IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v21y2024i4p505-d1379039.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Sexist, Racist, and Homophobic Violence against Paramedics in a Single Canadian Site

Author

Listed:
  • Justin Mausz

    (Peel Regional Paramedic Services, 1600 Bovaird Drive East, Brampton, ON L6V 4R5, Canada
    Department of Family and Community Medicine, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, 500 University Avenue, Toronto, ON M5G 1V7, Canada)

  • Joel D’Eath

    (Peel Regional Paramedic Services, 1600 Bovaird Drive East, Brampton, ON L6V 4R5, Canada)

  • Nicholas A. Jackson

    (Peel Regional Paramedic Services, 1600 Bovaird Drive East, Brampton, ON L6V 4R5, Canada)

  • Mandy Johnston

    (Peel Regional Paramedic Services, 1600 Bovaird Drive East, Brampton, ON L6V 4R5, Canada)

  • Alan M. Batt

    (Faculty of Health Sciences, Queen’s University, 99 University Avenue, Kingston, ON K7L 3N6, Canada
    Department of Paramedicine, Monash University, Peninsula Campus, Building H, 47-49 Moorooduc Hwy, Frankston, VIC 3199, Australia)

  • Elizabeth A. Donnelly

    (School of Social Work, University of Windsor, 167 Ferry Street, Room 213, Windsor, ON N9A 0C5, Canada)

Abstract

Violence against paramedics is widely recognized as a serious, but underreported, problem. While injurious physical attacks on paramedics are generally reported, non-physical violence is less likely to be documented. Verbal abuse can be very distressing, particularly if the harassment targets personal or cultural identities, such as race, ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation. Leveraging a novel, point-of-event reporting process, our objective was to estimate the prevalence of harassment on identity grounds against paramedics in a single paramedic service in Ontario, Canada, and assess its potentially differential impact on emotional distress. In an analysis of 502 reports filed between 1 February 2021 and 28 February 2022, two paramedic supervisors independently coded the free-text narrative descriptions of violent encounters for themes suggestive of sexism, racism, and homophobia. We achieved high inter-rater agreement across the dimensions (k = 0.73–0.83), and after resolving discrepant cases, we found that one in four violent reports documented abuse on at least one of the identity grounds. In these cases, paramedics were 60% more likely to indicate being emotionally distressed than for other forms of violence. Our findings offer unique insight into the type of vitriol paramedics experience over the course of their work and its potential for psychological harm.

