Campus Location

Dallas Campus (Online)

Date of Award

3-2024

ORCID

https://orcid.org/0009-0001-3133-9061

Document Type

Dissertation

Department

Organizational Leadership

Degree Name

Doctor of Education

Committee Chair or Primary Advisor

Lawrence Santiago

Second Committee Member or Secondary Advisor

Cecilia Hegamin-Younger

Third Committee Member or Committee Reader

Tim Atkinson

Abstract

Prehospital care currently finds itself in a critical crisis as the number of emergency medical technicians continues to decline nationwide. This is especially alarming as such shortages have been exacerbated in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Emergency medical service agencies are looking to educational institutions to ensure that an adequate number of providers are entering the field. These institutions are led by program directors, who oversee all aspects of the program. However, these individuals are also leaving the role at alarming rates nationwide. The purpose of this action research study was to take a qualitative descriptive approach to explore regional and national factors that influence paramedic program directors’ intentions to leave the director role within the state of Texas. Through the use of semistructured interviews, the study provides a foundation for suggestions to help address the high attrition rates of these key individuals at the local, state, and national levels. The results demonstrated that, while various intrinsic and extrinsic motivators have a positive impact on the paramedic program director’s job satisfaction, these incentives do not offset the excessive workload placed on these individuals due to various national, state, and institutional factors. Such a workload was also recognized to impact the program directors’ work-life balance negatively. These factors contributed to a turnover intention within the sample that were significantly higher than the national average. Several recommendations were made to help mitigate the attrition of these vital program leaders including streamlining the requirements to maintain accreditation status, aligning state requirements to better match accreditation standards to reduce the replication of documentation, and ensuring that the organization is providing the proper resources so that the workload can be delegated effectively. Further research into the cause and effect of paramedic program director attrition is warranted, with several recommendations provided.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

Share

COinS
 
 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.