Lived experiences of Filipino Red Cross volunteer nursing students in COVID-19 vaccination programs / The Health Sciences Journal

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION@#Student volunteers in COVID-19 vaccination activities help augment the health care workforce. However, there is a lack of literature that explores student volunteerism in the Philippines. This paper analyses the shared meanings of the lived experiences of volunteer nursing students during a pandemic.@*METHODS@#Student nurses who had joined Red Cross vaccination activities were recruited by purposive sampling and interviewed online using a pilot-tested interview guide with open-ended questions. Participants were recruited until data saturation. The data collected was analyzed using Colaizzi’s Seven-Step Method.@*RESULTS@#The study has identified two main themes that describe the phenomenon of student- nurse volunteerism during COVID-19 vaccination programs 1) personal motivation and 2) perceived benefits and outcomes. There were four sub-themes under personal motivation - desire for personal growth, intrinsic altruism, past experiences and involvement in volunteer work, and opportunity for advocating against vaccine hesitancy. Perceived benefits and outcomes had two sub-themes - sense of fulfillment in the act of volunteering and opportunity for actual nurse-patient interaction. @*CONCLUSION@#The findings from the study suggest that, despite the lack of experience of working as frontliners during the COVID-19 vaccination programs, nursing students volunteered due to personal motivations and perceived benefits and outcomes.