Elizabeth Donnelly

University of Windsor · School of Social Work

Paramedicine is a domain of practice and health profession that specialises in the provision of health and social care across a range of settings including, but not limited to, emergency and primary care. Paramedics work in a variety of clinical settings such as paramedics services, hospitals, and clinics, in the community as well as non-clinical r...

Despite behavioral health emergencies (BHEs) representing a significant percentage of calls for service, very little is known about how frequently personnel receive training, satisfaction with the training, and relative confidence in BHEs. Further, despite a significant body of evidence pointing to stigma as a factor influencing outcomes in health...

Introduction: Paramedic practice is highly variable, occurs in diverse contexts, and involves the assessment and management of a range of presentations of varying acuity across the lifespan. As a result, attempts to define paramedic practice have been challenging and incomplete. This has led to inaccurate or under-representations of practice that...

Paramedics are increasingly being subjected to violence, creating the potential for significant physical and psychological harm. Where a patient has a history of violent behavior, hazard flags—applied either to the individual, their residential address, or phone number—can alert paramedics to the possibility of violence, potentially reducing the ri...

Violence against paramedics is widely recognized as a serious, but underreported, problem. While injurious physical attacks on paramedics are generally reported, non-physical violence is less likely to be documented. Verbal abuse can be very distressing, particularly if the harassment targets personal or cultural identities, such as race, ethnicity...

IntroductionParamedicine is a domain of practice and health profession that specialises in the provision of health and social care across a range of settings including, but not limited to, emergency and primary care. Paramedics work in a variety of clinical settings such as paramedics services, hospitals, and clinics, in the community as well as no...

Introduction: Paramedic practice is highly variable, occurs in diverse contexts, and involves the assessment and management of a range of presentations of varying acuity across the lifespan. As a result, attempts to define paramedic practice have been challenging and incomplete. This has led to inaccurate or under-representations of practice that c...

Violence against paramedics is increasingly recognized as an important occupational health problem, but pervasive and institutionalized underreporting hinders efforts at risk mitigation. Earlier research has shown that the organizational culture within paramedicine may contribute to underreporting, and researchers have recommended involving paramed...

Violence against paramedics is increasingly recognized as an important occupational health problem, but pervasive and institutionalized underreporting hinders efforts at risk mitigation. Earlier research has shown that the organizational culture within paramedicine may contribute to underreporting and researchers have recommended involving paramedi...

Paramedics are increasingly being subjected to violence, creating the potential for significant physical and psychological harm. Where a patient has a history of violent behavior, hazard flags - applied either to the individual, their residential address, or phone number - can alert paramedics to the possibility of violence, potentially reducing th...

Violence against paramedics is widely recognized as a serious, but underreported, problem. While injurious physical attacks on paramedics are generally reported, non-physical violence is less likely to be documented. Verbal abuse can be very distressing, particularly if the harassment targets personal or cultural identities, such as race, ethnicity...

Violence against paramedics has been described as a ‘serious public health problem’ but one that remains ‘vastly underreported’, owing to an organizational culture that stigmatizes reporting–hindering efforts at risk mitigation in addition to creating a gap in research. Leveraging a novel reporting process developed after extensive stakeholder cons...

Violence against paramedics has been described as a ‘serious public health problem’ but one that remains ‘vastly underreported’, owing to an organizational culture that stigmatizes reporting – hindering efforts at risk mitigation in addition to creating a gap in research. Leveraging a novel reporting process developed after extensive stakeholder co...

IntroductionLike other public safety professions, paramedicine has historically been a male-dominated occupation. Although women are increasingly choosing paramedicine as a career, participation in leadership roles remains limited. Drawing on data from a comprehensive mental health survey, we describe the proportion of women in leadership in a sing...

describes a mixed methods program of research undertaken in a single paramedic service in Ontario, Canada, following the introduction of a novel, point-of-event violence reporting process. Broadly, the research seeks to describe (1) the prevalence and characteristics of violence against paramedics; (2) its contributing circumstances; and (3) risk f...

Introduction Violence against paramedics has been described as a “serious public health problem”, but one that remains “vastly underreported” - in part, owing to an organizational culture that encourages paramedics to ‘brush off’ violent interactions as ‘part of the job’. A lack of reliable reporting data hinders risk mitigation strategies. Followi...

Introduction: Like other public safety professions, paramedicine has historically been a male-dominated occupation, both in the demography of its workforce and in its organizational culture. Although women are increasingly choosing paramedicine as a career, participation in leadership roles remains limited. Drawing on data from a recent comprehensi...

PAC has partnered with the CSA Group to manage the renewal of the existing National Occupational Competency Profile (NOCP) and incorporate it into a new standard following accredited processes of the Standards Council of Canada – the National Occupational Standard for Paramedics (NOSP). In this article we will provide a further update on the develo...

Introduction Like other public safety professions, paramedicine has historically been a male-dominated occupation, both in the demography of its workforce and in its organizational culture. Although women are increasingly choosing paramedicine as a career, participation in leadership roles remains limited. Drawing on data from a recent comprehensiv...

