Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T17:19:11.906Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Job Satisfaction in EMS: A Different Approach

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 June 2012

Stephen R. Wirth
Stephen R. Wirth*
Affiliation:
Vice President, Emergycare, Inc.
*
Emergycare, 1701 Sassafras Street, Erie, PA 16502
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

There has been limited organizational research applied to EMS, especially in the area of job satisfaction. In the midst of a general shortage of health care workers, effective recruitment and retention of a qualified and satisfied work force is a critical issue. The purpose of this study was to examine the factors and elements in the structure or “design” of the work of emergency medical technicians (EMTs) and paramedics that can create conditions for high levels of work motivation, satisfaction, and performance.

A modified Job Diagnostic Survey was administered to a cross section of 102 paid and volunteer EMS personnel in Pennsylvania. The relationships between measured job characteristics, experienced psychological states, and job longevity on overall job satisfaction was examined.

Significant positive relationships (p<.05) exist between a number of the job characteristic variables (such as task significance, autonomy, and job feedback) and job satisfaction. Job longevity did not have a significant relationship to job satisfaction. Volunteer EMS personnel experienced higher levels of job satisfaction than did paid providers.

The results indicate that the EMT and paramedic perform complex jobs that have high levels of the characteristics that cause internal work motivation. Methods to increase the amount of these core job characteristics to improve overall job satisfaction are discussed.

Type
Original Research
Information
Prehospital and Disaster Medicine , Volume 5 , Issue 1 , March 1990 , pp. 9 - 17
Copyright
Copyright © World Association for Disaster and Emergency Medicine 1990

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. Allison, EJ, Whitley, T, Revicki, D, Landis, S: Specific occupational satisfaction and stresses that differentiate paid and volunteer EMTs. Ann Emerg Med, 1987; 16:676–679.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
2. Mitchell, J: The 600 run limit. JEMS Jan, 1984, 52–54.Google ScholarPubMed
3. Hammer, J, Mathews, J, Lyons, J, Johnson, N: Occupational stress within the paramedic profession: An initial report of stress levels compared to hospital employees. Ann Emerg Med 1986; 15, 536–539.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
4. Roberts, S, Karen, K: Job Satisfaction Among Paramedics, JEMS Mar, 1987, 48–49.Google ScholarPubMed
5. Turner, AN, Lawrence, PR: Industrial Jobs and the Worker. Boston: Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration, 1965.Google Scholar
6. Hackman, JR, Lawler, EE: Employee reactions to job characteristics. J Appl Psych (Monograph), 1971; 55:259–286.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
7. Herzberg, F: Work and the Nature of Man, Cleveland: World, 1966.Google Scholar
8. Herzberg, F: The Managerial Choice. Homewood, Ill: Dow Jones-Irwin, 1976.Google Scholar
9. Ford, RN: Motivation through the work itself, New York: American Management Associations, 1979.Google Scholar
10. Hackman, JR, Oldham, R: Development of the job diagnostic survey. J Appl Psych 1975; 60:159–170.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
11. Hackman, JR, Oldham, R: Work redesign. Reading, Mass: Addison Wesley Press, 1980.Google Scholar
12. Frew, DR: Lecture in human resources management. Gannon University, Erie, Pa., March 1988.Google Scholar