Physician leadershipVolunteerism among surgeons: an exploration of attitudes and barriers
Section snippets
Methods
This cross-sectional study assessed surgeons' opinions of and experiences with surgical volunteerism. Surgical volunteerism was defined as sharing one's expertise with those in need outside of the usual work setting and without concern for financial gain.
In April 2007, a mail questionnaire was sent to all 628 members of the Nathan A. Womack Surgical Society, a professional organization of all surgeons who have worked or been trained at University of North Carolina Hospitals. One week later, a
Results
A total of 267 of the 628 surgeons surveyed returned completed questionnaires (42.5% response rate). Respondents' mean age was 54 years, and the majority were male (87.3%), in full-time practice (74.2%), and with specialty training (85.4%), especially in plastic surgery (17.4%) (Table 1).
Of these respondents, only 29% had heard of the American College of Surgeons' Operation Giving Back program. Over half (56%) had volunteered their surgical skills at least once since the completion of their
Comments
In this study, only one of the characteristics examined—full-time practice—was significantly related to active volunteering. The fact that no other characteristic was correlated to volunteerism suggests that no one type of person is more likely to be a volunteer and that many different kinds of surgeons are active volunteers. The varied traits of surgical volunteers, the large number of active volunteers, and the generally positive attitudes towards volunteerism reported here support the high
Limitations
While we believe this study is informative and provides a better understanding of the current state of volunteerism among surgeons, the limitation of response bias must be considered. It is possible that surgeons who took the time to complete the questionnaire are more interested in volunteering, and therefore have overestimated the positive attitudes and underestimated the barriers to volunteering. Specifically, plastic surgeons were more likely to respond than other specialists, and their
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Cited by (12)
Gender Equity in Humanitarian Surgical Outreach: A Decade of Volunteer Surgeons
2019, Journal of Surgical ResearchCitation Excerpt :Of the 227 volunteers that participated in ISHI trips, 61% were female. This female majority is consistent with existing literature regarding volunteer behaviors that describe an increased tendency of females to volunteer and participate in charitable giving when compared with males.6,7 Studies in psychology demonstrate that females score higher than males on measures of traits such as agreeability, moral obligation, and prosocial role identity, which may account for increased female volunteerism.13
The Surgery of Poverty
2011, Current Problems in SurgeryCitation Excerpt :The results indicate that American surgeons view surgical volunteer activity very positively. Recent surveys of both the Nathan A. Womack Surgical Society (graduates of the University on North Carolina Surgical Residency)239 and the selected Fellows of the ACS240 document the widespread opinion that volunteerism improves access to health care and that the recipients of such care are appreciative. Respondents also felt that volunteerism provides a collegial work environment, exposure to interesting cases, and an opportunity for continued professional activity after retirement.
Invited commentary on Volunteerism among Surgeons: an Exploration of Attitudes and Barriers
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2018, World Journal of Surgery