Practitioner Mental Wellbeing: Can We Be More Proactive?

As many within our profession begin to address the issue of practitioner mental health, we as paramedicine leaders should become more engaged in the topic. Part of our responsibility as managers of EMS organizations is to provide as safe a workplace as possible, and to help our providers maintain good mental health and overall wellbeing. It’s not only the right thing to do; caring for our colleagues, is cost effective and reduces long-term expenses that result from lost work days and medical costs. Attention to this subject has intensified and become more focused since JEMS Editor-in-Chief A.J. Heightman declared a call to action (which he named the Alliance on EMS Resiliency) at the 2016 EMS Today Conference. He recognized the work the NEMSMA Practitioner Wellbeing Committee had done regarding provider suicide, and the landmark white paper they published that year. NEMSMA has been proud to act as the facilitator for the nation’s various industry associations, who are working together to address the topic, through the Alliance. One area that’s fundamentally necessary to explore in order to understand this issue—and one in which we lack adequate awareness—is research into the causes and exacerbating factors of debilitating mental stress our practitioners endure. Substantial work has been done in other countries, but we need to examine the nuances associated with our unique American culture, and that of our profession as it exists within the U.S. A substantial number ...
Source: JEMS Operations - Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Tags: Columns Resiliency Operations Source Type: news