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Geczik AM, Lee J, Allen JA, Raposa ME, Robinson LF, Quistberg DA, Davis AL, Taylor JA. An updated analysis of safety climate and downstream outcomes in two convenience samples of U.S. fire departments (FOCUS 1.0 and 2.0 survey waves). Inj Epidemiol 2024; 11:19. [PMID: 38773566 PMCID: PMC11106928 DOI: 10.1186/s40621-024-00502-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/04/2024] [Accepted: 04/24/2024] [Indexed: 05/24/2024] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND The Fire service Organizational Culture of Safety (FOCUS) survey is an assessment tool comprised of psychometrically validated metrics of safety climate, safety behavior, and downstream outcomes (organizational and injury) that are specific to the U.S. fire and rescue service. METHODS This analysis consists of a descriptive summary of two independent survey waves (FOCUS 1.0 and 2.0). The fire departments included in these survey waves were from convenience sampling (n1.0 = 275; n2.0 = 170). In addition to department level characteristics, we examined individual level characteristics for firefighters and EMS providers in participating departments (n1.0 = 22,719; n2.0 = 16,882). We conducted regression analyses to examine the associations between safety climate and safety behaviors, organizational outcomes, and safety outcomes. All analyses were stratified by organization type (career, volunteer). RESULTS Our analysis indicated that a majority of respondents were males (90.7%FOCUS 1.0; 90.4%FOCUS 2.0), non-officers (68.4%FOCUS 1.0; 66.4%FOCUS 2.0), and non-Hispanic Whites (70.8%FOCUS 1.0; 69.5%FOCUS 2.0). For both samples there was a higher prevalence of injuries among individuals in career departments (nFOCUS 1.0 = 3778 [17.5%]; nFOCUS 2.0 = 3072 [18.7%]) than volunteer departments (nFOCUS 1.0 = 103 [8.8%]; nFOCUS 2.0 = 34 [7.4%]). We observed an approximate 10-point difference between the mean scores of Management Commitment to Safety for career and volunteer departments in both samples. We observed associations for two organizational outcomes, Safety Behavior and Job Satisfaction, with Management Commitment to Safety and Supervisor Support for Safety overall and when stratified by organization type. We observed a decrease in the odds of injuries associated with a one-unit increase in Management Commitment to Safety (OR1.0 overall: 0.98, 95% CI 0.97-0.99; OR2.0 volunteer: 0.90, 95% CI 0.85-0.95) and Supervisor Support for Safety (OR1.0 overall: 0.95, 95% CI 0.93-0.97; OR1.0 career: 0.95, 95% CI 0.92-0.98). CONCLUSIONS From our current study, and a prior analysis of a geographically stratified random sample of U.S. fire departments, we identified that from all the organizational outcomes, job satisfaction was most consistently associated with FOCUS safety climate. Further, firefighters in our samples consistently rated Supervisor Support for Safety higher than Management Commitment to Safety. Future interventions should support fire departments in improving their departmental Management Commitment to Safety and maintaining their Supervisor for Safety.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ashley M Geczik
- Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, Dornsife School of Public Health, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA.
| | - Jin Lee
- Department of Psychological Sciences, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS, USA
| | - Joseph A Allen
- Department of Family and Preventative Medicine, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
| | - Madison E Raposa
- Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, Dornsife School of Public Health, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA
| | - Lucy F Robinson
- Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Dornsife School of Public Health, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - D Alex Quistberg
- Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, Dornsife School of Public Health, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA
- Dornsife School of Public Health, Urban Health Collaborative, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Andrea L Davis
- Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, Dornsife School of Public Health, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA
| | - Jennifer A Taylor
- Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, Dornsife School of Public Health, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA
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Hershey MS, Bouziani E, Chen XY(M, Lidoriki I, Hadkhale K, Huang YC, Filippou T, López-Gil JF, Gribble AK, Lan FY, Sotos-Prieto M, Kales SN. Surviving & Thriving; a healthy lifestyle app for new US firefighters: usability and pilot study protocol. Front Endocrinol (Lausanne) 2023; 14:1250041. [PMID: 37908746 PMCID: PMC10614295 DOI: 10.3389/fendo.2023.1250041] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/29/2023] [Accepted: 09/11/2023] [Indexed: 11/02/2023] Open
Abstract
