Global HealthCare Volunteering Trends – The Discrepancy in Volunteering
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Author 1:

Neilesh Patel, BS (DDS Candidate)

Institutional Affiliations:

 

Email Address:

neil.patel@healthcarevolunteer.com

Author 2:

Elliot Steven Mendelsohn, BS (MD Candidate)

Institutional Affiliations:

 

Email Address:

elliot.mendelsohn@healthcarevolunteer.com

Corresponding Address:

HealthCare Volunteer

P.O Box #251444

Los Angeles, CA 90025-1444

Corresponding Phone:

(310) 928 – 3611

Corresponding Fax:

 

Corresponding Email:

neil.patel@healthcarevolunteer.com

Date:

January 14, 2007

          For all authors, no financial or other potential conflicts of interest exist.
Abstract

Background: However, no matter where volunteers decide to serve, everyone seems to agree that volunteering is instrumental in providing healthcare, due to the global shortage of up to 2.4 million health workers.[1] As in any industry, supply and demand analysis for volunteers needs to be correlated with volunteering preferences and aid organization locations. The analysis would give funding organizations, government administrators and aid organizations, the ability to prioritize funding for and development of new volunteering programs in certain areas. Much emphasis has been put on research of the paid healthcare force around the world, but no research has been conducted on the global volunteer healthcare force which is extremely instrumental to the healthcare of the poorest people in each country.

 

Methods: From April, 2006 through December, 2006 using the Healthcare Volunteer search engine (www.healthcarevolunteer.com), 19,570 searches were received.  From April, 2006 through December, 2006 using the Dental Volunteer search engine (www.dentalvolunteer.com), 10,461 searches were received.  Combined, the search results page loaded 30,031 times. Only subsets of these total searches were used for purposes of this research. Data was collected on volunteer search preferences with regards to location, religion and specialty using the Healthcare Volunteer and Dental Volunteer search engine.  All data was stored using databases driven by industry standard computer programming languages: PHP for web programming and MySQL for databases. Statistics on volunteers actual physical location at the time of searching was tracked by Google Adwords program using IP Address locations. This information was used only to generalize physical locations of volunteers at the time of their search requests.

 

Results: Volunteers searched from over 119 countries with the greatest number of volunteers being physically located in United States (76%), Canada (7%), United Kingdom (5%), Australia (1%), Kenya (1%) and India (1%). The other 113 countries totaled less than 1% per country. Of the total number of searches combining data from both dental and healthcare volunteer search results, 36% of total searches were for states and territories with the United States.  This was followed by other parts of North America (18%), South America (8%), Europe (6%), Asia (15%), Africa (14%) and Oceania (3%). Of the volunteer searching by specialist (6,277), the most commonly searched entities were trainable volunteers (30%) and nursing (17%) (Table. 1).  Of the volunteers searching by religion (1,087), the most commonly searched religion was Christianity (62%) followed by Catholicism (17%) (Table. 2). 

 

Conclusions: Nevertheless, these volunteering trends show that certain countries have historically been targeted by healthcare aid organizations, and these countries attract a proportionately higher amount of volunteer interest. In order to foster new aid organizations to areas that have been neglected or perhaps forgotten by healthcare volunteers, we must educate volunteers about the overwhelming need in new areas, and subsequently work with local NGO and government organizations in these countries to foster a wider spread of aid instead of a mere concentration of aid. If one of the goals of healthcare volunteering is to create a bit of equality in healthcare among needy people, then we must ensure that our altruistic efforts are not actually enhancing inequality. 

 


Key words

healthcare volunteering trends, dental volunteering trends
Abbreviation List

PR

Puerto Rico

AQ

American Samoa

YT

Yukon Territory

CQ

Northern Mariana Islands

GQ

Guam

VI

US Virgin Islands

AB

Alberta

BC

British Columbia

MB

Manitoba

NN

New Brunswick

NW

Newfoundland

NT

Northwest Territory

NS

Nova Scotia

ON

Ontario

PZ

Prince Edward Island

QB

Quebec

SS

Saskatchewan

DC

District of Columbia

 

All other 2 letter abbreviations use standard U.S. state abbreviations

 


Unsolicited manuscripts

Research, Policy and practice, and Lessons from the field papers must be accompannied

by two paragraphs indicating what they add to the literature: a brief explanation of what was already known about the topic conccerned; a brief outline of what we know as a result of your paper.

