Role identities of emergency medical services personnel and their associations with intention to leave the profession.
BMC Emerg Med
; 24(1): 96, 2024 Jun 05.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-38840088
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
The scope of emergency medical services (EMS) has expanded from the urgent care of emergency patients to on-call healthcare services provided in the field with a holistic view of the patient's wellbeing. This challenges EMS to find solutions to cover all demands, while simultaneously setting high skill requirements for EMS personnel. Understanding personnel is a critical element in developing functional and resistant EMS. The aim of this study was to investigate how Finnish EMS personnel emphasize the Emergency Medical Services Role Identity Scale aspects of caregiving, thrill-seeking, duty, and capacity; and if these role identities are associated with intention to leave the profession.METHODS:
We conducted a cross-sectional survey (N = 616, 52% women, mean age 32.9 years). Data were collected through social media platforms and analyzed with means, standard deviations, Mann-Whitney U-tests, Kruskal-Wallis H-tests, and binary logistic regression analyses.RESULTS:
Our results indicate that capacity is the most emphasized aspect among EMS personnel, and at the same time, it increases intention to leave EMS. Capacity was followed by caregiving, with no association with intention to leave. Duty and thrill-seeking were the least emphasized and were negatively associated with intention to leave. Additionally, there were also other factors that were associated with emphasizing EMS-RIS aspect and intention to leave.CONCLUSION:
Capacity stands out most strongly in analysis being at the core of the role identity of EMS personnel and was associated with a higher likelihood of leaving intentions. Several other factors were also associated with the intention to leave. Future studies should examine the exact dimensions of capacity that are considered important among EMS personnel and why factors such as work experience are associated with intentions to leave.Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Emergency Medical Technicians
Limits:
Adult
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
/
Middle aged
Country/Region as subject:
Europa
Language:
En
Journal:
BMC Emerg Med
Journal subject:
MEDICINA DE EMERGENCIA
Year:
2024
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Finlandia