Teammate Familiarity, Teamwork, and Risk of Workplace Injury in Emergency Medical Services Teams

Details

• Personal Author:
  Gregory ME ; Hostler D ; Hughes AM ; Krackhardt D ; Landsittel DP ; Lazzara EH ; Patterson PD ; Salas E ; Sonesh SC ; Vena JE ; Wang X ; Weaver MD ; Yealy DM
• Description:
  Introduction: Increased teammate familiarity in emergency medical services (EMS) promotes development of positive teamwork and protects against workplace injury. Methods: Measures were collected using archival shift records, workplace injury data, and cross-sectional surveys from a nationally representative sample of 14 EMS agencies employing paramedics, prehospital nurses, and other EMS clinicians. One thousand EMS clinicians were selected at random to complete a teamwork survey for each of their recent partnerships and tested the hypothesized role of teamwork as a mediator in the relationship between teammate familiarity and injury with the PROCESS macro. Results: We received 2566 completed surveys from 333 clinicians, of which 297 were retained. Mean participation was 40.5% (standard deviation [SD] = 20.5%) across EMS agencies. Survey respondents were primarily white (93.8%), male (67.3%), and ranged between 21-62 years of age (M = 37.4, SD = 9.7). Seventeen percent were prehospital nurses. Respondents worked a mean of 3 shifts with recent teammates in the 8 weeks preceding the survey (M = 3.06, SD = 4.4). We examined data at the team level, which suggest positive views of teamwork (M = 5.92, SD = 0.69). Our hypothesis that increased teammate familiarity protects against adverse safety outcomes through development of positive teamwork was not supported. Teamwork factor Partner Adaptability and Backup Behavior is a likely mediator (odds ratio = 1.03, P = .05). When dyad familiarity is high and there are high levels of backup behavior, the likelihood of injury is increased. Discussion: The relationship between teammate familiarity and outcomes is complex. Teammate adaptation and backup behavior is a likely mediator of this relationship in EMS teams with greater familiarity. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Behavior Emergency Responders Morbidity Occupational Health Safety Workplace
• Keywords:
  Author Keywords: Team Behavior Patterns Emergency Medical Services Workers Emergency Responders EMS Familiarity Injuries Injury Morbidity Rates Safety Practices Teamwork Work Environment

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• ISSN:
  0099-1767
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Florida ; Louisiana ; Massachusetts ; New York ; OSHA Region 1 ; OSHA Region 2 ; OSHA Region 3 ; OSHA Region 4 ; OSHA Region 6 ; Pennsylvania ; South Carolina ; Texas
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  339-346
• Volume:
  43
• Issue:
  4
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20053815
• Citation:
  J Emerg Nurs 2017 Jul; 43(4):339-346
• Contact Point Address:
  P. Daniel Patterson, PhD, Department of Emergency Medicine, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Iroquois Bldg, Suite 400A, Pittsburgh, PA 15260
• Email:
  pattersonpd@upmc.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2017
• Performing Organization:
  University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20120701
• Source Full Name:
  Journal of Emergency Nursing
• End Date:
  20150630
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:9fe91de6ddb239246130412dc5be745673f13e44609903abf153b1970349577c66514d49982c4bca41103dd374080f31a99178651227b56e24ecd3545b66c965
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/216505/cdc_216505_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 156.96 KB ]