 

At least 1.3 billion people worldwide lack access to the most basic healthcare, often because there is no health worker. "The global population is growing, but the number of health workers is stagnating or even falling in many of the places where they are needed most," said Lee Jong-wook, director-general of the World Health Organization in April, 2006. HealthCare volunteering has become a blooming field as globalization has fostered a new period of multi-national and borderless healthcare treatment programs.

A PubMed search for search terms: “volunteering trends” (11 results), “volunteer + international” (586 results) and “international volunteering” (23 results) yielded 0 articles in published literature that provide critical data on international healthcare volunteering trends. Previous research on international volunteering in healthcare has focused on single country-specific trends, disease-specific trends, anecdotal accounts, or paradigm shifts for volunteering.

This research paper has provided potential aid organizations, volunteers, government departments and relief groups with invaluable data on volunteering location trends. In the future, these trends can easily be correlated with the number and locations of healthcare volunteer work in order to establish supply and demand data on volunteering opportunities.
Introduction

Every day thousands of health care workers scour the various sources looking for a way to use their health care training in an altruistic manner. For years healthcare workers such as doctors have complained about the difficulty for willing, qualified and much-needed volunteers to go overseas for volunteering.[2] Many healthcare workers have to use their vacation time in order to volunteer and this has become another nuisance as obtaining vacation time for charity work has become difficult.  Many volunteers want to volunteer in a different location from where they work due to their desires for idealism, opportunities for adventure and chances for learning about a new culture.[3] Less than 1% of U.S. healthcare professionals work abroad while up to 13% of Cuban healthcare professionals are working abroad. This statistic may explain the discrepancy in the desire for volunteers from certain countries having a greater desire to volunteer in foreign countries. 2 For example, a volunteer from the United States may have a larger interest in volunteering abroad than a Cuban volunteer, since the United States-based volunteer has not had as much opportunity to work abroad already. On the other hand, some people also argue that a United States-based volunteer may not have as much familiarity, conviction or desire to venture out of his or her community to volunteer, and thus make them more likely to volunteer locally.  Previous studies have shown that physicians, dentists and nurses are the most likely U.S.-based professionals to volunteer in health care.2

 

Volunteering has become a globalized movement with the boom of the Internet in the 1990’s. People travel more and are connected easier to volunteering opportunities. For decades, national volunteer organizations of developing countries have contended that programs run by limited groups of health workers are less effective than programs run by large groups of community lay volunteers who work directly with the villagers.[4] However, no matter where volunteers decide to serve, everyone seems to agree that volunteering is instrumental in providing healthcare, due to the global shortage of up to 2.4 million health workers.[5] As in any industry, supply and demand analysis for volunteers needs to be correlated with volunteering preferences and aid organization locations. The analysis would give funding organizations, government administrators and aid organizations, the ability to prioritize funding for and development of new volunteering programs in certain areas. Much emphasis has been put on research of the paid healthcare force around the world, but no research has been conducted on the global volunteer healthcare force which is extremely instrumental to the healthcare of the poorest people in each country.

 


Methods

Data Collection

            A “search” was not defined as a unique search but instead the number of times that the search results page loaded.  From April, 2006 through December, 2006 using the Healthcare Volunteer search engine (www.healthcarevolunteer.com), 19,570 searches were received.  From April, 2006 through December, 2006 using the Dental Volunteer search engine (www.dentalvolunteer.com), 10,461 searches were received.  Combined, the search results page loaded 30,031 times. Only subsets of these total searches were used for purposes of this research. Volunteers could search by location, specialty/function, religion, organization name, organization description, school affiliation and types of students allowed to participate using the Healthcare Volunteer search engine. Volunteers could search by organization name, organization description, location, school affiliation, dental procedure and religion using the Dental Volunteer search engine. Complex searches (a search by using more than one search criteria) were disregarded, but individual data such as location or specialty was recorded from complex searches.  Data was collected on volunteer search preferences with regards to location, religion and specialty using the Healthcare Volunteer and Dental Volunteer search engine.  All data was stored using databases driven by industry standard computer programming languages: PHP for web programming and MySQL for databases. The majority of volunteers were attracted to our site through press releases, web-based search engines, word-of-mouth and website links.  Statistics on volunteers actual physical location at the time of searching was tracked by Google Adwords program using IP Address locations. This information was used only to generalize physical locations of volunteers at the time of their search requests.


