Clinical trial NCT03453450: Exploring Volunteers' Experiences in Health TAPESTRY
Official title: Exploring Volunteers' Experiences in Health TAPESTRY, a Primary Care-Based Program
Study type: OBSERVATIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Conditions: Volunteers
Keywords: Primary Care
Lead sponsor: McMaster University
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: Canadian Red Cross
name: David Braley
name: Ontario Ministry of Health and Long Term Care
First posted: 2018-03-05
Enrollment: 89
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Observational model: COHORT
Time perspective: OTHER
Sampling method: NON_PROBABILITY_SAMPLE
Study population: Study participants are drawn from the Health TAPESTRY volunteer pool. All Health TAPESTRY volunteers will be invited into the evaluation, however only those volunteers who choose to take part in the evaluative component of the program will be included in the analysis. Although we aim to include as many Health TAPESTRY volunteers as possible, an achievable target is set at half of the volunteers (approximately 17) in each of the 6 sites being involved in the research component.

The Volunteer Coordinator (VC) in each site will also be invited to attend an interview. The day-to-day management of volunteers within each site is managed by a VC from the Canadian Red Cross. The VC is the first contact for volunteers, and also the primary conduit that connects volunteers with clients.

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.

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.

Eligibility criteria: Must be a Health TAPESTRY Volunteer or Volunteer Coordinator. There are no further inclusion or exclusion criteria.

Primary outcomes:
measure: Volunteers' Experiences
timeFrame: 12 months
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Compassion satisfaction and compassion fatigue
timeFrame: Baseline, 3 month, 6 month, 9 month, 12 months
measure: Physical Activity
timeFrame: Baseline, 12 months
measure: Quality of Life
timeFrame: Baseline, 12 months
measure: Attitudes Toward Older Adults
timeFrame: Baseline, 12 months
measure: Empathy
timeFrame: Baseline, 12 months
measure: Reasons for Volunteering
timeFrame: Baseline
measure: Outcomes of Volunteering
timeFrame: 12 Months
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Hamilton
country: Canada
facility: David Braley Health Sciences Centre, McMaster University
state: Ontario
Study officials:
affiliation: McMaster University
name: Doug Oliver, MSc,MD,CCFP
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
affiliation: McMaster University
name: Dee Mangin, MBChB,DPH,FRN
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References: