Occupational and environmental factors influencing morale of United States federal wildland firefighters

IF 2.9 3区农林科学 Q1 FORESTRY

International Journal of Wildland Fire Pub Date : 2023-12-08 DOI:10.1071/wf22098

Rachel M. Granberg, Ting Shen, Seth W. Pearson, Robin M. Verble

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Background

Wildland firefighters have physically and psychologically demanding jobs that can result in social, economic and health-related stress. Previous studies have examined the physiological and physical effects of a career in wildland fire, but fewer studies have addressed psychological effects, and to date, none have directly analysed the hiring and work experiences of wildland firefighters.

Aims

We surveyed work experiences, health and well-being, and morale of wildland firefighters, explored factors that can improve recruitment and retention, and summarised broad patterns.

Methods

We conducted a voluntary anonymous survey of 708 federal wildland firefighters via an online platform over 2 months in 2022.

Key results

Respondents reported dissatisfaction with recruitment and hiring processes, low base salaries, poor mental health outcomes, and health and safety concerns. Respondents also reported the high importance of training, performance feedback and work environment to their retention in the field. We found significant effects of wildland firefighting on family status.

Conclusions

Wildland firefighters report experiencing low morale, financial stress, personal life strain and poor mental health outcomes.

Implications

These data provide a framework to establish future policy and research priorities and highlight the need for organisational actions and change.

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影响美国联邦野地消防员士气的职业和环境因素

背景野地消防员的工作对体力和心理要求都很高，可能会造成社会、经济和健康方面的压力。以往的研究已经考察了野外消防职业对生理和身体的影响，但涉及心理影响的研究较少，迄今为止，还没有一项研究直接分析了野外消防员的招聘和工作经历。目的我们调查了野地消防员的工作经历、健康和幸福感以及士气，探讨了可以改善招聘和留用的因素，并总结了大致的模式。方法我们在 2022 年通过在线平台对 708 名联邦野外消防员进行了为期 2 个月的自愿匿名调查。主要结果受访者对招聘和雇佣流程、基本工资低、心理健康状况不佳以及健康和安全问题表示不满。受访者还表示，培训、绩效反馈和工作环境对他们留在野外工作非常重要。我们发现，野外消防工作对家庭状况有很大影响。结论野外消防员报告称，他们的士气低落、经济压力大、个人生活紧张以及心理健康状况不佳。影响这些数据为制定未来政策和研究重点提供了一个框架，并强调了组织行动和变革的必要性。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

International Journal of Wildland Fire 农林科学-林学

CiteScore

5.50

自引率

9.70%

发文量

审稿时长

12-24 weeks

期刊介绍： International Journal of Wildland Fire publishes new and significant articles that advance basic and applied research concerning wildland fire. Published papers aim to assist in the understanding of the basic principles of fire as a process, its ecological impact at the stand level and the landscape level, modelling fire and its effects, as well as presenting information on how to effectively and efficiently manage fire. The journal has an international perspective, since wildland fire plays a major social, economic and ecological role around the globe. The International Journal of Wildland Fire is published on behalf of the International Association of Wildland Fire.