Sustaining Volunteer First-Aid Capacity in Hong Kong: A Qualitative Interview Study of Role Identity, Mobilisation, Training, and Retention in S Organization

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-593-5_72How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Volunteer first aid; Mobilisation; Retention; Thematic analysis; Hong Kong

Abstract

This qualitative study explored participation and retention mechanisms in S Organization, a Hong Kong volunteer first-aid group. Three active volunteers were recruited via snowball sampling and interviewed online between April and October 2025. Transcripts were analysed using NVivo-supported thematic analysis, yielding five key themes. First, volunteers differed in whether they experienced their role as identity-building (rooted in mission) or primarily instrumental. Second, fast digital mobilisation enabled access, but first-come-first-served sign-ups fostered competition and social distance. Third, cross-agency collaboration was routinised through repeated drills, with volunteers viewing their role as “side-by-side” rather than auxiliary. Fourth, training combined self-study, workshops, and simulations but remained relatively open rather than tiered by level. Fifth, while satisfaction was generally high, time constraints and opportunity scarcity reduced participation intensity without prompting formal exit. These findings inform improvements in opportunity allocation, recognition systems, and retention support design.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Yinlam Lan
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/06/30
TI  - Sustaining Volunteer First-Aid Capacity in Hong Kong: A Qualitative Interview Study of Role Identity, Mobilisation, Training, and Retention in S Organization
BT  - Proceedings of the 2026 5th International Conference on Humanities, Wisdom Education and Service Management (HWESM 2026)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 662
EP  - 669
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-593-5_72
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-593-5_72
ID  - Lan2026
ER  -