PAC has partnered with the CSA Group to manage the renewal of the existing National Occupational Competency Profile (NOCP) and incorporate it into a new standard following accredited processes of the Standards Council of Canada – the National Occupational Standard for Paramedics (NOSP). Following on from our earlier update in March, in this article...

There is growing recognition in research and policy of a mental health crisis among Canada’s paramedics; however, despite this, epidemiological surveillance of the problem is in its infancy. Just weeks before the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, we surveyed paramedics from a single, large, urban paramedic service in Ontario, Canada to assess for...

Background Violence against paramedics has been described as a “serious public health problem” with the potential for significant physical and psychological harm, but the organizational culture within the profession encourages paramedics to consider violence as just ‘part of the job’. The result is that most incidents of violence are never formal...

BACKGROUND Violence against paramedics has been described as a “serious public health problem” with the potential for significant physical and psychological harm, but the organizational culture within the profession encourages paramedics to consider violence as just ‘part of the job’. The result is that most incidents of violence are never formally...

Background Violence against paramedics has been described as a serious public health problem with the potential for significant physical and psychological harm, but the organizational culture within the profession encourages paramedics to consider violence as just “part of the job.” Therefore, most incidents of violence are never formally documente...

Role identity theory describes the purpose and meaning in life that comes, in part, from occupying social roles. While robustly linked to health and wellbeing, this may become unideal when an individual is unable to fulfill the perceived requirements of an especially salient role in the manner that they believe they should. Amid high rates of menta...

There is growing recognition in research and policy of a mental health crisis among Canada’s paramedics but despite this, epidemiological surveillance of the problem is in its infancy. Just weeks before the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, we surveyed paramedics from a single, large, urban paramedic service in Ontario, Canada to assess for sympt...

There is growing recognition in research and policy of a mental health crisis among Canada's paramedics but despite this, epidemiological surveillance of the problem is in its infancy. Just weeks before the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, we surveyed paramedics from a single, large, urban paramedic service in Ontario, Canada to assess for clini...

Purpose Violence against paramedics is a complex – but underreported – problem. Extant research suggests organizational culture may play a role in sustaining cultural norms that downplay the significance and limit reporting. Our objective was to qualitatively explore paramedics’ experience with violence, with particular emphasis on understanding ho...

Role identity theory describes the purpose and meaning in life that comes, in part, from occupying social roles. While robustly linked to health and well-being, this may become, however, when an individual is unable to fulfil the perceived requirements of an especially salient role in the way that they believe they should. Amid high rates of mental...

Purpose Violence against paramedics is a complex – but underreported – problem. Extant research suggests organizational culture may play a role in sustaining cultural norms that downplay the significance and limit reporting. The purpose of this paper is to qualitatively explore paramedics’ experience with violence, with particular emphasis on under...

Role identity theory describes the beneficial effects on health as a result of the purpose and meaning from occupying social roles. Amid high rates of mental illness among paramedics, we surveyed 589 (97%) paramedics from a single site in Ontario, Canada and evaluated for relationships between four dimensions of a previously validated paramedic rol...

Intimate partner violence (IPV; sometimes referred to as woman abuse or domestic violence) describes the physical, emotional, financial, and spiritual forms of harm perpetrated within the context of intimate relationships. A call to a residence where IPV has taken place can be challenging, and EMS personnel must use empathy and compassion to empowe...

In this poster, we are presenting the results of a qualitative analysis of free-text comments collected from a survey on experience with workplace violence among paramedics in Peel Region, Ontario, Canada. Our analysis looked at defining the features of organizational culture that serve to implicitly normalize tolerance of violence as an expected p...

Violence against paramedics is a complex and growing problem, but despite the potential for significant physical and psychological harm, incidents of violence often go unreported. The reasons for underreporting are multifactorial, and existing research suggests that organizational culture plays an important role in normalizing violence as an expect...

Targeted training has resulted in increased identification of human trafficking (HT) by hospital staff. Such initiatives have not been replicated in Emergency Medical Services (EMS), which is problematic since these professionals are uniquely positioned to identify and intervene. To address this gap, this study evaluates the efficacy of an online t...

Objective The purpose of this study was to build on extant research linking fatigue to safety outcomes in paramedicine by assessing the influence of a multiplicity of workplace stressors, including chronic and critical incident stresses on safety outcomes. Methods A cross‐sectional survey was deployed to 10 paramedic services in Ontario. Validated...

Public Safety Personnel (PSP; e.g., correctional workers and officers, firefighters, paramedics, police officers, and public safety communications officials (e.g., call center operators/dispatchers)) are regularly exposed to potentially psychologically traumatic events (PPTEs). PSP also experience other occupational stressors, including organizatio...

Objectives Extant research has established an empirical relationship between fatigue and safety-related outcomes. It is not clear if these findings are relevant to Canadian paramedicine. The purpose of this study was to determine if fatigue and shiftwork variables were related to safety outcomes in Canadian paramedics. Methods A survey was conduct...

