An updated analysis of safety climate and downstream outcomes in two convenience samples of U.S. fire departments (FOCUS 1.0 and 2.0 survey waves).

BACKGROUND

The Fire service Organizational Culture of Safety (FOCUS) survey is an assessment tool comprised of psychometrically validated metrics of safety climate, safety behavior, and downstream outcomes (organizational and injury) that are specific to the U.S. fire and rescue service.

METHODS

This analysis consists of a descriptive summary of two independent survey waves (FOCUS 1.0 and 2.0). The fire departments included in these survey waves were from convenience sampling (n = 275; n = 170). In addition to department level characteristics, we examined individual level characteristics for firefighters and EMS providers in participating departments (n = 22,719; n = 16,882). We conducted regression analyses to examine the associations between safety climate and safety behaviors, organizational outcomes, and safety outcomes. All analyses were stratified by organization type (career, volunteer).

RESULTS

Our analysis indicated that a majority of respondents were males (90.7%; 90.4%), non-officers (68.4%; 66.4%), and non-Hispanic Whites (70.8%; 69.5%). For both samples there was a higher prevalence of injuries among individuals in career departments (n = 3778 [17.5%]; n = 3072 [18.7%]) than volunteer departments (n = 103 [8.8%]; n = 34 [7.4%]). We observed an approximate 10-point difference between the mean scores of Management Commitment to Safety for career and volunteer departments in both samples. We observed associations for two organizational outcomes, Safety Behavior and Job Satisfaction, with Management Commitment to Safety and Supervisor Support for Safety overall and when stratified by organization type. We observed a decrease in the odds of injuries associated with a one-unit increase in Management Commitment to Safety (OR: 0.98, 95% CI 0.97-0.99; OR: 0.90, 95% CI 0.85-0.95) and Supervisor Support for Safety (OR: 0.95, 95% CI 0.93-0.97; OR: 0.95, 95% CI 0.92-0.98).

CONCLUSIONS

From our current study, and a prior analysis of a geographically stratified random sample of U.S. fire departments, we identified that from all the organizational outcomes, job satisfaction was most consistently associated with FOCUS safety climate. Further, firefighters in our samples consistently rated Supervisor Support for Safety higher than Management Commitment to Safety. Future interventions should support fire departments in improving their departmental Management Commitment to Safety and maintaining their Supervisor for Safety.