Q&A
Reasons for EMS staff retention problems
1:29:55
·
98 sec
Council Member Mercedes Narcisse inquires about the reasons for retention problems in EMS. Chief Michael Fields of FDNY explains several factors contributing to the difficulty in retaining staff:
- Nationwide shortage of EMTs, especially after COVID-19
- Perception of healthcare jobs as less safe after the pandemic
- People choosing safer career options
- Retirements and staff moving to different aspects of their lives
- Competitive wages and benefits in other sectors
- Inability to work from home in EMS roles
Mercedes Narcisse
1:29:55
My question, since we have retention problem, what is the type reason for retention.
1:30:03
Why you think that you cannot retain your your staff?
Michael Fields
1:30:08
I'm pretty sure there's tons of great reasons why we can't
Santa Morales
1:30:11
Mhmm.
Michael Fields
1:30:12
Maintain.
1:30:12
1 is a nationwide reason that we don't have enough EMTs in respects to recruiting.
1:30:19
After COVID, people saw that there were better jobs to do or safer jobs to do a lot better, safer jobs to do.
1:30:28
Dealing with frontline health care, you became exposed.
1:30:32
I mean, you see, you know, for those I'm pretty sure you still have friends in the emergency rooms.
1:30:37
They were exposed to, you know, the pandemic and the circumstances of that pandemic.
1:30:43
And a lot of people, I honestly have to say they're just scared to do the work now, and they choose safe for careers.
1:30:49
In in respects, some retention, we have people that retire, we have people that move on to different aspects of their lives.
1:30:56
They may move to other places.
1:30:57
They may have better wages or better benefits.
1:31:02
Now we have a lot of people who get to work from home.
1:31:04
And that's not a job that you can you can't work from home working on ambulances, so you have to show up every day.
1:31:10
So I don't think we can change that aspect of it, but we're working to improve.
1:31:16
And we have a all hands on deck approach towards recruiting additional people, offering training to people who aren't ENTs already.
1:31:25
We're willing to train them.
1:31:26
So we're trying our best to improve on our recruitment numbers so that we can long term retain more employees.
