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181 Queensland Ambulance Service Paramedic Safety Taskforce91
Focus on strategies to reduce violence towards paramedics.
Charles Sturt University
A randomised controlled trial investigating the effects of a 24-week workplace exercise program on physical fitness and injury rates of Australian paramedics.
Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry, number: U1111-1198-6051.
Sandy MacQuarrie, Jayden Hunter, and Sam Sheridan
Dr Jayden Hunter Accredited Exercise Physiologist (ESSAM AEP AES)
Lecturer, School of Exercise Science, Sport & Health Charles Sturt University
Panorama Ave Bathurst NSW 2795 Telephone: 61 2 6338 4522 Email: [email protected] www.csu.edu.au
Charles Sturt University
The Paramedic Preceptor Experience: Improving Preparation and Support93 Highlights the stressful role of preceptorship not mentioned in the thesis.
Notes that part of the role of the preceptor is to assist the novice to deal effectively with trauma.
Hamish Carver
Email: [email protected]
Charles Sturt University
Clare Sutton has commenced a PhD study on paramedic resilience. Clare Sutton
Email: [email protected] Charles Sturt
University
IPAWS: International Paramedic Anxiety and Wellness Study. This is a longitudinal study examining the psychological well-being of paramedic graduates in the first five years of their career. The focus is on establishing baseline data on mental health, well-being, burnout, resilience, job satisfaction, and attrition.
The study will provide answers to four inter-related questions:
What is the trauma profile of paramedic graduates and does psychological well-being (including indicators of PTSD, burnout, anxiety, and depression), social support, and resilience change during the first 5 years of paramedic service?
How do Australasian paramedics compare internationally?
Are there existing training and support practices in tertiary education or in the occupational setting that improve resilience and moderate the psychological impact of trauma among international paramedics, and if yes, what can we learn from them?
Do changes in job satisfaction, social support, or psychological well-being impact on paramedic attrition?
Currently, 28 centres from New Zealand, Australia, Canada, Finland, South Africa, the UK, and the USA (p. 132).89
Clare Sutton FHEA UK
Discipline Lead & Lecturer Paramedicine School of Biomedical Science
Charles Sturt University Panorama Avenue Bathurst, NSW Australia
Tel: +61 2 6338 4022 Email: [email protected] www.csu.edu.au
182 Clare is the lead for the CSU (Australia) recruitment site, but the Chief Investigator is Dr Elizabeth Asbury,
Whitiriea, New Zealand.
Charles Sturt University
January 2019: Fostering resilience in Australian Paramedic Students’ trial: translating a Canadian online program to CSU
The focus is on students rather than operational staff.
Clare Sutton
Email: [email protected]
Council of Ambulance Authorities
Made reference to Beyondblue. Dr Emma Bosley
Director QAS Information Support, Research &
Evaluation Unit Email:
[email protected] Edith Cowan
University
Work-related stress of front-line emergency roles127
Survey on work-related stress for employed and student paramedics.
Research in progress.
Lee Waller
Email: [email protected]
http://www.emergencypersonnelresearch.com/
Edith Cowan University
Honours in Psychology project on paramedic well-being commencing in 2019. Dylan Meldrum
Paramedical Clinical Coordinator School of Medical and Health Sciences Edith Cowan University
270 Joondalup Drive, Joondalup, WA, 6027 Telephone: 6304 3932; 0428 906 593 Email: [email protected] Elizabeth
Goble
Completing PhD on informal culture of coping with stress in Paramedic service Elizabeth Goble
College of Nursing and Health Sciences Flinders University
[email protected] Griffith
University
Improving people management in emergency services85
This publication has been summarised in greater detail in Appendices 11, 12, and 13 under Submission 115 to the Senate Inquiry into mental health conditions experienced by first responders, emergency service workers, and volunteers.
Keith Townsend
Email: [email protected]
183
A provisional PTSD diagnosis can be made for 9-10% of emergency services employees
More PTSD symptoms are reported by employees with long-term employment
Linked to working conditions, e.g., no downtime given work pressures, lack of meal breaks, and return-to-base provisions
Changes in workforce profile from middle-aged blue-collar men to young women and men
Organisational factors such as hours worked impact on individual resilience
Anxiety and fatigue major problems
Study measures health of the HR system as a factor in employee PTSD
Employee support systems vital, as is social support
Employee support systems - formal – (recommend open access to psychologist of choice), education and training from university program, and continuing training for managers including frontline managers, and opportunity for employee voice, informal support from management, peer support programs, support from colleagues and family
Idea of high reliability management: organisation that puts reliability, safety, and resilience over productivity profits and performance (p. 39)
Training in resilience needs to be preparatory and post-employment
Need career pathways alternative to on-road Monash
University
Have identified paramedic health as an area for future research, particularly around work intensification.
Monash University
Brodie Thomas is currently undertaking a Cochrane Review focusing on organisational interventions to reduce incidents of violence against health workers, including paramedics.
Brodie Thomas
Email: [email protected] Peter O’Meara Currently undertaking research on ’Violence against paramedics’ funded by the Falck Foundation. Professor Peter O'Meara
Email: [email protected] A/Professor Richard Brightwell Telephone: 0429 102 709 Email: [email protected] Paramedic
Australasia
Special Interest Group focusing on the mental health and well-being and conduct a conference each year.
https://www.paramedics.org/mental-health-well-being/
https://www.paramedics.org/resources-paramedic-mental-health-well-being/
Lisa Holmes Australia Ari Peach New Zealand Cassandra McAllister
184 Manager-Governance & Corporate Policy (National Office)
Telephone: 61408972155
Email [email protected] www.paramedics.org
St John Ambulance WA
Research into Australian emergency services personnel mental health and well-being: An evidence map.
Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 2017.41
This publication is also summarised in Appendices 1, 3, and 5 as part of the systematic literature review.
Study undertaken as a scoping exercise for the Beyondblue study. Summary of research that has been completed and gaps
What current evidence exists regarding the mental health and well-being of Australian emergency services personnel?
What areas are, and are not, well researched?
Most common studies deal with relationship between organisational factors and mental health well-being
No studies on suicide, personality, stigma, pre-employment factors that might impact on well- being
No studies found that investigated self-harm to self or others, or bullying, or substance use An unpublished literature review is available upon request.
Donna Lawrence Clinical Psychologist
Well-being and Support Manager Telephone: 0447 163 012
Email: [email protected]
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