In the United States (US), new firefighters' fitness and health behaviors deteriorate rapidly after fire academy graduation. Over the long-term, this increases their risks for chronic diseases. This study protocol describes the proposed usability testing and pilot study of a newly designed and developed healthy lifestyle smartphone app, "Surviving & Thriving", tailored towards young US firefighters. "Surviving & Thriving" will provide interactive educational content on four lifestyle factors; nutrition, sleep, physical activity, and resilience, and include a personalized journey, habit tracker, and elements of gamification to promote engagement and long-term healthy behavior change. The first phase of the app development entails alpha testing by the research team and pre-beta testing by a fire service expert panel which will help refine the app into a pre-consumer version. Upon completion of the full app prototype, beta 'usability' testing will be conducted among new fire academy graduates from two New England fire academies to collect qualitative and quantitative feedback via focus groups and satisfaction surveys, respectively. A last phase of piloting the app will evaluate the app's efficacy at maintaining/improving healthy lifestyle behaviors, mental health metrics, and physical fitness metrics. We will also evaluate whether firefighters' perceived "health cultures" scores (ratings of each fire station's/fire department's environments as to encouraging/discouraging healthy behaviors) modify the changes in health metrics after utilizing the app for three to six months. This novel user-friendly app seeks to help new firefighters maintain/improve their health and fitness more effectively, reducing their risk of lifestyle-related chronic disease. Firefighters who can establish healthy habits early in their careers are more likely to sustain them throughout their lives.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maria Soledad Hershey
- Department of Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, United States
| | - Eleni Bouziani
- Department of Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, United States
- Department of Medicine, School of Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece
| | - Xin Yu (Maggie) Chen
- Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences, William James Hall, Cambridge, MA, United States
- Department of Occupational Medicine, Cambridge Health Alliance, Harvard Medical School, Cambridge, MA, United States
| | - Irene Lidoriki
- Department of Occupational Medicine, Cambridge Health Alliance, Harvard Medical School, Cambridge, MA, United States
| | - Kishor Hadkhale
- Department of Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, United States
- Department of Occupational Medicine, Cambridge Health Alliance, Harvard Medical School, Cambridge, MA, United States
| | - Ya-Chin Huang
- Department of Occupational Medicine, Cambridge Health Alliance, Harvard Medical School, Cambridge, MA, United States
- Department of Preventive Medicine, Kaohsiung Municipal Ta-Tung Hospital, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
- Department of Occupational & Environmental Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
| | | | - José Francisco López-Gil
- Department of Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, United States
- One Health Research Group, Universidad de Las Américas, Quito, Ecuador
| | - Anne Katherine Gribble
- Department of Occupational Medicine, Cambridge Health Alliance, Harvard Medical School, Cambridge, MA, United States
- Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District, NSW Health, Warrawong, NSW, Australia
| | - Fan-Yun Lan
- Department of Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, United States
- Institute of Health and Welfare Policy, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Mercedes Sotos-Prieto
- Department of Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, United States
- Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, School of Medicine, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, and IdiPaz (Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria Hospital Universitario La Paz), Madrid, Spain
- Center for Biomedical Research in Epidemiology and Public Health Network (CIBERESP) [Consorcio Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red (CIBER) of Epidemiology and Public Health], Madrid, Spain
- Madrid Institute for Advanced Studies (IMDEA)-Food Institute, The Campus of International Excellence (CEI), The Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), The Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM), Madrid, Spain
| | - Stefanos N. Kales
- Department of Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, United States
- Department of Occupational Medicine, Cambridge Health Alliance, Harvard Medical School, Cambridge, MA, United States
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Lee J, Resick CJ, Allen JA, Davis AL, Taylor JA. Interplay between Safety Climate and Emotional Exhaustion: Effects on First Responders' Safety Behavior and Wellbeing Over Time. JOURNAL OF BUSINESS AND PSYCHOLOGY 2022; 39:1-23. [PMID: 36573129 PMCID: PMC9772603 DOI: 10.1007/s10869-022-09869-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 12/14/2022] [Indexed: 06/17/2023]
Abstract
Various job demands continuously threaten Emergency Medical Service (EMS) first responders' safety and wellbeing. Drawing on Job Demands-Resources Theory, the present study examines the effects of the organizational context-safety climate-and the psychological context-emotional exhaustion-on safety behaviors and wellbeing over time. We tested our hypotheses in a longitudinal study of 208 EMS first responders nested within 45 stations from three fire departments in US metropolitan areas over 6 months during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Multilevel modeling showed that the relationship between safety climate and safety compliance behaviors can be attenuated when EMS first responders experience high emotional exhaustion. Emotional exhaustion was also negatively associated with morale while safety climate was positively associated with morale. Additionally, EMS first responders experienced increased depression when their emotional exhaustion levels were high. Higher safety climate was associated with decreased depression when emotional exhaustion was within a low-to-medium range. Higher safety climate was also associated with lower absolute levels of depression across the entire range of emotional exhaustion. These findings suggest that promoting safety climate and mitigating emotional exhaustion can augment EMS first responders' safety behaviors and wellbeing.].
