Urban fire personnel constitute an """"""""at risk"""""""" occupation with elevated incidences and prevalence of both fatal and non-fatal (mostly musculoskeletal) on-the-job injuries and other job-related adverse medical, mental, and behavioral health outcomes. Based on data from the International Association of Fire Fighters and local fire departments, time loss (absenteeism) due to duty-related injuries and illnesses is 4.5 times greater for fire service personnel than the U.S. private sector industry average. To reduce and/or prevent such adverse health outcomes, a worksite-based multicomponent organizational intervention will be tested for its effectiveness. The intervention is designed to provide specific leadership, team building, and coping skills training for all fire service officers (n=125) with rank of lieutenant and above in a large professional urban fire department.
The specific aims of this project are to evaluate a multicomponent leadership intervention for its efficacy in reducing on-the-job injuries absenteeism, and non-injurious incidents, as well as other specified self-reported adverse health outcomes. It is hypothesized that this worksite intervention will improve the leadership effectiveness of the department's fire service officers as reflected in supervisory ratings given by their line fire fighter and paramedic subordinates. Furthermore, it is anticipated that these improvements in leadership effectiveness will result in reduced on-duty injuries, noninjurious incidents, and absenteeism by decreasing adverse mental and emotional health outcomes, thereby reducing distractability as well as other psychological risk factors for injury and non-injurious incidents. It is anticipated that these health and safety benefits will persist for at least 18 months. This investigation will include a cost-benefit analysis to document the essential cost effectiveness of the proposed intervention. The intervention outcome findings will provide the basis for implementing this intervention with other fire departments and will have direct relevance for parallel testing of the intervention for effectiveness with other high-strain occupations with elevated total injury and/or illness rates (e.g., mining and construction personnel).
| Salazar, M K; Beaton, R (2000) Ecological model of occupational stress. Application to urban firefighters. AAOHN J 48:470-9 |