Results

Overall, states and territories within the United States were the most commonly search location for volunteering (Tables 1, 2, 3).  Of the total number of searches combining data from both dental and healthcare volunteer search results, 36% of total searches were for states and territories with the United States.  This was followed by other parts of North America (18%), South America (8%), Europe (6%), Asia (15%), Africa (14%) and Oceania (3%).  Within the United States, California was the most commonly searched state with 9% of total searches.  In North America, Mexico was the most commonly searched country (3%).  In Africa, Kenya was the most commonly searched county (2%).  In Europe, the United Kingdom was the most commonly searched country (1%).  In South America, Peru was the most commonly searched country (2%).  In Asia, India was the most commonly searched country (3%).  And in Oceania, Australia was the most commonly searched country (1%).

The volunteering trends were similar between dental and healthcare volunteers with the majority desiring to volunteer in the United States (with California being the most desirable state. Based off of continent, North America (22%) was the most popular place for dental volunteers followed by Africa (12%), Asia (19%),  South America (9%), Europe (9%).

Of the volunteer searching by specialist (6,277), the most commonly searched entities were trainable volunteers (30%) and nursing (17%) (Table. 1).  Of those volunteers with the opportunity to search by specialty, 32% did.  The remainder of the volunteers searched for a variety of specialties among the healthcare and dental profession.

Of the volunteers searching by religion (1,087), the most commonly searched religion was Christianity (62%) followed by Catholicism (17%) (Table. 2).  Of those volunteers with the opportunity to search by religion, 6% did.  The remainder of the volunteer searches were split between Jewish, Muslim, Mormon, Buddhist, Hindu, and Other.

            Volunteers searched from over 119 countries with the greatest number of volunteers being physically located in United States (76%), Canada (7%), United Kingdom (5%), Australia (1%), Kenya (1%) and India (1%). The other 113 countries totaled less than 1% per country.


Discussion  / Conclusion

States and territories within the United States were the most commonly searched locations by dental and healthcare volunteers.  The majority of HealthCare Volunteer press releases regarding the search engine for volunteering opportunities were published by US publishing organizations.   The majority of US searches were for “California”.  We are based in Los Angeles and this fact may explain how immediate, local attention could have driven this. Another reason for this statistic could have been that California is the most populous country in the United States and this could have skewed the amount of volunteers searching for California.

The impact of religion on volunteering preferences seemed to play an important role for some volunteers with the majority of users interested in religious volunteer opportunities searching for Christianity.  Missions and religiously motivated volunteers are an important group of the volunteer force.

Nearly half of total volunteers searching by a particular specialty represented trainable volunteers or nurses.  Specialists and medically licensed volunteers represented the remainder of those searching by specialty.  The availability of time and flexibility in work schedule are important factors in determining volunteering interests. Moreover, there was a very general inverse correlation between the number of years of training for a certain specialty and the number of people searching for a specific healthcare specialties. Some of the outliers included OB/GYN, Family Medicine, Emergency Medicine, Dentistry and Internal Medicine as these specialties were more searched than other healthcare training programs that take less time to complete.  A relatively small percentage of those volunteers with the opportunity to search by religion or specialty chose to do so.

Our search results serve as an overestimate of the actual number of unique searches because of the way that a search was defined.  Although the absolute number of searches may be an overestimate of actual searches, the relative number of search results should not be affected as this phenomenon should equally affect all data.

