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A Monash University study into occupational injury in Victoria’s paramedics has found they have a significantly higher, and often hidden, rate of work related injury by comparison to other Australian workers.
In addition, the study has found that psychological rather than physical injuries accounted for the most time off work. The study is the first comprehensive looksnapshot into what injuries keep our vital paramedics from working, which and can inform better workplace practices including assistingassist in safe work planning and injury prevention.
The study, led by Jason Kearney, a PhD student, and Dr Carlyn Muir at the Monash University Accident and Research Centre Professor Karen Smith, from Monash University’s Department of Paramedicine is the first to detail the types and frequency of injury of our first responders. The study has just been published in Prehospital Emergency Care.
The dynamic and uncontrolled nature of paramedic work frequently exposes these workers to physical and psychological injury. Often paramedic injury rates are estimated based on national injury surveillance data or compensation databases, which does not show the full range of injury or its burden on the sector.
According to Mr Kearney, these data sources tend to only capture cases of a more serious nature and overlook the broader factors that contribute to injury.
“This limits our understanding of the true burden of paramedic injury and the characteristics associated with increased injury severity,” he said.
The researchers reviewed the officially reported the injury data fromAmbulance Victoria, the single state-wide ambulance service in Victoria, Australia, Australia – Ambulance Victoria, between 1 January 2015 and 30 June 2020. During that time there were 7591 injuries included in this study of which 28% led to time lost from work.
Over the five and a half 5.5 year study period, 7,591 paramedic injuries were reported that met the inclusion criteria, of which 2,124 (28%) resulted in lost time from work.
According to Mr Kearney, the cumulative incidence of paramedic injury was 333.8 injuries per 1,000 FTE full time workers per year, and the rate of lost time injury was 93.0 per 1,000 full time workers per year which is nine times greater than the average Australian worker injury rate though the authors of the study state the two indices are not entirely comparable.
The study found:
According to Professor Smith, the study reveals that paramedics working in Victoria have a higher rate of work-related injury than other Australian workers. “Injury-related factors that are often overlooked, such as time, shift type, location, and injury characteristics, all contribute to an increased risk of lost time injury,” she said.
“An understanding of the factors that contribute to an increase in injury severity may facilitate the development and targeting of appropriate interventions.”
In the 2019-20 financial year Ambulance Victoria responded to over 633,000 emergency cases across Victoria with an operational force of just over 4330 full time clinical staff.
About Monash University
Monash University is Australia’s largest university with more than 80,000 students. In the 60 years since its foundation, it has developed a reputation for world-leading high-impact research, quality teaching, and inspiring innovation.
With four campuses in Australia and a presence in Malaysia, China, India, Indonesia and Italy, it is one of the most internationalised Australian universities.
As a leading international medical research university with the largest medical faculty in Australia and integration with leading Australian teaching hospitals, we consistently rank in the top 50 universities worldwide for clinical, pre-clinical and health sciences.
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Last updated: Jan 2023
