A/Prof. Liz Thyer1, Ms. Alecka Miles2, Mr. Stephen Aiello3, Ms. Sascha Baldry1, Prof Ben Farr-Wharton2
1Western Sydney University, Australia, 2Edith Cowan University, Australia, 3Auckland University of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand
Biography:
Liz is passionate about innovations and excellence in health sciences teaching and learning. She was an advanced life support paramedic with Ambulance Victoria and has previously worked at Victoria and Deakin Universities.
Her recent research and HDR supervision focus on the fields of health education, mental health, and paramedicine workforce issues.
Abstract:
Background: The paramedic workforce has experienced marked demographic changes over the last 20 years and continues to evolve as scope of practice expands and new work settings emerge. Previous workforce research focused on very specific areas e.g. remote mining; or took a broad approach such as the current Paramedicine Board of Australia retention survey.
Method: Researchers across Australia and New Zealand, funded by the Australasian College of Paramedicine, developed a bespoke Australasian paramedicine workforce survey to explore routine demographic and workforce information in addition to more detailed areas likely to impact work satisfaction. These included job-crafting across multiple employers; level of satisfaction and barriers to satisfaction within their current role; motivations for paramedic work; access to and engagement with personal, carers and other types of leave; preferred shift patterns and hours; and future aspirations within and beyond paramedicine.
Results: The survey was designed as a repeated measure cross-sectional study with three data collections between 2023-2025. The 2023 data gained 1809 responses from Australian and New Zealand paramedics and paramedic students.
Conclusion: Accurate, detailed workforce data is essential for future planning and to guide possible workplace changes to increase current staff satisfaction and retention. However, access to the disparate paramedicine workforce is increasingly difficult and, in designing surveys, it is necessary to balance a need for useful comprehensive data with a collection tool that engages respondents.