The fewest number of users searched for volunteering opportunities in the Oceania region, which includes Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific islands. Overall, Africa had more searches than either South America or Europe. One reason may have been because of a heightened awareness of an urgent need in public health epidemics such as HIV/AIDS in Africa. Within Africa, Ghana was the most popular destination in Western Africa, while Kenya and Tanzania were the most popular in Eastern Africa. Overall, Asia’s two most populous countries, India and China, were the two most popular locations for volunteers interested in Asia. One reason for the popularity of India and China could be due to the larger number of aid organizations currently operating in these countries compared to other Asian nations. In North America, Mexico was the most popular destination out side of the United States. An explanation for this trend could be that since the majority of searches were performed from the United States, people who wanted to travel abroad to volunteer may have chosen to volunteer as close as possible to their home country. To support this idea, the U.S.-border countries of Mexico and Canada were the two most popular North American countries besides the United States itself.

 

            The discrepancy between the demand for certain volunteer locations and the actual healthcare worker shortage in that country was severely mismatched. For instance, when comparing the density / 1000 people of physicians in the most popular country and least popular country, it was ironic to find that countries with greater healthcare access limitations had less volunteers searching to go there. For instance, in South America, the most popular country, Brazil, has a 1.15:1000 physician to population ratio while the least popular country Suriname had a 0.45:1000 ratio.4 However, in Africa, the most popular country, Kenya has a 0.17:1000 ratio, while the least popular country Sao Tome and Principe had a 0.49:1000 ratio.4 Countries such as Burundi with a 0.03:1000 ratio received only 0.06% of global searches, while countries such as South Africa with a 0.77:1000 ratio received over 1% of total searches. These discrepancies show that volunteers need to be educated about new areas that have not traditionally been the focus of health aid organizations. Another interesting conjecture is that the majority of volunteers are attracted to English-speaking countries, which may explain why countries such as Benin and Burundi (French-speaking), may have had a proportionately lower amount of interest when correlated to their physician per capita ratio. This would be further warranted as the vast majority of volunteers tracked in this research were from English-speaking countries.

Nevertheless, these volunteering trends show that certain countries have historically been targeted by healthcare aid organizations, and these countries attract a proportionately higher amount of volunteer interest. In order to foster new aid organizations to areas that have been neglected or perhaps forgotten by healthcare volunteers, we must educate volunteers about the overwhelming need in new areas, and subsequently work with local NGO and government organizations in these countries to foster a wider spread of aid instead of a mere concentration of aid. If one of the goals of healthcare volunteering is to create a bit of equality in healthcare among needy people, then we must ensure that our altruistic efforts are not actually enhancing inequality. 


 


   Results Tables

Table 1: Search results by specialty

Type

#

(%)

Type

#

(%)

Type

#

(%)

Trainable Volunteers

1869

(30.1)

Infectious Disease

35

(1.1)

Trauma Surgery

10

(0.1)

Nursing

1040

(17.1)

Pathology

35

(1.1)

Dermatology

9

(0.1)

Obstetrics and Gynecology

480

(8.1)

Surgery-General

35

(1.1)

Occupational Medicine

8

(0.1)

Family Medicine

407

(6.1)

Optometry

33

(1.1)

Podiatry

8

(0.1)

Dentistry

261

(4.1)

Chiropractor

30

(0.1)

Allergy and Immunology

5

(0.1)

Emergency Medicine

259

(4.1)

Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery

30

(0.1)

Vascular Surgery

5

(0.1)

Pediatrics

214

(3.1)

Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery

29

(0.1)

Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology

4

(0.1)

Public Health

209

(3.1)

Hematology and Oncology

24

(0.1)

Orthodontics

2

(0.1)

Internal Medicine

193

(3.1)

Orthopedic Surgery

21

(0.1)

Pediatric Cardiology

2

(0.1)

Pharmacy

159

(3.1)

Veterinary

21

(0.1)

Periodontics

2

(0.1)

Physical Therapy

127

(2.1)

General Preventive Medicine

20

(0.1)

Rheumatology

2

(0.1)

Dental Hygiene

122

(2.1)

