AORN Journal
Volume 92, Issue 2 , Pages 129-131, August 2010

The Freedom to Give: Time, Talent, and Treasure

Article Outline

 

As individuals who have dedicated our lives to the caring profession of nursing, we have an inherent desire to serve, participate, and contribute to the world around us. Stewardship is the sharing of one's time, talent, and treasure for the good of the community.

During the long, hot days of August, our world quiets down as many of us take time for a vacation, AORN chapters meet less often, and workplace committees curtail their schedule. This is a good time for each of us to reflect on the ways that we can contribute to our profession, our Association, and the community of nurses.

The benefits of volunteerism within a professional association include networking, knowledge sharing and development, promotion of the profession of nursing on a larger scale, continued development of leadership skills, and promotion of the mission of the organization.1(p320)

In a recent article, Singleton describes volunteering as “a unique opportunity to improve personally and contribute to the lives of others within the same expenditure of time, energy, and commitment.”2(p5) According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics,

■26.8% of the population (63.4 million people) volunteered in the 12 months ending September 2009.

■68.9% of all volunteers volunteered for one organization and 19.8% for two organizations.

■44% of volunteers engaged in activities after being asked to volunteer.

■women volunteered at a higher rate than men.

■the highest rate of volunteerism was among adults ages 35 to 44 years (31.5%) and 45 to 54 years (30.8%).3

Although one might anticipate a high rate of volunteerism in individuals over the average age of retirement because they may have more time to offer, it is interesting to note that the highest rate of volunteerism is in the middle adult age group, a large percentage of which would presumably also be part of the paid workforce.

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Why Volunteer? 

Knowing who volunteers raises the question of why they volunteer. Clary and Snyder4 adopted “a fundamental approach to understanding the motivations that prompt people to become volunteers and that sustain their efforts over time.”4(p156) They studied six functions that are served by volunteering: values, understanding, enhancement, career, social, and protective.4 In terms of our profession and our Association, what do these functions mean? As an example, I will consider each function as it applies to my life:

■The values function offers me a vehicle to reflect on my desire to help others and to help the perioperative nursing profession to grow. It satisfies my inner drive to share the wisdom and knowledge I have acquired to promote our profession.

■The understanding function reflects my hope to improve myself or to offer the skills and experiences in my personal tool kit in a different way. It is a way to continue to use my expertise in developing contact hour programs and educational offerings for the good of my chapter or to use the knowledge that I have gathered from the hundreds of chapters I have visited during my tenure on the AORN Board of Directors for the benefit of aspiring local leaders.

■The enhancement function addresses my desire to improve my self-image as a nurse and as a leader.

■The career function has served to open doors to the next level in my professional development. Working on a task force or committee has allowed me to further refine and develop my professional and personal skills. As a clinical nurse who wanted to move into an education role, I used my volunteer experiences in my chapter to demonstrate my readiness to move forward.

■The social function is the one that is perhaps the most relevant for many volunteers. For me, it has been and continues to be the part of association life that builds my network of friends. For those of my generation, this networking is often conducted in person, but I stretch myself to learn about social networking so that I can work better with my Generation X and Y colleagues.

■The protective function allows volunteers to “escape” from the world in which we live through their volunteer experience.4 This is a function with which I find it hard to identify. Escaping from the world has never been a part of my motivation.

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Giving Time, Talent, and Treasure 

“Professional nursing associations depend on interested, committed members who support the organization as well as provide input from constituents.”1(p319) As nurses and Association leaders, there are three roles that each of us can take in the volunteer workforce. The first is as a volunteer participant, taking part in opportunities on the local, state, and national levels to meet our personal needs. The second is to create opportunities in which other members can serve. For example, if you are a seasoned presenter, then you might consider inviting a novice presenter to work with you on a presentation. The third, as reflected in the demographics from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, is to extend the invitation to volunteer to another member. Many people find receiving a personal invitation to be far more appealing than answering a request for volunteers published in a newsletter or on a web page. Maybe now is the time to try something new. I am sure that you will be surprised by the joy that awaits you as you apply yourself in a different role.

“Volunteering to serve in a leadership role in professional associations has both benefits and risks for the seasoned nursing leader as well as aspiring nurse leaders and staff.”1(p319) Volunteering has many benefits, but I would be remiss not to mention the major risk. As you consider the volunteer opportunities before you, you must also think about avoiding the risk of becoming overextended. Be sure to carefully balance what you agree to do; sometimes, to take on something new, you must give up something that you have done before. Remember, it is the quality of the time that you offer the Association not the quantity that has the greatest impact, be it on yourself, others, or the organization.

Volunteering involves giving of your time and talent, but, as mentioned earlier, stewardship has another dimension, the gift of your treasure. This dimension is one that may be attractive for those among us who are too overextended to do more or who are unable to commit to volunteering because of physical, personal, or family considerations. Offering the gift of a monetary contribution to the AORN Foundation can be as valuable as the hours you could give to the Association. Can you imagine the results if each AORN member were to donate $5 to support the AORN Foundation this year? This group works continually to build the future of perioperative nursing. As you enter into the fall and begin to think about your holiday gift giving, I challenge you to think about suggesting to those who send gifts to your department during Perioperative Nurse Week or through the holidays to consider making a contribution to the Foundation in honor of you or your staff.

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Help Build the Future 

At age 16, I received one of my first awards in acknowledgement of my volunteer activities as a leader at my local YMCA. As I have moved through each phase of my life and my career, I have actively offered the gift of my stewardship—time, talent, and treasure—to my profession and to my community. From these experiences, I have reaped much greater benefits than I have offered. As you are resting on the ocean's edge, beside the pool, at the lake, or in your own back yard, consider the idea of volunteering and how you as an individual will respond to the challenge this fall. Do your own functional inventory. Personally, I will be thinking of all of you from my corner of Footbridge Beach in Qgunquit, Maine. This fall, I am eager to join you as, together, we build our Association's future. We can do this one nurse at a time, one day at a time, and one gift at a time. Please consider making a personal gift, be it time, talent, or treasure, or maybe a gift of all three.

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References 

  1. Hill KS. Volunteerism: another path to leadership skills. J Nurs Adm. 2008;38(7/8):319–321
  2. Singleton KA. From ASMN (A resolution to be resolute: volunteerism). Medsurg Nurs. 2009;18(1):5–6
  3. Volunteering in the United States, 2009. Washington, DC: Bureau of Labor Statistics; January 26, 2010;http://www.bls.gov/news.release/volun.nr0.htm[news release]. Accessed June 16, 2010
  4. Clary EG, Snyder M. The motivations to volunteer: theoretical and practical considerations. Curr Dir Psychol Sci. 1999;8(5):156–159

Charlotte L. Guglielmi, RN, BSN, MA, CNOR, is the AORN President and a perioperative nurse specialist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA. President Guglielmi has no declared affiliation that could be perceived as posing a potential conflict of interest in the publication of this article.

PII: S0001-2092(10)00596-X

doi:10.1016/j.aorn.2010.06.004

AORN Journal
Volume 92, Issue 2 , Pages 129-131, August 2010

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