Hospital volunteer's role and accident-prevention systems: a nationwide survey of Japanese hospitals.

This study aimed to examine the scope of activities performed by hospital volunteers. A survey was conducted on 3055 hospitals, randomly selected throughout Japan. Attention was also paid to the accident-prevention systems instituted by those facilities. Almost one-third (36.5%) of all hospitals had some hospital volunteers. About 60% (59.9%) of hospitals conducted volunteer activities more than once a week. Recreation (50.1%) was the most common role of the volunteers. The other activities in decreasing order were: conversation partners (45.8%), music and entertainment (43.7%), wheelchair pushing (41.8%) and helping administration (36.3%). Both direct and indirect contact between volunteers and patients was prevalent. Less than half of the hospitals had accident-prevention systems, such as guidelines for volunteer activities (except for Volunteer Insurance). Hospitals that had a volunteer coordinator tended to have significantly more accident-prevention systems. It is, therefore, important to establish volunteer coordinators in order to prevent accidents during hospital volunteer activities.