Geriatric Medicine

19

(0.1)

Endocrinology

1

(0.1)

Dietitian

70

(1.1)

Ophthalmology

17

(0.1)

Otolaryngology

1

(0.1)

Urology

70

(1.1)

Pulmonary

17

(0.1)

Total

6277

(100.0)

Social Work

67

(1.1)

Critical Care Medicine

16

(0.1)

 

 

 

Anesthesiology

66

(1.1)

Neurological Surgery

16

(0.1)

 

 

 

Radiology

65

(1.1)

Audiologist

13

(0.1)

 

 

 

Cardiology

62

(1.1)

Gastroenterology

12

(0.1)

 

 

 

Psychiatry

44

(1.1)

Nuclear Medicine

11

(0.1)

 

 

 

Table 2: Search results by religion

Type

#

(%)

Christian

679

(62)

Catholic

183

(17)

Other

66

(6)

Jewish

45

(4)

Muslim

39

(4)

Mormon

27

(2)

Buddhist

24

(2)

Hindu

24

(2)

Total

1087

(100)

 



Table 3: Volunteering search results by country using Healthcare Volunteer

State

#

(%)

State

#

(%)

Country

#

(%)

Country

#

(%)

CA

2,336

(11.94)

HI

62

(0.32)

North America

2,985

(15.25)

South America

1,389

(7.10)

NY

458

(2.34)

VI*

60

(0.31)

United States

8,468

(43.27)

Peru

381

(1.95)

GA

362

(1.85)

OK

52

(0.27)

Canada

468

(2.39)

Ecuador

263

(1.34)

WA

332

(1.70)

SC

49

(0.25)

Mexico

421

(2.15)

Brazil

232

(1.19)

CO

330

(1.69)

NM

45

(0.23)

Guatemala

334

(1.71)

Argentina

128

(0.65)

MA

270

(1.38)

WV

38

(0.19)

Costa Rica

329

(1.68)

Colombia

122

(0.62)

FL

267

(1.36)

AR

36

(0.18)

Dominican Republic

268

(1.37)

Bolivia

106

(0.54)

TX

258

(1.32)

IA

36

(0.18)

Haiti

228

(1.17)

Chile

106

(0.54)

IL

256

(1.31)

KY

35

(0.18)

OH

255

(1.30)

MS

35

(0.18)

Uruguay

1

(0.01)

Paraguay

2

(0.01)

AZ

242

(1.24)

PR*

66

(0.34)

Africa

2,809

(14.35%)

Asia

2,629

(13.43)

MD

227

(1.16)

VI*

31

(0.16)

Kenya

346

(1.77)

India

574

(2.93)

MI

210

(1.07)

DE

29

(0.15)

Ghana

274

(1.40)

China

281

(1.44)

NJ

188

(0.96)

MT

23

(0.12)

South Africa

259

(1.32)

Philippines

205

(1.05)

PA

169

(0.86)

NH

21

(0.11)

Tanzania

243

(1.24)

Vietnam

191

(0.98)

VA

168

(0.86)

WY

20

(0.10)

Uganda

148

(0.76)

Thailand

182

(0.93)

AK

147

(0.75)

KS

15

(0.08)

Zambia

137

(0.70)

Nepal

149

(0.76)

NC

140

(0.72)

AQ*

30

(0.15)

Zimbabwe

126

(0.64)

Cambodia

143

(0.73)

CT

124

(0.63)

ID

14

(0.07)

DC

123

(0.63)

ME

14

(0.07)

Seychelles

2

(0.01)

Oman

2

(0.01)

MN

116

(0.59)

CQ*

13

(0.07)

Europe

909

(4.64)

Oceania**

381

(1.95)

AL

99

(0.51)

SD

13

(0.07)

United Kingdom

121

(0.62)

Australia

124

(0.63)

LA

91

(0.46)

NE

10

(0.05)

Russia

72

(0.37)

Fiji

58

(0.30)

OR

91

(0.46)

RI

7

(0.04)

Romania

69

(0.35)

New Zealand

52

(0.27)

IN

88

(0.45)

