Taylor, J., Murray, R., Davis, A., Brandt-Rauf, S., Allen, J. A., Borse, R., Pellechia, D., & Picone, D. (2022). Model Policies to Protect U.S. fire-based EMS Responders from Workplace Stress and Violence. New Solutions: A Journal of Environmental and Occupational Health Policy, 3(2), 119-131. doi: 10.1177/10482911221085728.

The stress and violence to fire-based emergency medical service responders (SAVER) Systems-Level Checklist is an organizational-level intervention to address stress and violence in emergency medical service (EMS), focused on the development of policy and training. Fire and EMS leadership, first responders, dispatchers, and labor union representatives participated in the SAVER Model Policy Collaborative to develop model policies that resulted from the most feasible checklist items. ThinkLets technology was employed to achieve consensus on the model policies, and an Action SWOT analysis was then conducted to assess facilitators and barriers to policy implementation. The resultant model policies are a systems-level workplace violence intervention for the U.S. fire and rescue service that is ready for implementation. Expected improvements to organizational outcomes such as burnout, job engagement, and job satisfaction are anticipated, as are decreasing assaults and injuries. The SAVER Model Policies have the potential to inform national standards and regulations on workplace violence in EMS.

Ogbonnaya, U. C., Thiese, M. S., & Allen, J. A. (2022). Burnout and engagement’s relationship to drug abuse in lawyers and law professionals. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 64(7), 621-630.

Objective: Investigate the associations between drug abuse and the prevalence of the engagement and burnout dichotomy in law professionals.

Methods: Eligible participants completed a questionnaire where odds ratios of drug abuse and other confounding variables and their association to engagement or burnout were calculated using multiple logistic regression.

Results: When looking at all law professionals, burnout is a statistically significant predictor for drug abuse ( P = 0.04, not shown). Law professionals whose burnout scores fell in the highest bin have 4.71 (95% CI [1.38-16.08]) times higher odds of having a problem with drug abuse than those whose burnout scores fell in the second bin.

Conclusion: Study findings showed a possible way to affect the prevalence of drug abuse in law professionals by affecting the engagement and burnout dichotomy.

Allen, J. A., Thiese, M. S., Eden, E., & Knowles, S. E. (2022). Why am I so exhausted?: Exploring meeting-to-work transition and recovery from virtual meeting fatigue. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 64(12), 1053-1058. DOI: 10.1097/JOM.0000000000002641.

Objective: Ineffective meetings have been well-documented as presenting considerable direct (eg, salary) and indirect costs (eg, employee burnout). We explore the idea that people need meeting recovery, or time to transition from meetings to their next task. Doing so may reduce employee burnout.

Methods: We used a quantitative survey of working adults' last meeting to determine the relationship between meeting outcomes (satisfaction and effectiveness) and meeting recovery.

Results: We found that meeting outcomes are related to meeting recovery and that relationship is moderated by the degree to which the meeting was relevant to the individual. Implications for theory and practice are discussed to provide concrete recommendations for researchers, managers, and consultants.

Conclusions: This study explores virtual meeting fatigue with a focus on meeting quality and explores the need for recovery after workplace meetings.

Raposa, M. E., Mullin, G., Murray, R. M., Castro, K., Fisher, A. B., Gallogly, V., Davis, A. L., Resick, C. J., Lee, J., Allen, J. A., & Taylor, J. A. (2023). Assessing the Mental Health Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on US Fire-Based EMS Responders: A Tale of Two Samples (The RAPID Study I). Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 65(4), e184-e194. DOI: 10.1097/JOM.0000000000002745.

Objective: This study aimed to examine the COVID-19 pandemic's impact on fire service safety culture, behavior and morale, levers of well-being, and well-being outcomes.

Methods: Two samples (Stress and Violence against fire-based EMS Responders [SAVER], consisting of 3 metropolitan departments, and Fire service Organizational Culture of Safety [FOCUS], a geographically stratified random sample of 17 departments) were assessed monthly from May to October 2020. Fire department-specific and pooled scores were calculated. Linear regression was used to model trends.

Results: We observed concerningly low and decreasing scores on management commitment to safety, leadership communication, supervisor sensegiving, and decision-making. We observed increasing and concerning scores for burnout, intent to leave the profession, and percentage at high risk for anxiety and depression.

Conclusions: Our findings suggest that organizational attributes remained generally stable but low during the pandemic and impacted well-being outcomes, job satisfaction, and engagement. Improving safety culture can address the mental health burden of this work.

Allen, J. A., Reiter-Palmon, R., Jones, K., Sabalka, L., *Ciagala, K., & Meens, A. (2023). Nurses’ experience implementing an automated video monitoring system to decrease risk of patient falls during a global pandemic. Healthcare, 11, 2556. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare11182556.

Healthcare is a complex sociotechnical system where information systems (IS) and information technology (IT) intersect to solve problems experienced by patients and providers alike. One example of IS/IT in hospitals is the Ocuvera automated video monitoring system (AVMS), which has been implemented in more than 30 hospitals. The purpose of this study was to evaluate nurses' attitudes toward AVMS implementation over time as they received the training program developed for this intervention. Consistent with the job demands-resources (JDR) model, we found that perceptions of AVMS usefulness increased over time and were positively associated with perceptions of social influence and behavioral control. These results were consistent with our finding that there was a significant decrease in the risk of unassisted falls from the bed from baseline to intervention. Leaders in hospital systems and healthcare organizations may want to consider implementing an AVMS as researchers continue to test, verify, and demonstrate the effectiveness of these interventions for improving patient well-being.