The aim of this cross-sectional, descriptive study was to determine the personality traits and motivation of nursing volunteers and their effects on pre-hospitalization emergency care.

Participants were 133 pre-hospital nursing volunteers from Taiwan. This study was performed using self-administered basic demographic information, Eysenck Personality Questionnaire-Revised Short (EPQ-RS), and Volunteer Motivation Scale with Chinese Volunteers (VMS-C). The statistical analysis was performed by SPSS 23.0. The data collections were analyzed by nonparametric statistics, correlation coefficient, covariance analysis, and one-way ANOVA analysis multiple regression analysis.

Our findings showed that having social desirability and extraversion personality had a positive impact on the attitudes of volunteers in terms of the provision of pre-hospital care. The first identified regulation was highlighted in the motivation scale; intrinsic motivation was secondarily emphasized. Pearson correlation coefficient revealed years of service in volunteering seniority, age, gender and nursing seniority were correlated. On the contrary, the job department and six municipalities were negatively correlated. Equivalence with the other relation, participants’ attending hours per month in volunteering and gender were positively related. Inverse correlations were found in age and nursing seniority. Extraversion personality and involvement in specific municipalities were positively correlated.

Emergency Medical Services (EMS) has been developed in Taiwan for more than 20 years and must improve the quality of EMS. These results may be used to improve the quality of the pre-hospital care system and encourage nursing staff to join the system. Nursing volunteers in pre-hospital care are a particularly valuable resource, and satisfy a pivotal role early in the process of pre-hospital care. It is recommended that we provide a good interpersonal environment to maintain the good will of the dedicated, experienced, enthusiastic volunteers in Taiwan.