This two year study will examine the status of medical direction for rural Emergency Medical Services (EMS) systems, the nature of the challenges and impediments to obtaining adequate medical direction in rural areas and issues surrounding the recruitment and retention of paid and volunteer staff for rural EMS systems. Specific topics to be addressed include system characteristics that are associated with difficulty obtaining medical direction and the primary impediments to obtaining medical direction.

The study will be conducted in two parts. Part one will include a mailed survey of a national sample of EMS directors. Approximately 1,500 local EMS system directors will be selected randomly, stratified by location, from a master list of over 25,000 EMS systems maintained by the National Association of State EMS Directors. The survey will include approximately 30 questions (both closed and open ended) that focus on medical direction and recruitment and retention of EMT staff. Follow-up mailings and telephone calls will follow the initial mailing to ensure the best response rate possible. Survey data will be merged with other databases to assist in analyses across county demographic and geographic variables not captured elsewhere. Part two of this study will involve a secondary data analysis of the 1999 -2002 core Longitudinal Emergency Medical Technician Attributes and Demographics Study (LEADS) survey data. Results from the primary and secondary data analysis will result in multiple working papers and policy briefs of relevance to the rural health policy community.

Publications

• Becoming an Emergency Medical Technician: Urban-Rural Differences in Motivation and Job Satisfaction
  North Carolina Rural Health Research and Policy Analysis Center
  Date: 03/2007
  This study uses cross-sectional data from the 2003 national Longitudinal Emergency Medical Technician Attributes and Demographic Study Project to explore urban-rural differences in why emergency medical technicians enter the field, what is important in their jobs, and whether they are satisfied with their profession.
• Challenges for Rural Emergency Medical Services: Medical Oversight
  North Carolina Rural Health Research and Policy Analysis Center
  Date: 05/2008
  This findings brief examines the challenges faced by local rural emergency medical services (EMS) agencies in obtaining medical directors and ensuring medical oversight for EMS personnel and also describes how the challenges faced in rural areas differ from those in urban ones.
• Issues in Staffing Emergency Medical Services: A National Survey of Local Rural and Urban EMS Directors
  North Carolina Rural Health Research and Policy Analysis Center
  Date: 05/2008
  This report explores rural-urban differences in medical oversight and the recruitment and retention of emergency medical technicians and paramedics as reported by a survey of 1,425 local emergency medical services directors.
• Rural-Urban Differences in Characteristics of Local EMS Agencies
  North Carolina Rural Health Research and Policy Analysis Center
  Date: 05/2008
  This findings brief describes the general characteristics of local rural emergency medical services agencies and important ways they differ from agencies in urban areas.