Isabel talks with Kevin Pagenkop, a member of the ED-Q Council of Standards. They discuss how ED-Qs experience stress differently than line dispatchers, how giving positive recognition can help combat "the sponge effect," and how giving critical feedback can be just as hard as receiving it...
Isabel talks with Dr. Sharon Mastracci, an expert in emotional labor, and Ian Adams, a doctoral student and former law enforcement officer. They discuss the role of emotional labor in emergency dispatch, the correlation between high emotional labor and high sense of fulfillment in careers, and the need to highlight the job being done by emergency dispatchers...
9-1-1 telecommunicators are uniquely exposed to numerous occupational stressors on an ongoing basis. Yet little is known about the sources of occupational stress and symptoms of stress in these workers and even less is known about variables that can serve as stressors or buffers to stress in the 9-1-1 call center work environment. We sought to explore the inter-relationships amongst job stressors, potential risk and protective factors, and symptoms of stress in 9-1-1 telecommunicators. Our long-term goal was to use outcomes of this study to guide and...
Emergency dispatchers are exposed to potentially traumatic events at rates that likely exceed that of emergency first responders. Although not physically present at the time of the incident, it is likely that this repeated exposure in concert with highly stressful work conditions could lead to potentially negative emotional and physical outcomes. To date few studies have examined rates of stress related pathology and subsequent impairment in emergency dispatchers. The following study takes an initial step to investigate rates of Acute Stress Disorder, Secondary Traumatic Stress and...
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.