When I was eight or nine years old, my dad gave me a copy of the book Anguished English, by Richard Lederer. The book was a compilation of puns, jokes, and double meanings, mostly accidental, that Lederer spotted in the world around him. Often these came from headlines, news articles, or ads. A lot of the jokes depended on one word that could mean two different things-or different words with meanings that were similar, but not quite the same. The book was incredibly funny to me as a child, but the confusion caused by the double meanings...
Previous studies of emergency dispatch personnel have established high levels of emotional labor, burnout, and turnover intention among this population of first responders. This study is the first to investigate the effect of emergency dispatch script protocols on workplace outcomes of burnout and turnover intention. Hypotheses: The study tests two related hypotheses: Greater script comfort among emergency dispatchers will be associated with decreased emotional exhaustion (Hl) and decreased turnover intention (H2)...
Research on motor vehicle accidents (MVAs) is robust, though most focuses on prevention and treatment. Emergency medical experts now recognize telecommunications' vital role in the chain of survival; however, MVA research on telecommunicator impact on the MVA is limited. This study seeks to address that gap in research, examining the relationship between Emergency Medical Dispatch codes and on-scene findings. The objective of the study was to characterize all cases (based on determinant codes) triaged using the Medical Priority...
Acute stroke is one of the five time-dependent conditions (first hour quintet, FHQ) that emergency medical services (EMS) must manage better and faster; early identification and treatment are critical to reduce both immediate damage and long-term disability. For Emergency Medical Communication Centers, the rapid and accurate identification of stroke patients is the challenge to be won in the coming years. The main objective of this study is to evaluate the ability of Emergency Medical Dispatchers (EMDs) and rescuers to rapidly and...
Motor vehicle crashes (MVCs) can result in life-threatening injuries, and ambulances are therefore often dispatched at the highest priority response of lights and-siren (L&S). However, assigning L&S ambulance response based on type of incident alone may result in over-triage, meaning that the patient's condition did not warrant L&S ambulance response. Potentially, the ambulatory status of the MVC patient at the scene (i.e., whether they can walk) could help inform the ambulance dispatch priority, given that ambulation reflects...
