a 5-point scale ranging from "strongly disagree" to "strongly agree". Collected at baseline and 12 months.
- Empathy [Baseline, 12 months]
Volunteer empathy will be measured via the Basic Empathy Scale (BES), a 20-item scale based on a two-factor model of empathy. It includes 9 items evaluating cognitive empathy and 11 items evaluating affective empathy. Participants are asked to respond to each item on a five-point scale ranging from "strongly disagree" to "strongly agree". With permission from the author, language on the BES was slightly altered to fit a North American audience. Collected at baseline and 12 months.
- Reasons for Volunteering [Baseline]
A subscale of Clary & Snyder's Volunteerism Questionnaire, the Reasons for Volunteering sub-scale has 20-items and asks participants to respond to each item on a 7-point scale ranging from "not at all important/accurate for you" to "extremely important/accurate for you". Collected at baseline.
- Outcomes of Volunteering [12 Months]
A subscale of Clary & Snyder's Volunteerism Questionnaire, the Volunteering Outcomes sub-scale has 18 items, and primarily asks participants to respond to each item on a 7-point scale ranging from "strongly disagree" to "strongly agree". Collected at 12 months.
Eligibility Criteria
Criteria
Must be a Health TAPESTRY Volunteer or Volunteer Coordinator. There are no further inclusion or exclusion criteria.
Contacts and Locations
Locations
| Site | City | State | Country | Postal Code | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | David Braley Health Sciences Centre, McMaster University | Hamilton | Ontario | Canada | L8S 4K1 |
Sponsors and Collaborators
- McMaster University
- Canadian Red Cross
- David Braley
- Ontario Ministry of Health and Long Term Care
Investigators
- Principal Investigator: Doug Oliver, MSc,MD,CCFP, McMaster University
- Principal Investigator: Dee Mangin, MBChB,DPH,FRN, McMaster University
Study Documents (Full-Text)
None provided.More Information
Publications
None provided.- 4301