Quantifying the value of healthcare volunteers: a scoping review.

Background
Volunteers can add value to healthcare by reducing professional staff workload or improving patients' quality of life. Assessing the value of volunteers in healthcare could aid decision makers regarding investments in volunteer programmes. However, no comprehensive overview exists that systematically compares methods to quantify the value of volunteers.

Objective
To provide an overview of the different methods used to quantify the value of healthcare volunteers METHODS: CINAHL, MedLine and Embase were searched in April 2024 for articles that quantitatively evaluate the value of volunteers in healthcare.

Results
In total, 69 relevant full text articles were included. Most articles report on volunteers' value for patients by measuring clinical outcomes or patient satisfaction. Economic evaluations from the perspective of providers frequently use an opportunity cost or replacement cost approach. The intrinsic value for volunteers is also often reported, e.g. by measuring their motivation or increase in knowledge. Few articles quantify the value for staff, family members of patients or society as a whole.

Conclusions
This review shows that a variety of methods can be used to quantify the value of volunteers, and from a range of perspectives: patients, family members of patients, volunteers, staff, healthcare providers and society. To gain a comprehensive understanding of the value of volunteers, methods from different perspectives should be considered as value may differ per perspective.