Investigating predictors of medical students' intentions to engagement in volunteering during the health crisis

PurposeThe purpose of the present paper is to investigate Algerian medical students' intention to participate in volunteer work during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.Design/methodology/approachThe authors adopted an extended theory of planned behavior (TPB) framework by integrating the constructs of personal moral norms and perceived risk of COVID-19 and followed a self-administered questionnaire survey to collect data among a convenience sample of medical students (n = 267) in five Algerian universities. The data obtained were analyzed through a hierarchical multiple regression process in which three models were considered.FindingsFindings of this study show that attitude toward volunteering, perceived behavior control (PBC), personal moral norm and subjective norm significantly and positively predicted medical students' intention to engage in volunteer work during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, students' perceived risk of COVID-19 significantly and negatively predicted students' intention to participate in volunteer activities. Moreover, the authors' analyses showed that the extended TPB model explained 75.1% of the variance of intention.Practical implicationsThe findings of this study have implications for understanding medical students' volunteer behavior during health crises. Some implications are provided for the crisis and emergency managers of hospitals and policymakers to attract and recruit enough medical students' volunteers for future waves of COVID-19 or other similar health crises.Originality/valueThis is the first paper from Algeria and one of the few from Africa that identifies predictors of intentions to participate in volunteer activities among medical students.