YT*

6

(0.03)

France

68

(0.35)

Papua New Guinea

35

(0.18)

TN

82

(0.42)

GQ*

4

(0.02)

Spain

57

(0.29)

Solomon Islands

21

(0.11)

MO

72

(0.37)

ND

4

(0.02)

Italy

56

(0.29)

Western Samoa

19

(0.10)

WI

70

(0.36)

 

 

 

Greece

50

(0.26)

Tonga

18

(0.09)

NV

65

(0.33)

 

 

 

UT

64

(0.33)

 

 

 

Slovenia

1

(0.01)

Guam

1

(0.01)

*Territories of the United States, **Oceania includes Australia and Pacific islands, territories, and colonies.




Table 4: Volunteering search results by country using Dental Volunteer

State

#

(%)

State

#

(%)

Country

#

(%)

Country

#

(%)

CA

454

(4.34)

NV

20

(0.19)

North America

2,284

(21.83)

South America

985

(9.42)

TX

139

(1.33)

TN

19

(0.18)

United States

2,372

(22.67)

Brazil

197

(1.88)

NY

126

(1.20)

MS

17

(0.16)

Mexico

440

(4.21)

Peru

184

(1.76)

MA

111

(1.06)

MT

16

(0.15)

Costa Rica

229

(2.19)

Ecuador

124

(1.19)

AK

80

(0.76)

AR

16

(0.15)

Guatemala

210

(2.01)

Chile

117

(1.12)

FL

80

(0.76)

KY

16

(0.15)

Canada

173

(1.65)

Bolivia

108

(1.03)

HI

73

(0.70)

WI

16

(0.15)

Belize

144

(1.38)

Argentina

84

(0.80)

PR*

72

(0.69)

NM

15

(0.14)

Dominican Republic

128

(1.22)

Colombia

62

(0.59)

MI

65

(0.62)

SC

15

(0.14)

GA

63

(0.60)

OK

15

(0.14)

Dominica

1

(0.01)

Suriname

4

(0.04)

CO

60

(0.57)

CQ*

15

(0.14)

Africa

1,273

(12.17)

Asia

2,023

(19.04)

MD

60

(0.57)

WV

14

(0.13)

Kenya

133

(1.27)

India

294

(2.81)

LA

56

(0.54)

ME

13

(0.12)

South Africa

110

(1.05)

China

149

(1.42)

VI*

51

(0.49)

NH

13

(0.12)

Ghana

97

(0.93)

Vietnam

142

(1.36)

AL

50

(0.48)

YT*

12

(0.11)

Uganda

73

(0.70)

Nepal

130

(1.24)

VA

47

(0.45)

IA

12

(0.11)

Egypt

69

(0.66)

Philippines

110

(1.05)

OH

46

(0.44)

MO

11

(0.11)

Tanzania

55

(0.53)

Thailand

110

(1.05)

OR

46

(0.44)

RI

9

(0.09)

Ethiopia

44

(0.42)

Cambodia

99

(0.95)

PA

45

(0.43)

KS

8

(0.08)

MN

39

(0.37)

NE

7

(0.07)

Sao Tome and Principe

2

(0.02)

Georgia

2

(0.02)

IL

39

(0.37)

ND

4

(0.04)

Europe

946

(9.04)

Oceania**

578

(5.53)

WA

38

(0.36)

SD

4

(0.04)

United Kingdom

87

(0.83)

Australia

153

(1.46)

AZ

37

(0.35)

WY

3

(0.03)

Spain

74

(0.71)

Fiji

128

(1.22)

NJ

37

(0.35)

DE

2

(0.02)

Italy

72

(0.69)

New Zealand

63

(0.60)

DC

37

(0.35)

ID

2

(0.02)

Romania

69

(0.66)

Tahiti

40

(0.38)

NC

30

(0.29)

 

 

 

Russia

65

(0.62)

Western Samoa

26

(0.25)

IN

26

(0.25)

 

 

 

Greece

44

(0.42)

Tonga

26

(0.25)

UT

25

(0.24)

 

 

 

Ireland

44

(0.42)

Marshall Islands

26

(0.25)

CT

24

(0.23)

 

 

 

AQ*

22

(0.21)

 

 

 

Denmark

2

(0.02)

Guam

5

(0.05)

*Territories of the United States, **Oceania includes Australia and Pacific islands, territories, and colonies.