Suggested Citation

  • Justin Mausz & Joel D’Eath & Nicholas A. Jackson & Mandy Johnston & Alan M. Batt & Elizabeth A. Donnelly, 2024. "Sexist, Racist, and Homophobic Violence against Paramedics in a Single Canadian Site," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 21(4), pages 1-11, April.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:21:y:2024:i:4:p:505-:d:1379039
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/21/4/505/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/21/4/505/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mojtaba Vaismoradi & Hannele Turunen & Terese Bondas, 2013. "Content analysis and thematic analysis: Implications for conducting a qualitative descriptive study," Nursing & Health Sciences, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 15(3), pages 398-405, September.
    2. repec:aph:ajpbhl:10.2105/ajph.2017.303989_1 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Maguire, B.J. & O'Neill, B.J., 2017. "Emergency medical service personnel's risk from violence while serving the community," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 107(11), pages 1770-1775.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Justin Mausz & Michael-Jon Braaksma & Mandy Johnston & Alan M. Batt & Elizabeth A. Donnelly, 2024. "Paramedic Willingness to Report Violence Following the Introduction of a Novel, Point-of-Event Reporting Process in a Single Canadian Paramedic Service," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 21(3), pages 1-12, March.
    2. Emmanuel Songsore & Michael Buzzelli, 2016. "Ontario’s Experience of Wind Energy Development as Seen through the Lens of Human Health and Environmental Justice," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-18, July.
    3. Ana Cristina Lindsay & Sherrie F. Wallington & Faith D. Lees & Mary L. Greaney, 2018. "Exploring How the Home Environment Influences Eating and Physical Activity Habits of Low-Income, Latino Children of Predominantly Immigrant Families: A Qualitative Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(5), pages 1-13, May.
    4. Borch, Kristian & Munk, Anders K. & Dahlgaard, Vibeke, 2020. "Mapping wind-power controversies on social media: Facebook as a powerful mobilizer of local resistance," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    5. Justin Mausz & Mandy Johnston & Dominique Arseneau-Bruneau & Alan M. Batt & Elizabeth A. Donnelly, 2023. "Prevalence and Characteristics of Violence against Paramedics in a Single Canadian Site," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(17), pages 1-11, August.
    6. Caro Wolfner & Corilyn Ott & Kalani Upshaw & Angela Stowe & Lisa Schwiebert & Robin Gaines Lanzi, 2023. "Coping Strategies and Help-Seeking Behaviors of College Students and Postdoctoral Fellows with Disabilities or Pre-Existing Conditions during COVID-19," Disabilities, MDPI, vol. 3(1), pages 1-25, February.
    7. Christopher Mulwanda & Vincent R. Nyirenda & Ngawo Namukonde, 2024. "Traditional ecological knowledge, perceptions and practices on insect pollinator conservation: A case of the smallholder farmers in Murundu ward of Mufulira mining district of Zambia," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 14(1), pages 24-35, March.
    8. Rebecca A. Johnson & David L. Albright & James R. Marzolf & Jessica L. Bibbo & Hayley D. Yaglom & Sandra M. Crowder & Gretchen M. Carlisle & Karen Grindler & Nathan Harms & Amy Willard & Marita Wassma, 2021. "Experiences of Military Veterans in a Therapeutic Horseback Riding Program," Clinical Nursing Research, , vol. 30(7), pages 923-933, September.
    9. Oliver Laasch & Dirk C. Moosmayer & Frithjof Arp, 2020. "Responsible Practices in the Wild: An Actor-Network Perspective on Mobile Apps in Learning as Translation(s)," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 161(2), pages 253-277, January.
    10. Grazia Salvo & Bonnie M. Lashewicz & Patricia K. Doyle-Baker & Gavin R. McCormack, 2018. "Neighbourhood Built Environment Influences on Physical Activity among Adults: A Systematized Review of Qualitative Evidence," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(5), pages 1-21, May.
    11. Chilombo, Andrew & Van Der Horst, Dan, 2021. "Livelihoods and coping strategies of local communities on previous customary land in limbo of commercial agricultural development: Lessons from the farm block program in Zambia," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 104(C).
    12. Sandra Carrasco & David O’Brien, 2023. "Build Back Safely: Evaluating the Occupational Health and Safety in Post-Disaster Reconstruction," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-18, May.
    13. Borja García-Lorenzo & Ania Gorostiza & Nerea González & Igor Larrañaga & Maider Mateo-Abad & Ana Ortega-Gil & Janika Bloemeke & Oliver Groene & Itziar Vergara & Javier Mar & Sarah N. Lim Choi Keung &, 2023. "Assessment of the Effectiveness, Socio-Economic Impact and Implementation of a Digital Solution for Patients with Advanced Chronic Diseases: The ADLIFE Study Protocol," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(4), pages 1-14, February.
    14. Diego De Leo & Benedetta Congregalli & Annalisa Guarino & Josephine Zammarrelli & Anna Valle & Stefano Paoloni & Sabrina Cipolletta, 2022. "Communicating Unexpected and Violent Death: The Experiences of Police Officers and Health Care Professionals," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(17), pages 1-14, September.
    15. Alvisa Palese & Erica Visintini & Valentina Bressan & Federico Fonda & Stefania Chiappinotto & Luca Grassetti & Maddalena Peghin & Carlo Tascini & Matteo Balestrieri & Marco Colizzi, 2023. "Using Metaphors to Understand Suffering in COVID-19 Survivors: A Two Time-Point Observational Follow-Up Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(2), pages 1-13, January.
    16. Ahtisham Younas & Subia P. Rasheed & Amara Sundus & Shahzad Inayat, 2020. "Nurses' perspectives of self‐awareness in nursing practice: A descriptive qualitative study," Nursing & Health Sciences, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 22(2), pages 398-405, June.
    17. Emily Williams & Natisha Sands & Stephen Elsom & Roshani Kanchana Prematunga, 2015. "Mental health consumers' perceptions of quality of life and mental health care," Nursing & Health Sciences, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 17(3), pages 299-306, September.
    18. Yasser Yahya Al-Ashmori & Idris Othman & Al-Hussein M. H. Al-Aidrous, 2022. "“Values, Challenges, and Critical Success Factors” of Building Information Modelling (BIM) in Malaysia: Experts Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-18, March.
    19. Pei-Yu Wang & Pin-Hui Fang & Chen-Long Wu & Hsiang-Chin Hsu & Chih-Hao Lin, 2019. "Workplace Violence in Asian Emergency Medical Services: A Pilot Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(20), pages 1-18, October.
    20. Broqvist, Mari & Sandman, Lars & Garpenby, Peter & Krevers, Barbro, 2018. "The meaning of severity – do citizenś views correspond to a severity framework based on ethical principles for priority setting?," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 122(6), pages 630-637.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:21:y:2024:i:4:p:505-:d:1379039. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.