ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Public Health Education and Promotion
Motivations, Challenges, and Benefits of First Aid Knowledge Popularization Volunteerism among Undergraduate Medical Students: A Qualitative Study
Provisionally accepted
- 1Department of Nursing, The Affiliated Hospital, Southwest Medical University, Luzhou, China
- 2School of Nursing, Southwest Medical University, Luzhou, China
- 3School of Continuing Education, Guiyang Healthcare Vocational University, Guiyang, China
- 4Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery, Jiangsu College of Nursing, Huaian, China
- 5Guiyang Maternal and child Health Care Hospital, Guiyang, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Background: First aid knowledge popularization volunteerism provides medical students with opportunities to develop practical skills. However, there is currently limited attention to First aid knowledge popularization volunteerism, especially regarding the experiences of volunteers themselves. Therefore, our study explored the motivation, challenges, and benefits of undergraduate medical students participating in first aid knowledge popularization volunteerism based on the expectancy-value theory. Methods: This qualitative descriptive study, guided by Expectancy-Value Theory, explored the motivations, challenges, and benefits of undergraduate medical students participating in first aid knowledge popularization volunteerism. We conducted 27 semi-structured interviews with first aid knowledge popularization volunteerism team members recruited from a medical university in Sichuan Province, China. Theoretical saturation was achieved through iterative data collection and analysis, with the final sample size determined when no new themes emerged from additional interviews. Data were analyzed using Braun and Clarke's thematic analysis approach. Results: Our study identified three main themes with eleven subthemes. Motivations included voluntary spirit, self-achievement, reward mechanism, and peer influence. Challenges comprised skill deficiencies, psychological challenges, objective constraints, and time constraints. Benefits encompassed psychological benefits, incentives, and skill enhancement. Conclusion: Our study research results indicate that the motivation of undergraduate students in first aid knowledge popularization volunteerism stems from the dual effects of internal drive and external motivation. The challenges they face mainly come from the influence of internal obstacles and external limitations, while the ultimate benefits are reflected in both psychological growth and ability improvement. Universities should develop specialized first aid education curricula integrating emergency simulation scenarios and establish FAKPV-specific peer mentorship programs to enhance motivation, provide specialized training combining first aid techniques with community-specific public education pedagogy to address challenges, and create systematic opportunities for volunteers to witness direct impact through follow-up assessments and real-time feedback to maximize benefits.
Keywords: First aid knowledge popularization, Volunteer service, Medical students, qualitative study, expectancy-value theory
Received: 08 Sep 2025; Accepted: 02 Dec 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Li, Huang, Guo, Yang and Zhang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Xiaofang Yang
Baolu Zhang
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.