An observational study of shift length, crew familiarity, and occupational injury and illness in emergency medical services workers

Details

• Personal Author:
  Fabio, Anthony ; Freiberg MS ; Moore CG ; Patterson PD ; Songer TJ ; Weaver MD
• Description:
  Objectives: Emergency medical services (EMS) clinicians are shift workers deployed in two-person teams. Extended shift duration, workplace fatigue, poor sleep and lack of familiarity with teammates are common in the EMS workforce and may contribute to workplace injury. We sought to examine the relationship between shift length and occupational injury while controlling for relevant shift work and teamwork factors. Methods: We obtained 3 years of shift schedules and occupational injury and illness reports were from 14 large EMS agencies. We abstracted shift length and additional scheduling and team characteristics from shift schedules. We matched occupational injury and illness reports to shift records and used hierarchical logistic regression models to test the relationship between shift length and occupational injury and illness while controlling for teammate familiarity. Results: The cohort contained 966,082 shifts, 4382 employees and 950 outcome reports. Risk of occupational injury and illness was lower for shifts ≤ 8 h in duration (RR 0.70; 95% CI 0.51 to 0.96) compared with shifts >8 and ≤12 h. Relative to shifts >8 and ≤12 h, risk of injury was 60% greater (RR 1.60; 95% CI 1.22 to 2.10) for employees that worked shifts >16 and ≤24 h. Conclusions: Shift length is associated with increased risk of occupational injury and illness in this sample of EMS shift workers. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Emergency Responders Fatigue Health Care Facilities Workforce And Services Health Personnel Mass Behavior Men Mental Disorders Mental Health Occupational Exposure Occupational Health Risk Assessment Risk Factors Safety Shift Work Schedule Sleep Sleep Initiation And Maintenance Disorders Women

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• Keywords:
  Emergency-responders Group-dynamics Humans Injuries Job-analysis Mathematical-models Medical-personnel Medical-rescue-services Mental-fatigue Occupational-hazards Performance-capability Physiological-fatigue Risk-analysis Risk-factors Shift-work Shift-workers Sleep-deprivation Statistical-analysis Task-performance Work-intervals Worker-health

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• ISSN:
  1351-0711
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Massachusetts ; North Carolina ; OSHA Region 1 ; OSHA Region 3 ; OSHA Region 4 ; Pennsylvania ; Tennessee
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Volume:
  72
• Issue:
  11
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20046720
• Citation:
  Occup Environ Med 2015 Nov; 72(11):798-804
• Contact Point Address:
  Matthew D. Weaver, Division of Sleep and Circadian Disorders, Departments of Medicine and Neurology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Landmark Center Suite 301 West, 401 Park Drive Boston, MA 02215, USA
• Email:
  mdweaver@partners.org
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2016
• NORA Priority Area:
  Public Safety
• Performing Organization:
  University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20120701
• Source Full Name:
  Occupational and Environmental Medicine
• End Date:
  20150630
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:57a9c45bfab79e499d2aa54a89bf95e131e864718312dbcfde080a8d5b4113a0913fd9f2c3f8023369754bdf89578cb521892ee7a8e9ac5a47c91ac472edd720
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/202055/cdc_202055_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 315.60 KB ]