Research on Hospital & Social Service Volunteers-regarding Facts and Conditions of Volunteer activities

我们对日本的医院志愿者进行了两次全国性的问卷调查。1998年，我们与关东地区医院志愿者协会合作，对27家医院进行了“医院志愿者调查”，收集了664份结果。1999年，我们还与“日本医院志愿者协会”合作，对关西地区的14家医院进行了调查，收集了571份调查结果。我们认为这些数据是关于日本医院志愿者的第一个全国性科学研究结果。以下是几个明显的特点。大多数志愿者是女性，年龄在40多岁到70多岁之间。志愿者有两种模式；一种是短期志愿者，他们可能会在一到两年内退出志愿者服务。另一类是长期志愿者，他们继续做更长时间的工作。我们还详细说明了志愿服务的动机、投诉和问题。我们认为，医院应该重视医院志愿者，改善志愿服务的条件。

We have conducted two nationwide questionnaire surveys regarding Hospital volunteers in Japan. We conducted 'Hospital Volunteer Survey' in 27 hospitals, mostly in Kanto Area in corporation with 'Kanto Area Hospital Volunteers Association' in 1998, and collected 664 results. We also conducted survey in 14 hospitals in corporation with 'Japan Hospital Volunteers Association', mostly in Kansai Area in 1999, and we collected 571 results. We identify these data are the first national scientific research results regarding Japanese Hospital Volunteers. Several distinctive features are as follows. Most volunteers are female, age from late 40s to early 70s. There are two patterns of volunteers; one is short-term volunteers who is likely to quit volunteering within a year or two. The other is long-term volunteers who continue doing longer period. We also specified motives, complains and problems on volunteering. We identified that Hospitals should pay much attention to hospital volunteers and improve conditions for doing volunteer.