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Establishing: Volunteer Liability and Risk Management Policies

Localities are subject to different legal liability laws and standards. Seek local legal counsel to help you understand the legal and professional guidelines affecting your MRC volunteers and your organization.

Once you understand the specifics governing and restricting volunteer activities for medical and health professionals, it will be important to include these in your policies and as part of the training of your volunteers. You will likely have informed your volunteer prospects of the risks that may be associated with their work for the MRC. Once they join your team, however, you will want to help them understand the specific legal and professional standards under which they will be operating.

Liability laws protect citizens from negligent or faulty behavior on the part of individuals or organizations. Efforts to protect your MRC volunteers from liability risks also will reduce the unintended harm they might cause to those they are trying to help. Harm reduction measures and principles will become part of your policies and procedures that volunteers are trained to understand and implement.

The purpose of risk management is to identify and manage the risks faced by your program. Although the most obvious form of risk is the risk of individual or organizational liability for unintended harm, there also are other forms of risk that need to be considered in planning for your MRC unit.

The goal of the risk management policies should be to protect:

• Those you serve from harm
• Your volunteers from harm and from liability for unintended harm to others
• Your organization from liability for your volunteers’ actions
• Your unit’s reputation and its ability to effectively recruit, retain, and utilize volunteers

You can achieve these through a comprehensive approach to finding the best volunteers and preparing them appropriately for their roles and having a clear understanding of what legal protections are available.

Examples of policies that fit into a comprehensive approach to risk management are:

• Application and screening procedures
• Volunteer position descriptions (including scope of practice)
• Grounds for denial of a potential volunteer
• Activation/deactivation procedures
• Volunteer code of conduct
• Grounds for dismissal
• Training requirements

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Last Updated on 8/23/2006