Abstract

Introduction: Increased teammate familiarity in emergency medical services (EMS) promotes development of positive teamwork and protects against workplace injury. Methods: Measures were collected using archival shift records, workplace injury data, and cross-sectional surveys from a nationally representative sample of 14 EMS agencies employing paramedics, prehospital nurses, and other EMS clinicians. One thousand EMS clinicians were selected at random to complete a teamwork survey for each of their recent partnerships and tested the hypothesized role of teamwork as a mediator in the relationship between teammate familiarity and injury with the PROCESS macro. ughes is Health Science Specialist, Center for Innovations in ectiveness, and Safety, Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center, ge of Medicine, Houston, TX. Patterson is Assistant Professor, Department of Emergency niversity of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA. Weaver is Post-Doctoral Fellow, Division of Sleep and Circadian epartments of Medicine and Neurology, Brigham and Women’s oston, MA, and Division of Sleep Medicine, Harvard Medical ton, MA. Gregory is Post-Doctoral Fellow, Center for Innovations in ectiveness, and Safety, Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center, ge of Medicine, Houston, TX. onesh is Adjunct Professor, A. B. Freeman School of Business, versity, New Orleans, LA. Landsittel is Professor and Director, Section on Biomarkers and odeling, Department of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, PA. hardt is Professor, Heinz School of Public Policy and Management, ol of Business, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA. ler is Professor and Chair, Department of Exercise and Nutrition hool of Public Health and Health Professions, University at State University of New York, Buffalo, NY. . Lazzara is Assistant Professor, Department of Human Factors, le Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach, FL. is Resident Physician, Department Emergency Medicine, Beth ness Medical Center, Boston, MA. VOLUME 43 • ISSUE 4 Results: We received 2566 completed surveys from 333 clinicians, of which 297 were retained. Mean participation was 40.5% (standard deviation [SD] = 20.5%) across EMS agencies. Survey respondents were primarily white (93.8%), male (67.3%), and ranged between 21-62 years of age (M = 37.4, SD = 9.7). Seventeen percent were prehospital nurses. Respondents worked a mean of 3 shifts with recent teammates in the 8 weeks preceding the survey (M = 3.06, SD = 4.4). We examined data at the team level, which suggest positive views of teamwork (M = 5.92, SD = 0.69). Our hypothesis that increased teammate familiarity protects against adverse safety outcomes through development of positive teamwork was not supported. Teamwork factor Partner Adaptability and Backup duardo Salas is Professor and Chair, Department of Psychology, Rice niversity, Houston, TX. onald M. Yealy is Professor and Chair, Department of Emergency edicine, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA. ork performed on this study was supported by a grant from the National stitute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), grant 1R21OH010025-01A1, and by Dr Patterson’s career development award/ L2 training grant from the National Center Research Resources and the ational Institutes of Health [NIH/NCATS grant No. KL2 TR000146] (Dr eis, PI). Interpretations of study findings do not represent the opinions or iews of NIOSH or NIH. he views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not ecessarily reflect the position or policy of the Department of Veterans Affairs r the United States government. reliminary findings were presented as a poster presentation at the National ssociation of EMS Physicians annual meeting in New Orleans, LA, January 2-25, 2015. or correspondence, write: P. Daniel Patterson, PhD, Department of mergency Medicine, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Iroquois ldg, Suite 400A, Pittsburgh, PA 15260; E-mail: [email protected]. Emerg Nurs 2017;43:339-46. vailable online 30 March 2017 099-1767 opyright © 2017 Emergency Nurses Association. Published by Elsevier Inc. ll rights reserved. E U