Socio-demographic characteristics of public hospital volunteers, São Paulo, Brazil

Abstract

 During the period comprised between May, 2008 and April, 2009, a research was performed regarding a better knowledge of the volunteers working in public hospitals of the State, their activities, what motivated them and their profile. This paper presents the profile of the 1243 volunteers working in 25 public hospitals managed by the State (direct administration) at the Region of Greater São Paulo. Regarding sex, the majority of the volunteers (89%) is female. Regarding age, 71% of them are over 46 years of age, and 48% are over 56 years old. Family income is widely varied. Regarding time of work (in years), in volunteer activities, 58% are working for more than two years, and 32% are working for more than five years. Regarding the amount of hours dedicated to volunteer work, 38% dedicate 1 to 5 hours a week and 22% from 6 to 10 hours. In short, as a general characteristic of the 1243 volunteers researched, it is possible to observe: a) a predominance of elderly women; b) great variation regarding family income of the volunteers, indicating the existence of a wide range of motivation that leads to voluntary activity; c) a tendency that the volunteer is constant in the job; d) adequate number of hours dedicated to voluntary activity by most of the volunteers.