Table 5: Volunteering search results by country using HealthCare Volunteer and Dental Volunteer

State

#

(%)

State

#

(%)

Country

#

(%)

Country

#

(%)

CA

2,790

(9.29)

NV

85

(0.28)

North America

5,269

(17.55)

South America

2,374

(7.91)

NY

584

(1.94)

MO

83

(0.28)

United States

10,840

(36.10)

Peru

565

(1.88)

GA

425

(1.42)

VI*

82

(0.27)

Mexico

861

(2.87)

Brazil

429

(1.43)

TX

397

(1.32)

OK

67

(0.22)

Canada

641

(2.13)

Ecuador

387

(1.29)

CO

390

(1.30)

SC

64

(0.21)

Costa Rica

558

(1.86)

Chile

223

(0.74)

MA

381

(1.27)

VI

60

(0.20)

Guatemala

544

(1.81)

Bolivia

214

(0.71)

WA

370

(1.23)

NM

60

(0.20)

Dominican Republic

396

(1.32)

Argentina

212

(0.71)

FL

347

(1.16)

WV

52

(0.17)

Belize

345

(1.15)

Colombia

184

(0.61)

OH

301

(1.00)

MS

52

(0.17)

IL

295

(0.98)

AR

52

(0.17)

Uruguay

1

(<0.01)

Suriname

4

(0.01)

MD

287

(0.96)

AQ*

52

(0.17)

Africa

4,082

(13.59)

Asia

4,652

(15.49)

AZ

279

(0.93)

KY

51

(0.17)

Kenya

479

(1.60)

India

868

(2.89)

MI

275

(0.92)

IA

48

(0.16)

Ghana

371

(1.24)

China

430

(1.43)

AK

227

(0.76)

MT

39

(0.13)

South Africa

369

(1.23)

Vietnam

333

(1.11)

NJ

225

(0.75)

NH

34

(0.11)

Tanzania

298

(0.99)

Philippines

315

(1.05)

VA

215

(0.72)

DE

31

(0.10)

Uganda

221

(0.74)

Thailand

292

(0.97)

PA

214

(0.71)

CQ*

28

(0.09)

Zambia

180

(0.60)

Nepal

279

(0.93)

NC

170

(0.57)

ME

27

(0.09)

Zimbabwe

166

(0.55)

Cambodia

242

(0.81)

DC

160

(0.53)

WY

23

(0.08)

MN

155

(0.52)

KS

23

(0.08)

Sao Tome and Principe

2

(0.01)

Georgia

5

(0.02)

AL

149

(0.50)

YT*

18

(0.06)

Europe

1,855

(6.28)

Oceania**

959

(3.19)

CT

148

(0.49)

SD

17

(0.06)

United Kingdom

208

(0.69)

Australia

277

(0.92)

LA

147

(0.49)

NE

17

(0.06)

Romania

138

(0.46)

Fiji

186

(0.62)

PR*

138

(0.46)

RI

16

(0.05)

Russia

137

(0.46)

New Zealand

115

(0.38)

OR

137

(0.46)

ID

16

(0.05)

Spain

131

(0.44)

Papua New Guinea

59

(0.20)

HI

135

(0.45)

ND

8

(0.03)

Italy

128

(0.43)

Tahiti

52

(0.17)

IN

114

(0.38)

GQ*

4

(0.01)

France

109

(0.36)

Western Samoa

45

(0.15)

TN

101

(0.34)

 

 

 

Greece

94

(0.31)

Tonga

44

(0.15)

UT

89

(0.30)

 

 

 

I

86

(0.29)

 

 

 

Andorra

2

(0.01)

Guam

6

(0.02)

*Territories of the United States, **Oceania includes Australia and Pacific islands, territories, and colonies.


