Other Titles
Rapid Presentation Round
Abstract
Purpose: Emergency services professionals (ESPs), like emergency medical technicians, paramedics, and registered nurses, work in stressful, low-resource environments and are vulnerable to work-related burnout (Crowe et al., 2020; Hinderer et al., 2014). While many ESPs are motivated by compassion for others, most ESPs never learn what happened to the patients they cared for (Ntatamala & Adams, 2022; Patterson et al., 2005). Disconnection from patient outcomes may limit compassion satisfaction among ESPs and make it more difficult to actualize their role in patient care and contribute to burnout, which negatively affects patient care (Georgakakos et al., 2022). The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of a novel burnout mitigation method among ESPs: providing follow-up communications regarding outcomes of their patients.
Method: This pilot study aimed to (1) evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of patient follow-up communications among ESPs, and (2) estimate the potential effect size and confidence intervals of follow-up communications on compassion satisfaction and burnout. Participants included emergency medical technicians and paramedics working in the rural Wisconsin, and emergency department nurses working in a Wisconsin critical access hospital. Inclusion criteria included employment for 20 hours per week or greater and willingness to participate in a pre- and post-intervention survey measuring burnout, compassion satisfaction, and feasibility and acceptability of the intervention. Design principles considered while developing this intervention included minimizing efforts required of study participants.
The intervention consists of providing ESPs with weekly patient follow-up communications. Participants will be provided follow-ups for all patients they provided care for and were transported to an emergency department or admitted to an inpatient setting. Follow-up communications contain a summary of the patient’s hospital course and their disposition from the hospital.
Results: Results of this study are ongoing and consist of further evaluation of the feasibility and acceptability of the intervention, an estimate of the effect sizes and confidence intervals of the intervention among ESPs with regards to both burnout and compassion satisfaction, and implementation lessons learned.
Conclusion: This ongoing study will provide preliminary data evaluating a novel intervention to improve compassion satisfaction and reduce burnout among ESPs.
Notes
References: Crowe, R. P., Fernandez, A. R., Pepe, P. E., Cash, R. E., Rivard, M. K., Wronski, R., Anderson, S. E., Hogan, T. H., Andridge, R. R., Panchal, A. R., & Ferketich, A. K. (2020). The association of job demands and resources with burnout among emergency medical services professionals. J Am Coll Emerg Physicians Open, 1(1), 6-16. https://doi.org/10.1002/emp2.12014
Georgakakos, P. K., Swanson, M. B., Ahmed, A., & Mohr, N. M. (2022). Rural Stroke Patients Have Higher Mortality: An Improvement Opportunity for Rural Emergency Medical Services Systems. J Rural Health, 38(1), 217-227. https://doi.org/10.1111/jrh.12502
Hinderer, K. A., VonRueden, K. T., Friedmann, E., McQuillan, K. A., Gilmore, R., Kramer, B., & Murray, M. (2014). Burnout, Compassion Fatigue, Compassion Satisfaction, and Secondary Traumatic Stress in Trauma Nurses. Journal of Trauma Nursing, 21(4), 160-169. https://doi.org/10.1097/JTN.0000000000000055
Ntatamala, I., & Adams, S. (2022). The Correlates of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in Ambulance Personnel and Barriers Faced in Accessing Care for Work-Related Stress. Int J Environ Res Public Health, 19(4). https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19042046
Patterson, P., Probst, J., Leith, K., Corwin, S., & Powell, M. (2005). Recruitment and retention of emergency medical technicians: A qualitative study. Journal of Allied Health, 34(3), 153-162.
Sigma Membership
Delta Gamma at-Large
Type
Presentation
Format Type
Text-based Document
Study Design/Type
Other
Research Approach
Pilot/Exploratory Study
Keywords:
Implementation Science, Stress Coping, Workforce
Recommended Citation
Christianson, Jacqueline; Warthon, Tiffany; and Abuzahra, Tala Fuad, "Addressing Job Satisfaction in Emergency Services: An Exploratory Study" (2025). Creating Healthy Work Environments (CHWE). 121.
https://www.sigmarepository.org/chwe/2025/presentations_2025/121
Conference Name
Creating Healthy Work Environments
Conference Host
Sigma Theta Tau International
Conference Location
Phoenix, Arizona, USA
Conference Year
2025
Rights Holder
All rights reserved by the author(s) and/or publisher(s) listed in this item record unless relinquished in whole or part by a rights notation or a Creative Commons License present in this item record.
Review Type
Abstract Review Only: Reviewed by Event Host
Acquisition
Proxy-submission
Addressing Job Satisfaction in Emergency Services: An Exploratory Study
Phoenix, Arizona, USA
Purpose: Emergency services professionals (ESPs), like emergency medical technicians, paramedics, and registered nurses, work in stressful, low-resource environments and are vulnerable to work-related burnout (Crowe et al., 2020; Hinderer et al., 2014). While many ESPs are motivated by compassion for others, most ESPs never learn what happened to the patients they cared for (Ntatamala & Adams, 2022; Patterson et al., 2005). Disconnection from patient outcomes may limit compassion satisfaction among ESPs and make it more difficult to actualize their role in patient care and contribute to burnout, which negatively affects patient care (Georgakakos et al., 2022). The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of a novel burnout mitigation method among ESPs: providing follow-up communications regarding outcomes of their patients.
Method: This pilot study aimed to (1) evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of patient follow-up communications among ESPs, and (2) estimate the potential effect size and confidence intervals of follow-up communications on compassion satisfaction and burnout. Participants included emergency medical technicians and paramedics working in the rural Wisconsin, and emergency department nurses working in a Wisconsin critical access hospital. Inclusion criteria included employment for 20 hours per week or greater and willingness to participate in a pre- and post-intervention survey measuring burnout, compassion satisfaction, and feasibility and acceptability of the intervention. Design principles considered while developing this intervention included minimizing efforts required of study participants.
The intervention consists of providing ESPs with weekly patient follow-up communications. Participants will be provided follow-ups for all patients they provided care for and were transported to an emergency department or admitted to an inpatient setting. Follow-up communications contain a summary of the patient’s hospital course and their disposition from the hospital.
Results: Results of this study are ongoing and consist of further evaluation of the feasibility and acceptability of the intervention, an estimate of the effect sizes and confidence intervals of the intervention among ESPs with regards to both burnout and compassion satisfaction, and implementation lessons learned.
Conclusion: This ongoing study will provide preliminary data evaluating a novel intervention to improve compassion satisfaction and reduce burnout among ESPs.
Description
Many emergency services professionals are motivated by compassion yet are disconnected from patient outcomes, limiting their job satisfaction from helping others. In this presentation, we will discuss a novel intervention to improve compassion satisfaction and burnout among emergency services professionals: providing patient follow-up communications to emergency services professionals.