IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/jocnur/v25y2016i21-22p3102-3112.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The use of volunteers to help older medical patients mobilise in hospital: a systematic review

Author

Listed:
  • Alicja M Baczynska
  • Stephen ER Lim
  • Avan A Sayer
  • Helen C Roberts

Abstract

Aims and objectives To review current evidence for the use of volunteers to mobilise older acute medical in‐patients. Background Immobility in hospital is associated with poor healthcare outcomes in older people, but maintaining mobility is frequently compromised due to time pressures experienced by clinical staff. Volunteers are established in many hospitals, usually involved in indirect patient care. Recent evidence suggests that trained mealtime volunteers had a positive impact on patients and hospital staff. It is unclear whether volunteers can help older inpatients to mobilise. Design Systematic review. Methods We searched Cochrane, Medline, Embase, CINAHL, AMED and Google databases using MeSH headings and keywords within six key themes: inpatients, older, mobility/exercise, delirium, falls and volunteers. Full texts of relevant articles were retrieved and reference lists reviewed. Results Of the 2428 articles that were identified, two scientific studies and three reports on quality improvement initiatives were included in the final review. One study included volunteer assisted mobilisation as part of a delirium prevention intervention (HELP). The second study has not reported yet (MOVE ON). The contribution of volunteers in both is unclear. Three quality improvement initiatives trained volunteers to help mobilise patients. They were not formally evaluated but report positive effects of the volunteers on patient and staff satisfaction. Conclusions This review has identified a lack of scientific evidence for the use of volunteers in mobilising older medical inpatients, but quality improvement initiatives suggest that volunteers can be employed in this role with reports of staff and patient satisfaction: this is an area for further development and evaluation. Relevance to clinical practice This review outlines the evidence for the involvement of volunteers in maintaining patients’ mobility, identifies mobilisation protocols that have been used, the need to train volunteers and for formal evaluation of volunteers in this role. Prospero registration number: CRD42014010388.

Suggested Citation

  • Alicja M Baczynska & Stephen ER Lim & Avan A Sayer & Helen C Roberts, 2016. "The use of volunteers to help older medical patients mobilise in hospital: a systematic review," Journal of Clinical Nursing, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 25(21-22), pages 3102-3112, November.
  • Handle: RePEc:wly:jocnur:v:25:y:2016:i:21-22:p:3102-3112
    DOI: 10.1111/jocn.13317
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/jocn.13317
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/jocn.13317?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Beatrice J Kalisch & Soohee Lee & Beverly W Dabney, 2014. "Outcomes of inpatient mobilization: a literature review," Journal of Clinical Nursing, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 23(11-12), pages 1486-1501, June.
    2. Helen C Roberts & Sanet De Wet & Kirsty Porter & Gemma Rood & Norma Diaper & Judy Robison & Anna L Pilgrim & Marinos Elia & Alan A Jackson & Cyrus Cooper & Avan Aihie Sayer & Sian Robinson, 2014. "The feasibility and acceptability of training volunteer mealtime assistants to help older acute hospital inpatients: the Southampton Mealtime Assistance Study," Journal of Clinical Nursing, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 23(21-22), pages 3240-3249, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Rosemary Saunders & Karla Seaman & Renée Graham & Angela Christiansen, 2019. "The effect of volunteers’ care and support on the health outcomes of older adults in acute care: A systematic scoping review," Journal of Clinical Nursing, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(23-24), pages 4236-4249, December.
    2. Audrey M. Johnson & Dana M. Howell, 2019. "Mobility bridges a gap in care: Findings from an early mobilisation quality improvement project in acute care," Journal of Clinical Nursing, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(21-22), pages 4044-4052, November.
    3. Anna Price & Siân de Bell & Naomi Shaw & Alison Bethel & Rob Anderson & Jo Thompson Coon, 2022. "What is the volume, diversity and nature of recent, robust evidence for the use of peer support in health and social care? An evidence and gap map," Campbell Systematic Reviews, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 18(3), September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Dorthe Sørensen & Anna Rottensten Wieghorst & Johanne Andersen Elbek & Camilla Askov Mousing, 2020. "Mealtime challenges in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: Who is responsible?," Journal of Clinical Nursing, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 29(23-24), pages 4583-4593, December.
    2. Ella Ottrey & Claire Palermo & Catherine E. Huggins & Judi Porter, 2018. "Exploring staff perceptions and experiences of volunteers and visitors on the hospital ward at mealtimes using an ethnographic approach," Journal of Clinical Nursing, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(7-8), pages 1571-1579, April.
    3. Rosemary Saunders & Karla Seaman & Renée Graham & Angela Christiansen, 2019. "The effect of volunteers’ care and support on the health outcomes of older adults in acute care: A systematic scoping review," Journal of Clinical Nursing, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(23-24), pages 4236-4249, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:jocnur:v:25:y:2016:i:21-22:p:3102-3112. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://doi.org/10.1111/(ISSN)1365-2702 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.