Informal management of health and safety risks associated with alarm response by Australian firefighters.

Fire-fighters use informal strategies to manage risks to health and safety during operations. It is not known whether such strategies are used during the high-risk alarm response period. The aim of this study was to determine if informal risk management strategies are employed by Australian firefighters during the alarm response procedure, and if these strategies differ between salaried and retained personnel. Forty-six metropolitan firefighters (all male; mean age 38 years ± 10 years; 22 salaried; 24 retained) participated in semi-structured group interviews. A general inductive data analysis approach revealed that firefighters use multiple informal risk management strategies. Some similar themes were reported by both salaried and retained personnel, for example leveraging team dynamics, communication about sleep and fatigue, stress adaptation, informal debriefs, and enhancing physical preparedness. These findings could be used by fire services to tailor risk management approaches during the alarm response period. Practitioner summary: Identifying informal risk management strategies firefighters use during alarm response will allow their development, refinement and dissemination, and may help other firefighters and emergency service workers to manage these risks. This qualitative study reveals multiple informal strategies that firefighters employ during alarm response to keep themselves and their team-mates safe.

No rest for the women: Understanding the impact of on-call work for women in the emergency services.

BACKGROUND: The unpredictable, "on-call" component of the emergency services (ES) may be difficult to navigate in the context of domestic and work responsibilities, and especially difficult for women, given they tend to take on a greater household burden than do men. Our aim was to understand women's experiences in the ES, particularly the impact of being on-call and related coping strategies. METHODS: Twenty-four women were recruited from two ES agencies in Australia. Participation involved a brief questionnaire and a 45-60-min interview. Interviews were recorded, and audio files were transcribed before analysis using nVIVO software. RESULTS: Interview data identified two major themes: impact and management. Women talked about the impact of on-call for themselves (e.g. disturbed? sleep, fatigue and the relentlessness of the role) but also discussed the, largely negative, impact for their family/household. In terms of management, support (family, social and work) and planning and preparation were identified as important in helping women manage their multiple roles in the context of on-call unpredictability. CONCLUSION: The negative impacts of on-call work on women's sleep supports existing quantitative and qualitative data in the broader on-call area. For those women with children, managing their care presents one of the biggest challenges to being able to manage the on-call component of their work. Future research should to focus on quantifying the impact of on-call for both men and women, particularly the "relentlessness" of the work identified in this study and whether this toll changes based on other factors such as experience, role or gender.

The Injury Profile of an Australian Specialist Policing Unit.

This study investigated the injuries sustained by an Australian specialist police division. Injury records spanning four-years were analyzed. The role being performed when the injury occurred, injury cause, body part injured, and injury-related costs were quantified. The percentage of personnel injured multiple times was documented. One hundred and thirty eight personnel reported injuries, 58 of these on multiple occasions. This resulted in 229 injuries and 76 claims being raised. Half of the injuries occurred during operational policing tasks, however training activities accounted for >30% of injuries. The most common injury was strain/sprain, and upper body injuries were 2.5-times more common than lower-body or torso injuries. 1107 shifts were lost, and injuries cost the organization $487,159 (Australian Dollars) over the four-year period. The injury costs (both financial and in manpower) may prompt policy makers to review the current training and post-injury rehabilitation protocols.