Overview Summary of Project
The last 4 years has seen England’s ambulance services sustain unprecedented pressure from the operational demand generated by the pandemic. Operational demand remains high, with system failures, low morale, toxic cultures and hazardous environments causing significant wellbeing, and retention problems. Ambulance staff are more likely to develop mental health conditions such as PTSD than any other emergency service, with many ambulance staff also suffering from assaults, and burnout. If ambulance service senior leaders were better connected to the needs of their staff, however, bespoke leadership models/qualities/skills could be introduced to counteract some of the challenges identified.
At the time of writing, no UK research that explores what frontline ambulance service staff need from senior leaders by way of support could be found. This, therefore, is core the focus of our investigations: to understand perceptions and experiences of leadership among these staff, and the type of leaders they need to support them during challenging times.
Semi-structured interviews (online) were utilised to capture data which allows the research question to be answered.
