Background Volunteering is a helpful service to society, embodying personal commitment and a spontaneous result of community life. In this study, factors associated with the intention to volunteer among healthcare students in Saudi Arabia were investigated using the theory of planned behavior.
Results A total of 402 healthcare students completed the survey after obtaining permission from the ethics committee. The average age was 23 (±2.2) years, and a majority of the participants were female (60.5%). Most participants were pharmacy students (39.4%), and the average grade point average of all participants was 4.22 (±0.5). About half of them (49.8%) had previous volunteering experience.
A significant association was found between the intention of healthcare students to volunteer and attitude (β = 0.350; p < 0.001), subjective norm (β = 0.116; p = 0.001), perceived behavioral control (β = 0.257; p < 0.001), age (β = -0.203; p = 0.023), male gender (β = -1.068; p = 0.005), and volunteering experience (β = 1.156; p = 0.023).
Conclusion Attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control, previous volunteering experience, age, and male gender were associated with willingness to volunteer. These findings suggest that healthcare education institutions can develop strategies to engage and motivate student volunteers in community outreach programs. Our study results cannot be generalized, as it was conducted only in the Qassim region of Saudi Arabia.