Paramedics regularly respond to emergency scenes involving life-threatening illness, suffering, and tragedy, sometimes risking their own safety to help others. These experiences are often traumatic and paramedics are at an increased risk of developing work-related mental illnesses, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and an...

Introduction: Human trafficking has gained attention as a major human rights concern, yet little is known about the awareness of human trafficking among Emergency Medical Services (EMS) professionals. This is a significant concern; EMS professionals may be uniquely equipped to intervene with victims of trafficking. To address this gap, this study a...

Introduction: In the past few years, there has been an increase in awareness of the challenge of managing work related stress in EMS. Extant research has liked different types of chronic and critical incident stress to stress reactions like posttraumatic stress. However, there is no tool to capture the transactional stresses which are associated wi...

Background: Individuals with behavioural emergencies (mental health or substance-use crises) are being seen more frequently in emergency departments. Therefore, emergency medical service (EMS) providers are increasingly being called upon to respond to such cases. However, research in paramedic education on this topic is limited. Problem: Very litt...

The article examines the need of a strategy in the U.S. for the emergency health care that would include an role for emergency medical services (EMS) in preventing domestic violence. Topics discussed include ways to increase the degree of consistency and accountability of the EMS system, training on domestic violence for EMS personnel, and requirem...

Introduction: In 2012, the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) reaffirmed that domestic violence is a serious public health hazard that emergency medical services (EMS) personnel will encounter. Many victims of domestic violence may refuse transport to the hospital, making EMS prehospital field personnel --EMTs and paramedics-- their o...

Emergency medical service (EMS) providers are exposed to a variety of stressors endemic to the profession. These exposures may contribute to stress reactions, including posttraumatic stress. The objective of this study was to evaluate the relationship between work-related stressors and posttraumatic stress. The secondary objective was to determine...

Purpose – The toll of the stresses of policing on officers’ physical and mental health and on their individual work and family functioning has been well documented in the literature. Given the well-established consequences of work-related stress on law enforcement, it becomes important to understand how officers are utilizing institutional support...

This article describes the development and validation of the theoretically grounded Emergency Medical Services Role Identity Scale (EMS-RIS), which measures four domains of EMS role identity. The EMS-RIS was developed using a mixed methods approach. Key informants informed item development and the scale was validated using a representative probabil...

This study validates an instrument assessing work-related chronic stress in emergency medical services (EMS) personnel. The instrument was distributed to a systematic probability sample of EMS personnel (N = 1633). Exploratory factor analysis revealed a two-factor, 34 item solution (Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin = .943, χ2 = 23344.38, df = 561, p ≤ .001). Con...

In this study, a mixed-methods approach was used to develop an inventory of critical incidents for emergency medical service (EMS) personnel. Data were collected from a probabilistic sample of EMS personnel (N = 1,633) via an online survey. Quantitative responses captured the frequency of exposure to 29 critical events, self-reported stress related...

In a unique prevention project in a large US state, researchers explored how alcohol abuse and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) rates influence rates of self-reported domestic violence committed by law enforcement officers. Survey methodology with a cross-sectional design was used, and multiple measures and instruments were analyzed. Because o...

Recent research efforts in emergency medical services (EMS) has identified variability in the ability of EMS personnel to recognize their level of stress-related impairment. Developing a better understanding of how workplace stress may affect EMS personnel is a key step in the process of increasing awareness of the impact of work-related stress and...

In October of 2009, a police lieutenant in Florida murdered the mother of one of his children and then fatally turned the gun on himself. The tragedy brought into dramatic focus a phenomenon that had gained prominent attention a decade earlier: officer-involved domestic violence. In 1999, the International Association of Chiefs of Police acknowledg...

The present study was designed to determine the current level and distribution of well-being among Kuwaiti citizens who have lived either in the middle or in the shadows of war since Kuwait was invaded by Iraq in August 1990. A measure of Kuwaiti well-being, the Kuwaiti Raha Scale, was developed and utilized as the primary indicator in the first Na...

During a medical emergency, the American public often relies on the expertise of emergency medical technicians (EMTs). These professionals face a number of occupational hazards, and the literature suggests that EMTs are at a greater risk of developing physical and mental stress-related disorders. The purpose of this paper is to systematically exami...

Widowhood eliminates a key source of support that may trigger greater involvement in social activities and volunteer participation, which are related to better late-life health and functioning. We reexamine and build upon 2 recent studies exploring recent widowhood and social participation. Using different data, we perform a quasi-replication of Ut...

Background and Purpose: Widowhood eliminates a key source of social support, but may lead to greater involvement social activities and even greater volunteer participation, which are related to better late life health and functioning. Utz et al. (2002) found that persons that recent widows have higher levels of informal social support than non-wido...

This study explored the phenomenon of occupationally related stress exposures and stress reactions in the emergency medical services. While the emergency services are nearly ubiquitous in the United States, very little exploration has been done into the prevalence and sequelae of occupationally related stresses to which emergency medical technician...