Nursing student volunteers and their level of involvement during the COVID-19 pandemic: a systematic review

Many strategic efforts were made to address nurses’ shortage in controlling Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), including recruiting student health volunteers. This review aimed to explore the contribution and involvement of nursing student volunteers during COVID-19. A systematic review was registered in PROSPERO International CRD42021283069. Electronic databases for article search included: SCOPUS, EBSCO MEDLINE, PubMed, ProQuest, Springer, Sage Pub, and hand searching. The critical appraisal study quality using The Joanna Briggs Institutes. Data extraction and synthesis used Population, Intervention, Comparison, Outcome, and Design (PICO and D) framework with thematic analysis. Twelve studies were enrolled from 2545 retrieved, with 4 synthesized themes: (1) determinant of the involvement of nursing student volunteers during COVID-19, which includes 3 subthemes: motivations, perception, and barriers, (2) expectations and actual condition of nursing students as volunteers, (3) the need for nursing student volunteers, and (4) the impact and level of student volunteers’ contribution. All student volunteers contribute to providing direct or indirect services to patients. This review provides an overview of nursing student volunteers’ needs useful in developing competency frameworks and the role of culturally sensitive volunteers in education and training. In the future, student volunteers could choose the appropriate volunteer program and location according to their competence.