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The profile of an emergency medical services leader: a multi-national qualitative study

02 April 2015
Volume 5 · Issue 1

Abstract

This article discusses the profile of an Emergency Medical Services (EMS) leader that emerged from a larger study on how EMS leadership is learned from a multinational qualitative study of EMS providers working in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. EMS is a team-oriented profession designed to respond to emergencies and disasters. Within EMS are leaders responsible for ensuring response capabilities, which has been plagued with criticisms and shortcomings. Different leadership styles have been applied to EMS but no one style is ideal for every situation or circumstance encountered by EMS leaders. The findings discovered that EMS leaders are found throughout an EMS system and need to understand the importance of their actions, have integrity and take responsibility. Among other characteristics and qualities, EMS leaders needed to be communicators who solve problems and lead by example, are fair and able to separate personal from professional.

The Emergency Medical Services (EMS) profession was described as one with a profound sense of collegiality, team spirit and a culture of experts and colleagues (Brink et al, 2012). Within this environment and profession are EMS leaders tasked with organisational responsibilities and ensuring the response capabilities of a system. The roles of EMS leaders are known, but so are EMS leadership failures (Leggio, 2013). The EMS profession has been criticised as resistant to change due to tradition (Foster et al, 2011; Powers, 2006). Leadership and personality characteristics such as defensiveness, emotional instability, poor interpersonal skills and weak technical and cognitive skills have been attributed to the failures of EMS leadership (Cotter, 2005). The lack of formal leadership education in EMS has resulted in EMS leadership being learned by less than ideal on-the-job training, informal mentoring and experience (Leggio, 2013).

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