Project Details

Full details of the Project can be found in the publication "Emergency Services in Australia and New Zealand: Problems and Prospects for Volunteer Ambulance Officers." . The Project was completed in May 2002 after successfully researching the support needs and issues for VAO.

The Project report:

• collates the information provided by VAO throughout Australia and New Zealand through participation in the survey. The study surveyed over 2,500 VAO throughout Western Australia, South Australia, Victoria, Tasmania, Queensland, Northern Territory, and New Zealand and had an overall return rate of 38%.
• provides ambulance service management and other emergency services with important information on the motivations and support needs of VAO. This information is needed if recruitment and retention problems are to be addressed at an organisational level.
• shows ambulance services are experiencing difficulties associated with providing a volunteer service, with a rapid turnover of VAO and at times inadequate roster cover. Recruitment and retention strategies are both important in addressing these difficulties, but retention should be given priority by ensuring VAO motivations are reinforced and the volunteer experience within the organisation is satisfying.
• shows one of the major motivations for VAO is the desire to assist the community, and ambulance services need to reinforce the benefits of community engagement and strengthening social capital.
• allows insight into future directions and provides the necessary data to work cohesively on volunteer issues. It aims to assist attempts to address VAO issues at a national and Australasian level.
• points out that emergency services training in Australia is in a state of transition, moving from standards established at a jurisdictional level to come under the Australian Quality Training Framework. This provides its own challenges, but the findings show that VAO want high quality, flexible, competency based training, and that such training will be a strong motivator for recruitment and retention.
• finds that low VAO numbers and other pressures are increasing the stresses on the VAO role and highlight the importance of ambulance services providing volunteers with a supportive environment.
• finds that volunteer rates differ slightly between male and females, with women making up 55% of the VAO population and men 45%. Most VAO juggle paid employment and family commitments to provide this largely rural service.
• suggests the monetary value of the VAO contribution is at least $29 million in Australia, but could be as much as three times this figure. Government and communities also have an important role in recognising the value of VAO by supporting them financially and publicly.
• shows that clinical support systems that assist VAO to provide an effective service, such as training, equipment, paramedic assistance, occupational health and safety and case debriefing are highly valued by volunteers. Ambulance services must provide VAO with clinical support, communications and a work environment that is professional.
• finds that when VAO are assisted to provide a professional ambulance service to their communities, motivations are strongly reinforced.
• finds that VAO also want communication systems and cultures within ambulance services that respect their contribution. Services need to ensure VAO are represented at all levels of management, given systems that allow feedback and clear communication channels.
• suggests that ambulance services must ensure that they have a culture that values VAO contributions and that this is supported by appropriate systems and training for management who deal with volunteers. Relationship factors impact on VAO experiences, and if unsatisfactory, will result in high turnover rates as dissatisfied VAO leave.
• provides recommendations for the future directions of ambulance services utilising volunteers. They are broad due to the diverse nature of ambulance organisations in Australia and New Zealand, but this should not devalue them.
• highlights that there is an urgent need for ambulance services to improve the working environment for VAO. To do this they must understand how this can be done and then develop best practice guidelines. Sharing of information is critical to this process amongst volunteers, ambulance services and other emergency services, and so is the formation of a group or forum, which accepts responsibility for moving the process forward by addressing the recommendations.

Recommendations

1. VAO should recognise that they form a distinct group of emergency service volunteers. Within each jurisdiction VAO should establish mechanisms for representation of their collective interests in matters of policy and change at organisational, state, national and international levels.
2. The Convention of Ambulance Authorities (CAA) should provide a forum to address VAO issues at the national level that includes VAO representation. This forum would monitor and contribute to national events affecting emergency service volunteers, such as tax issues, legislation, and insurance, and support and provide representation to the Australian Emergency Management Volunteer Forum.
3. Ambulance services should ensure they collect and analyse data on volunteers using a standardised format. These data should include volunteer demographics, volunteer motivations, and attitudes to rewards, and be reported through the CAA to enable strategic planning.
4. The CAA and governments should publicly recognise VAO as a valuable part of the ambulance services. This recognition needs the development of a standardised method for calculating the cost/benefit of VAO contributions, development of equitable tax deductions and/or rebates for VAO, and long-term funding arrangements that acknowledge the costs of supporting VAO.
5. Governments should recognise the valuable contribution of VAO to health and emergency services, and adequately fund and support necessary organisational systems to ensure the long-term survival of volunteering in ambulance services.
6. The ambulance services should work to reinforce VAO motivations and provide a reciprocal relationship with VAO. This would require creating stronger links with communities, assisting VAO to learn new skills, ensuring the VAO role provides a sense of achievement, and continued research.
7. The CAA should acknowledge that VAO have characteristics and needs in common with other volunteers and endorse the National Agenda on Volunteering prepared by Volunteering Australia Incorporated. This Agenda represents the interests of all volunteers within Australia (Appendix 1).
8. The CAA should take action to urgently address retention and recruitment issues at a national level, which would include but not be limited to:
   • developing best practice guidelines for VAO management to assist retention by developing a supportive organisational culture;
   • monitoring and reviewing the impact of legislation on the VAO role;
   • developing best practice guidelines for recruitment of VAO;
   • monitoring the level of ambulance service coverage provided by VAO for rural and remote areas throughout Australia.
9. The members of CAA should share information regarding the success and failure of management support initiatives for VAO to develop best practice guidelines for VAO management. These guidelines should include clinical support services that provide equity in the treatment of VAO and full time paid staff, good communication practices, and forms of recognition that validate VAO service.
10. The CAA's Ambulance Education Council should support a comprehensive program of training support for volunteers that encompasses national standards, focuses on competency and utilises flexible training delivery methods. Ambulance services must simultaneously work to ensure VAO are not subjected to onerous bureaucratic processes, but instead are assisted in navigating and meeting the range of administrative requirements as members of large organisations.
11. Ambulance services should share available resources for delivering training to VAO recognised under the Australian Quality Training Framework, such as web based training packages, to enhance flexibility and increase cost efficiencies.