ABSTRACT

Background: There is a wealth of evidence suggesting that long work hours and burnout affect performance among nurses and physicians. However, no studies have investigated this relationship among non-medical health care providers such as Public Safety Telecommunicators (PSTs), who play a critical role in patient safety. 

Objective: The current study explores how burnout, overtime, demographic factors, and call center characteristics are associated with PST performance complaints.

Methods: This study is a secondary analysis of data from an investigation into risk factors associated with PST burnout. An online survey including measures of burnout, overtime, performance complaints, demographics and call center characteristics was emailed to managers of emergency communications centers (ECCs) in Washington State with the request to forward the survey link to their PSTs. 

Analysis: Descriptive, bivariate, and logistic regression analyses were used to characterize the sample and investigate the relationships between independent variables and performance complaints (the dependent variable). 

Results: Three hundred and twenty-four PSTs completed the survey. Respondents were mostly female, middle-aged and white. Greater burnout and the number of overtime hours were positively associated with more performance complaints. However, no demographic or call center characteristics were associated with performance complaints.

Conclusion: Similar to clinicians, burnout and overtime were associated with more performance complaints in our sample of PTSs, which could indicate impacts on service delivery to callers and ultimately poorer health outcomes for patients. While more research is needed on the relationship between burnout and patient safety outcomes, high levels of burnout among PSTs indicate the need for workplace interventions that could positively impact PSTs and callers. 

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