Occupational Identity is a term used to describe how a person sees themself as a worker. Researchers have studied how one’s identity at work affects not only one’s occupational success, but their attitudes, experiences, and emotions both inside and outside of the workplace. Our featured research article in this issue, written by Violet (Lisa) Rymshaw, PsyD, provides valuable insights on occupational identity among emergency dispatchers—a profession that is sometimes given short shrift within the realm of emergency services occupations.
The purpose of this qualitative study was to determine the effects of occupational identity on the psychological needs of emergency telecommunicators
on and off the job, as well as to learn their recommendations for improvements which would strengthen psychological well-being both onsite and offsite.
For over 10 years, the International Academies of Emergency Dispatch has been collecting data from emergency dispatch agencies across North America and has amassed one of the largest and most detailed sets of emergency medical dispatch calltaking data available. As of the writing of this report, 262 agencies using the electronic version of the Medical Priority Dispatch System (MPDS®), known as ProQA™ have shared over 30 million cases of detailed, deidentified calltaking data with the IAED. This data is aggregated and made publicly available in a set of interactive dashboards.
Michelle Haynes currently serves as the EMD Quality Performance Improvement Coordinator for Weld County Regional Communications Center in Greeley, Colorado. She has worked in communications for almost 19 years. During this time, she has worked in several roles, including dispatcher, Certified Training Officer, EMD-Q, and member of the IAED ED-Q Council of Standards. She is a certified EMD Mentor and uses the skills she’s learned throughout her career to help dispatchers improve. By using her experience and expertise she can give them the tools and education that is vital to their success.
