Comparable Physiological Stress Responses following Music Listening and Quiet Reading: An exploratory pilot study.

Volunteering involves individuals offering their time and skills to benefit others, particularly within the community. It may be formal or informal and is often driven by aspirations for both personal and professional growth []. For medical interns, volunteering provides opportunities to develop essential clinical and interpersonal skills, make meaningful contributions to society, and strengthen their professional profiles. Such activities may occur in diverse settings, including community centres, sports facilities, rehabilitation shelters, and healthcare institutions, offering valuable hands-on experience []. A growing body of literature has assessed volunteering motivations and barriers among undergraduate medical students and interns across diverse settings, including within the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. Studies among medical students in Saudi Arabia reported high motivation to volunteer, with participants citing benefits such as skill development, community contribution, and CV enhancement, despite institutional barriers such as academic commitments []. In the United Arab Emirates specifically, Al Saraidi et al. assessed motivations and barriers among healthcare volunteers using a functional-motives framework, finding that understanding and self-esteem were the most prominent motivating dimensions, while barriers spanned individual factors, such as work and family commitments, and organisational factors, such as insufficient information about volunteering opportunities []. Volunteerism frameworks describe a range of motives, such as protection, values, social connections, understanding, career development, personal growth, self-esteem, reciprocity, recognition, and reactivity. Nonetheless, barriers persist, including limited time, mobility restrictions, health concerns, and legal or regulatory limitations. Predictors of willingness to volunteer include individual characteristics, available resources, and social influences [,]. In the United Arab Emirates, medical interns can engage in volunteering through structured programs coordinated by healthcare institutions, government-led initiatives, and community-based organisations []. These programs follow established procedures that ensure compliance with professional, ethical, and regulatory standards. Although several studies have explored volunteering motivations and challenges among healthcare students in the United Arab Emirates [], few have focused specifically on medical interns, whose roles and constraints differ from those of other student groups. This study aims to address this gap by examining the factors that motivate and hinder volunteering among medical interns at Dubai Health, providing insights to guide future initiatives and policy development.