Key challenges and best practices in the coordination of volunteers in healthcare services: A qualitative systematic review

Abstract

Cooperation between voluntary organisations and volunteers within healthcare services contributes to the development of public welfare. The coordination process between healthcare services and volunteers must therefore be studied to understand associated challenges and best practices. This paper presents a systematic literature review of studies that have used qualitative methods. The review was conducted to identify the knowledge base concerning these issues. The search was performed in 4 April 2019 on five databases: EbscoHost, Ovid, Scopus, Emerald and Svemed+. The selection criteria included papers published between 1 January 2009 and 4 April 2019. In total, 5,340 papers were extracted; after removing duplicates and screening titles and abstracts, 49 papers were independently read by two of the authors. Ten papers addressed the research question and were thus included for further investigation. The Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (CASP) checklist was used to check the eligibility of the papers, all of which were found to be of sufficient quality for analysis. A thematic analysis for synthesising qualitative research was used to identify key challenges in the coordination process and the best practices needed to deal with these challenges. The findings demonstrated the pursuit of a common understanding between employees and volunteers and described challenges in organising the associated work. The main solution applied to these challenges was the involvement of a volunteer coordinator. Although several identified challenges remained unresolved, the papers selected for this review provide an overall picture of volunteer cooperation in health services.