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Affiliation(s)
- Jin Lee
- Department of Psychological Sciences, Kansas State University, Manhattan, USA
| | - Christian J. Resick
- Department of Management, LeBow College of Business at Drexel University, Philadelphia, USA
| | - Joseph A. Allen
- Department of Family & Preventive Medicine, University of Utah Health, Salt Lake City, USA
| | - Andrea L. Davis
- Department of Environmental & Occupational Health, Dornsife School of Public Health at Drexel University, Philadelphia, USA
| | - Jennifer A. Taylor
- Department of Environmental & Occupational Health, Dornsife School of Public Health at Drexel University, Philadelphia, USA
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Antonacopoulou EP. Partnering for Impact: A Grand Challenge and Design for Co-Creating a Just, Resilient and Flourishing Society. JOURNAL OF APPLIED BEHAVIORAL SCIENCE 2022. [DOI: 10.1177/00218863221113316] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
In this paper I elaborate on the design and dimensions of interorganisational collaborations particularly when the purpose of connecting is the co-creation of knowledge for impact. I extend recent accounts of co-creating knowledge and explain why co-creation is integral to the “common good” logic especially when the focus of partnering for impact embraces the marked improvements in action that constitutes the impact of collaboration. I then elaborate on “partnering for impact” as a collaborative design and explicate the axiology that this mode of co-creation calls for, marked by a fresh perspective on inclusiveness founded on isotimia and philotimia. I illustrate the manifestation of these dimensions in the GNOSIS approach of co-creating impact through the embeddedness of “re-search” as a common practice. I conclude by inviting greater reflexivity in the relationship between science and society when partnering for impact is intended to co-create a just, resilient and flourishing society.
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Geczik AM, Lee J, Davis AL, Allen JA, Taylor JA. Size matters: How safety climate and downstream outcomes vary by fire department organization type. Inj Epidemiol 2022; 9:11. [PMID: 35321756 PMCID: PMC8941800 DOI: 10.1186/s40621-022-00373-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/09/2021] [Accepted: 01/25/2022] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Safety climate is an upstream predictor of safety behaviors (e.g., safety compliance), organizational outcomes (e.g., burnout, engagement), and safety outcomes (e.g., injuries). The Fire Service Organizational Culture of Safety (FOCUS) survey, which was psychometrically validated, measures the industry-specific safety climate of the US fire and rescue service. It is expressed by two factors, Management Commitment to Safety and Supervisor Support for Safety. METHODS The FOCUS beta-test included a random sample of 132 fire departments stratified by Federal Emergency Management Agency region and organization type (career, combination, volunteer). We conducted descriptive analysis with the responses from 8414 firefighters nested within 611 stations in 125 fire departments. We reported descriptive statistics to assess the distribution of all continuous [mean ± standard deviation (SD)] and categorical variables (counts, percentages) stratified by organization type. Regression analyses were conducted to investigate the associations between safety climate, safety behaviors, organizational outcomes, and safety outcomes stratified by organization type. RESULTS The mean age of the analytic sample was 40.2 years, and the mean years of experience was 16.1 years. This sample included 53.6% career, 27.2% combination (career and volunteer), and 19.2% volunteer fire departments. The mean Management Commitment score was 71.4 (SD = ± 10.4), and the mean Supervisor Support score was 81.7 (± 5.2). The mean Management Commitment scores were 67.1 (± 8.4), 72.2 (± 10.7), and 82.1 (± 6.1), respectively, for career, combination, and volunteer fire departments. The mean Supervisor Support scores were not notably different by organization type. Regression analyses generally supported the beneficial role of safety climate, while suggesting organization type as a potential effect modifier. Specifically, we observed a more negative association between Management Commitment as departments became more career. CONCLUSIONS Analysis of nationally representative data from the US fire and rescue service indicates safety climate is positively associated with safety behavior, organizational outcomes, and safety outcomes reflecting employee well-being. The findings also suggest that this association varies by organization type. In fact, a dose-response relationship was observed, with Management Commitment to safety lowest among career departments. Thus, our results suggest that it is not just being busy that decreases Management Commitment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ashley M Geczik
- Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, Dornsife School of Public Health at Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
| | - Jin Lee
- Department of Psychological Sciences, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS, USA
| | - Andrea L Davis
- Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, Dornsife School of Public Health at Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Joseph A Allen
- Department of Family and Preventative Medicine, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
| | - Jennifer A Taylor
- Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, Dornsife School of Public Health at Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, USA
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