Table 6: Volunteer’s physical location at time of search

Country/Region/City

%

United States

75.80%

Canada

7.45%

United Kingdom

5.22%

Australia

1.20%

Kenya

1.06%

India

1.02%

Tanzania

0.55%

Satellite Provider

0.41%

Italy

0.36%

Spain

0.36%

(not set)

0.35%

Philippines

0.34%

Germany

0.34%

Ireland

0.25%

Romania

0.24%

Hong Kong

0.21%

South Africa

0.19%

New Zealand

0.17%

Singapore

0.16%

Switzerland

0.15%

Israel

0.14%

Russian Federation

0.14%

France

0.14%

Netherlands

0.14%

Ghana

0.12%

Japan

0.12%

Iran

0.12%

Nepal

0.11%

Hungary

0.10%

Belgium

0.10%

Egypt

0.10%

Taiwan

0.10%

Korea

0.09%

Turkey

0.07%

Sri Lanka

0.07%

Zambia

0.07%

Denmark

0.07%

Ecuado

0.07%

Cote D'Ivoire

0.07%

Pakistan

0.07%

Cameroon

0.07%

Portugal

0.06%

Gambia

0.06%

Indonesia

0.06%

Poland

0.06%

Sweden

0.06%

Congo

0.05%

Peru

0.05%

Mexico

0.05%

Thailand

0.05%

Yugoslavia

0.05%

Saudi Arabia

0.05%

China

0.05%

Greece

0.05%

Syrian Arab Republic

0.05%

Zimbabwe

0.05%

Chile

0.05%

Malaysia

0.04%

Costa Rica

0.04%

Norway

0.04%

Congo

0.04%

Uganda

0.04%

Nigeria

0.04%

Ethiopia

0.04%

United Arab Emirates

0.04%

Croatia

0.04%

Slovenia

0.02%

Iraq

0.02%

Puerto Rico

0.02%

Swaziland

0.02%

Guatemala

0.02%

Botswana

0.02%

Jamaica

0.02%

Venezuela

0.02%

Bolivia

0.02%

Dominican Republic

0.02%

Bahamas

0.02%

Jordan

0.02%

Kuwait

0.02%

Vietnam

0.02%

Slovakia

0.02%

Virgin Islands

0.02%

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

0.02%

Tunisia

0.01%

Algeria

0.01%

Luxembourg

0.01%

Lithuania

0.01%

Argentina

0.01%

Brunei Darussalam

0.01%

Antigua and Barbuda

0.01%

Estonia

0.01%

Finland

0.01%

Morocco

0.01%

Aruba

0.01%

Grenada

0.01%

Barbados

0.01%

Cayman Islands

0.01%

Belarus

0.01%

Colombia

0.01%

Fiji

0.01%

Oman

0.01%

Kyrgyzstan

0.01%

Monaco

0.01%

El Salvador

0.01%

Bahrain

0.01%

Austria

0.01%

Bulgaria

0.01%

Sudan

0.01%

Panama

0.01%

Faroe Islands

0.01%

Cambodia

0.01%

Haiti

0.01%

Seychelles

0.01%

Mozambique

0.01%

Bangladesh

0.01%

Sierra Leone

0.01%

Lebanon

0.01%

Czech Republic

0.01%

Qatar

0.01%

Lao People's Democratic Republic

0.01%


References



[1] Chen, Lincon et. Al. The World Health Report 2006. World Health Organization. April, 2006. Table 4; pg. 220-237.

 

[2] Noble, Michelle. Canadian physicians should be encouraged to volunteer for overseas relief work, MDs say. CMAJ, 1994 Oct 15;151(8):1180-1.

[3] Baker TD, Weisman C, Piwoz E. United States health professionals in international health work. Am J Public Health. 1984 May; 74(5): 438–441.

[4] King, Mary.  The role of the skill-trained volunteer in international public health: Peace Corps' health programming and health policy in developing countries. Am J Public Health. 1981 April; 71(4): 408–409.

[5] Chen, Lincon et. Al. The World Health Report 2006. World Health Organization. April, 2006. Table 4; pg. 220-237.