Volunteer Activities at the Hospice of Japan Baptist Hospital: Modified Volunteer Activities Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic

At the Japan Baptist Hospital, approximately 70 volunteers are working mainly in hospice. Owing to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak in February 2020, volunteer activities were suspended or severely curtailed at most hospices/palliative care units in Japan. We have been attempting to determine how to continue the volunteer activities, that are indispensable to the hospice care team approach. For example, volunteers’ artworks and potted plants provided patients with the opportunity to participate in seasonal events and feel socially connected without meeting in person. Additionally, we skillfully used web resources, that allowed us to hold staff meetings and bereavement meetings during the pandemic. The hospice staff participated in hospital COVID-19 countermeasure meetings to share and provide the importance of presence of volunteers for the best care of patients throughout the hospital. The “Guideline for Volunteer Activities According to the COVID-19 Outbreak Levels” was initiated in conjunction with the hospital’s infection control team to allow us to continue volunteer activities without spreading the infection.

Pursuit to Post: Ethical issues of social media use by international medical volunteers.

Medical volunteers from high-income countries seek short-term global health experiences in low- and middle-income countries to learn and practice medicine, complete service-learning projects, conduct research, and burnish their curricula vitae. The uniqueness and poignancy of these global health experiences frequently compel medical volunteers to not only capture visual reminders of their experience but to share them online through social media. Prioritizing image creation and sharing, which center on the volunteer's priorities over patient-centered priorities, risks failing to acknowledge the ethical issues inherent in power imbalances between the medical volunteers, patients, hosts, organizational partners and others, and bypasses the values of the host community. Using social media as an example of an emerging ethical challenge in the context of short-term experiences in global health, the authors examine potential consequences for patients, host communities, and international partnerships and discuss important pre-posting considerations.

Guidelines for Short-Term Hand Surgery Outreach Trips: Building Trust and Establishing Continuity.

Global outreach in hand surgery can be exceptionally rewarding for volunteers and their organizations, patients and their communities, and the host medical community. Success can be defined by individual cases that restore function and provide opportunities for a patient and family to contribute to society; however, the broader missions of medical collaboration, education, cultural exchange, and personal growth are critical factors toward building trust and establishing continuity of care for long-term success. Each outreach site and brigade encounters challenges; however, careful planning facilitates optimal conditions and reasonable expectations for enhancing outcomes.

Comparison of inflight first aid performed by cabin crew members and medical volunteers.

BACKGROUND: Since the number of air travellers, including the elderly and passengers with an underlying disease, is increasing every year, the number of inflight emergency patients is expected to increase as well. We attempted to identify the incidence and types of reported inflight medical incidents and analyse the first aid performed by cabin crew members or medical volunteers in flights by an Asian airline. We also investigated the cases of inflight deaths and aircraft diversions. METHODS: We reviewed the cabin reports and medical records submitted by cabin crew members and inflight medical volunteers from 2009 to 2013. RESULTS: We found that inflight medical incidents increased annually, with a total of 2818 cases reported. Fifteen cases of inflight deaths and 15 cases of aircraft diversions during this period were also reported. First aid was performed by the cabin crew alone in 52% of the cases and by medical volunteers in 47.8% of the cases. The most commonly reported causes for first aid performed by the cabin crew and medical volunteers were burns and syncope, respectively. CONCLUSION: : Since burns were one of the common reasons that first aid was provided by the cabin crew, it may be necessary to include first aid treatments for burns in the annual re-qualification training programme. Furthermore, the assessment of unconsciousness and potentially critical respiratory symptoms is very important for cabin crew members because those conditions can lead to inflight deaths and aircraft diversion.

The role of standard CPR training in olympic medical volunteers / 中华急诊医学杂志

Objective To evaluate the role of standard CPR training in Beijing Olympics medical volunteers by compared with the no-traimng medical personnel.Method Performance qualities of CPR was evaluated in the 44 medical vohmteers,who worked in a Beijing Olympic Venue.They received the training On standard CPR for 6 monthes,and served as training group.The performance of another 72 emergency medical workers from first-class hospitals without the training on stand CPR within 1 year(control group) Was compared with training group.Phillips QCPR3535 monitor was used to measure the compression frequency,depth and chest re-expand between the compression and the operation time via the sternal chest compression pad fitted with an accelerometer.Personal practical results of 5 circles of CPR operation were recorded in a table and the numbers ofpractical. Compression in one minute were counted.Data Were analyzed with chi-quare test and t-test.The parameters ofthe influence fac.tor(gender,age,hand placement,hand skill,compression posture and standard training)were brought into logistic regression analysis.Results Compared with the control group,the qualification rate of general CPR performance in the training group was much higher(86.4%vs.31.9%),and the compression cpmlification rates of the chestcompression,depth and chest re-palld betweenthe compression wcfe higher(88.6%,93.2%,95.5% vs.40.3%,43.0%,86.1%,P<0.01),the duration of ventilation in each operationstion was shorter[(6.38±1.3)vs.(7.57±1.6),P<O.01],but the total performance durations Wel'e not significant different[(118.4±18.5)s vs.(116.0 4-5.4)s,P>0.05],pratieal compressionn flberin oneminutewas not different[(77.2±3.5)vs.(77.8±12.2),P>0.05)],the ratios of the duration of compression to that of ventilation was higher(2.6:1 vs.2.1:1).Logistic analysis showed that hand skill,compression posture and standard CPR trainings were high correlated with the CPR performance qualities(P<0.05).Conclusions The performance quahty of training group is much higher thanthat ofcontrol group.The standard and continuous CPR training is elfecfive in improving the quality of CPR operation.