Factors influencing EMS clinicians' speed of recovery between shifts

For many years research has evidenced that people working shifts can experience, among other things, poor sleep quality, occupational fatigue, irritability, and poor recovery between shifts. When focusing on shift work in health care, there are specific concerns about the potential impact of shift work on clinicians, not just in relation to patient safety, but also with reference to the practitioners' own safety. Interestingly, emergency medical services (EMS) staff demonstrate comparatively high rates of injury at work (Patterson et al, 2012). Despite the growing body of evidence of the impact of shift work on health within other professions, there is limited research on the impact of shift work involving EMS clinicians.

This study examines intershift recovery among EMS workers focusing on key variables such as age, years of experience, body mass index (BMI) and the length of shift. Despite being undertaken in the USA where there are differences in shift patterns and, on occasion, length of shift when compared to the UK, this study produces interesting findings which could be considered when designing UK-based research in similar fields of inquiry.