Survey Results / Graphs

Question 1.1: Are you involved in any other EMS agencies? (n=163 )

This question was asked to provide insight as to whether EMS volunteers are involved in other EMS agencies. 40 of the 163 respondents replied that they are. We did know that many EMS volunteers are involved in other agencies, but until now we did not know how many were. An interesting follow-up question to this would have been "why are you involved in another agency". 

Perhaps some volunteer in more than one agency to gain more experience by riding in a busier service or maybe they volunteer in the community they work in (if they work out of their community). Perhaps they volunteer with some friends or family member, maybe they have remained active with an agency they formerly worked with, or maybe they work for a paid service.

Question 1.2: If you are involved in another EMS agency, is it another volunteer service or a paid service? (n=40)

This is a follow-up question to the previous one where 25% of EMS volunteers are involved in another EMS agency. This question was aimed at determining whether this "other" service was another volunteer or was it a paid agency. Of the 40 volunteers that are involved in another EMS agency, 29 of them (72%) are involved in another volunteer service. The remainder, 11 are involved with a paid service.

A commonly heard concern from EMS agency leaders is that "once one of our volunteers starts to work for a paid service, their volunteer activity drops off significantly". While we have no data to prove this claim, this should not be surprising to volunteer leaders because few people that work EMS for a job, want to spend a significant amount of their discretionary time in the same job.

Question 1.3: How many years have you been involved in EMS? (n=189)

Question 1.4: What originally attracted you to EMS volunteering? (n=189)

This question was aimed at discovering what originally attracted EMS volunteers to volunteer. 91 or 48% of the respondents indicated that a friend or family member involved in EMS originally attracted them to volunteering. This data should be very important to volunteer EMS leaders. It is clear that volunteer leaders need to do everything possible to enhance their present members ability to recruit new members and keep volunteer satisfaction high. The best recruitment tool is a great retention plan! 

Volunteer recruitment efforts are often triggered by a sudden loss of active personnel and not as a result of a planned strategies initiative. Often, the volunteer squad will prepare an article for the local newspaper or pennysaver to canvas for volunteers. This survey suggests that this tactic is of little value. Also an opportunity to recruit new members can be found in the volunteer firefighting population and from families of former patients. The best way to recruit these people is to provide excellent patient care. More on volunteer recruitment can be read in the recruitment section of this report.

Question 1.5: What are the primary factors that keep you from volunteering more hours?(9n=160)

Clearly, family and work commitments are the primary factors that keep volunteers from volunteering more hours. Many volunteers appear to want to volunteer hours if they could. Only 14% of volunteers are volunteering at a level they are comfortable with. The work commitment issue is explored further in subsequent survey questions."Problems within the service" response was chosen 16 times (10% of the responses). This is an area where volunteer leaders can make some improvements. This response was further examined by a Pareto analysis in the next chart (1.5a) The lack of child care appears to be a minor issue in this group.

Question 1.5a: This is a Pareto analysis of the 16 respondents that believe that "problems within the volunteer service is the primary factor that keep me from volunteering more hours".

Question 1.6: I envision volunteering for ________ more years. (n=110)

Question 1.7: Are you employed in the same community that you reside? (n=163)

Question 1.8: For those whose employment is in the community that they reside, does your employer allow you to leave work to answer EMS calls? (n=63)

Question 1.9: How many miles is your employment from your ambulance service? (n=148)

Question 2.0: Which three issues are most important to the success of a volunteer ambulance service?(n=439)

Question 2.1: Which three issues do you believe your department needs the most improvement in? (n=439)

Question 2.2: What do you consider to be acceptable BLS response time for a serious medical emergency call that occurs one mile from your station? (Response time means the amount of time from your pager's activation to the arrival of an EMT with a defibrillator) (n=146)

Question 2.2b: What do you consider to be an acceptable ALS response time for a serious medical call that occurs one mile from your station? (Response time means the amount of time from your pager's activation to the arrival of an ALS medic) (n=141)

Question 3.0: Please select what you believe to be the five most valuable volunteer benefits. (n=701)

Question 3.1a: What impact would increasing the number of volunteer EMT's on patient care in your community? (n=169)

Question 3.1b: What impact would adding paid staff to supplement volunteers have on patient care in your community? (n=156)

Question 3.1c: What impact would adding paid paramedic fly cars have on patient care in your community? (n=158)

Question 3.1d: What impact would adding paid ambulances to supplement volunteers have on patient care in your community? (n=149)

Question 3.1e: What impact would merging existing volunteer services have on patient care in your community? (n=147)

Question 3.2: How would you rate the value of Quality Improvement feedback that you receive as an EMT? (n=145)