The experiences of volunteers with older people: a phenomenological study

Journal title SALUTE E SOCIETÀ
Author/s Chiara Zoppi, Tiziana Nannelli, Diletta Calamassi, Laura Rasero
Publishing Year 2014 Issue 2013/3En
Language English Pages 13 P. 149-161 File size 706 KB
DOI
DOI is like a bar code for intellectual property: to have more infomation click here

Below, you can see the article first page

If you want to buy this article in PDF format, you can do it, following the instructions to buy download credits

Article preview

FrancoAngeli is member of Publishers International Linking Association, Inc (PILA), a not-for-profit association which run the CrossRef service enabling links to and from online scholarly content.

The aim of this study was to investigate the experiences of volunteers during their work, especially in their approach to older people, by using semi-structured interviews. Five meaning units were identified: volunteering seen as a transforming experience, volunteers’ need to be thanked and acknowledged, the volunteer’s involvement/emotional detachment, communication issues between older people and youth related to the generation gap, strong feelings of empathy towards older people and the perception of loneliness in some older people.

Keywords: Older people, voluntary workers, experiences, emotions, qualitative research, interviews.

  1. Giorgi A. (1970). Psychology as a human science: a phenomenologically based approach. New York: Harper & Row
  2. Akintola O. (2010). Perceptions or rewards among volunteer caregivers of people living with AIDS working in faith-based organizations in South Africa: a qualitative study. Journal of the International AIDS Society, 13-22. Available in: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2901349/ (Accessed 07/06/2012)
  3. Barbanelli C., Caprara G. V., Capana C., Imbimbo A. (2003). Le ragioni del volontariato: un contributo empirico, Giornale italiano di Psicologia, 2: 369-388
  4. Batson C.D., Adam A. Powell M.B.A. (2003). Altruism and prosocial behavior. Handbook of Psychology: 463-484, DOI: 10.1002/0471264385.wei051
  5. Boyd C.O. (1993). Phenomenology: the method. New York: National League for Nursing
  6. Cesareo V. (1998). Sociologia: concetti e tematiche. Milano: Vita e Pensiero
  7. Fain J.A. (2004). La ricerca infermieristica. Leggerla, comprenderla e applicarla. 2a edizione. Milano: McGraw-Hill
  8. Istat. La popolazione anziana. Available in: http://demo.istat.it/pop2008/index.html; http://dati.istat.it/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=DCIS_INDDEMOG1&Lang=it; http://dati.istat.it/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=DCCV_MALCRON&Lang= (Accessed 07/06/2012)
  9. Marsicano S. (2001). Il volontario professionale. Pedagogika.it, 23: 22-23
  10. Nogueira-Martins M.C.F., Bersusa A.A.S., Siqueira S.R. (2010). Humanization and volunteering: a qualitative study in public hospitals. Revista de Saude Publica, vol. 44, n. 5. Available in: http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?pid=S0034-89102010000500020&script=sci_arttext&tlng=en (Accessed 07/06/2012)
  11. Omoto A.M., Snyder M., (1995). Sustained helping without obligation: motivation: longevity of service, and perceived attitude change among AIDS volunteers, Journal of Personality and Social Psychologic, 68, 671: 686
  12. Profili F., Razzanelli M., Soli M., Marini M. (2009). Il bisogno socio-sanitario degli anziani in Toscana: i risultati dello studio epidemiologico di popolazione BiSS.
  13. Documenti dell’Agenzia Regionale di Sanità della Toscana. Available in: http://www.ars.toscana.it/c/document_library/get_file?uuid=1a487988-8483-4a00-b9f0-71c864b3c062&groupId=11864 (Accessed 10/01/2011)
  14. Richards L., Morse M.J. (2009). Fare ricerca qualitativa, Milano: FrancoAngeli
  15. Salvini A. (2011). Le trasformazioni del volontariato in Toscana. 3° rapporto di indagine. A cura di Università degli Studi di Pisa – Dipartimento di Scienze Politiche. Available in: http://www.cesvot.it/repository/cont_schedemm/6796_documento.pdf (Accessed 07/06/2012)
  16. Selli L., Garrafa V., Junges J.R. (2008). Beneficiaries of volunteering: a bioethical perspective. Revista de Saude Publica, 42: 1-4. Available in: http://www.scielo.br/pdf/rsp/v42n6/en_6566.pdf (Accessed 07/06/2012)
  17. Van Manen M. (1990). Researching lived experience: human science for action sensitive pedagogy, London: Althouse
  18. Van Manen M. (2006). Phenomenology of Practice. Phenomenology & Practice, 1: 11-30. Available in: http://www.maxvanmanen.com/files/2011/04/2007-Phenomenology-of-Practice.pdf (Accessed 07/06/2011)

Chiara Zoppi, Tiziana Nannelli, Diletta Calamassi, Laura Rasero, The experiences of volunteers with older people: a phenomenological study in "SALUTE E SOCIETÀ" 3En/2013, pp 149-161, DOI: