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Introduction: This study aimed to investigate occupational factors associated with burnout among a sample of 9-1-1 public safety telecommunicators (PSTs)., Methods: An online survey measuring organizational factors (ie, perceived visibility and inclusion in the agency, respectful culture, leadership support, perceived gratitude, and coworker conflict); job characteristic s (ie, work-life integration, overtime, salary satisfaction, and job meaningfulness); and burnout, demographic, and call center characteristics was emailed to a sample of PSTs., Analysis: Descriptive, bivariate, and multiple linear regression analyses were used to characterize the sample and investigate relationships among variables., Results: PSTs (N = 324) completed the survey. Multivariate analysis showed that poor work-life integration and coworker conflict were associated with greater PST burnout, while job meaningfulness and perceptions of greater visibility and inclusion were linked to decreased levels of burnout., Conclusion: Occupational factors were associated with burnout among PSTs., Competing Interests: Conflict of interest for all authors: None declared., (Copyright © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. on behalf of the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.)

Linguistically diverse communities face barriers to receiving appropriate health information. COVID-19 exacerbated these health-communication inequities. University of Washington researchers surveyed bilingual staff, students, and medical interpreters - desiring training to become effective communicators of COVID-19 information to their social networks and language communities. In response, the COVID-19 Information Navigator Training was developed and pre-tested with professional networks and members of the target audience. The final training comprised three interactive modules and short quizzes. Evaluation surveys measured Information Navigators' confidence in providing COVID-19 information to their social networks. Surveys included questions on the participants' language or cultural community, the perceived value of the training, and their ability to communicate COVID-19 information. Among 393 participants who enrolled in the training, 284 completed the survey. Significant differences in confidence before and after the course were found in detecting COVID misinformation in the news and social media (pre-course mean: 3.83, post-course mean: 4.63; absolute mean difference was 0.82 points higher in the post-evaluation on the 5-point likert scale, 95% CI: 0.70-0.93, p  < .01). Training multicultural volunteers to disseminate information to their social networks is a promising strategy for reaching linguistically diverse communities with up-to-date information during health emergencies.

Background: 9-1-1 telecommunicators are frequently exposed to indirect traumatic events that impact their mental and physical health and are often required to work overtime with rotating shifts. Previous studies reported various harmful effects of overtime on the health and well-being of workers, such as musculoskeletal injuries, burnout, low job satisfaction, fatigue, and intent to leave. However, there is limited research on the impact of overtime hours on 9-1-1 telecommunicators' stress symptoms, especially mandatory overtime hours. This study aimed to examine the relationship between overtime hours-mandatory and voluntary-and the level of stress symptoms among 9-1-1 telecommunicators., Methods: We used secondary data from the surveys of the "Multi-tasking to hyper-tasking: Investigating the impact of Next Generation 9-1-1" study for analysis. Linear mixed-effects regression was applied to examine the association of overtime hours with the stress level., Results: Of the 403 participants, 47.6% reported that they were required to work mandatory overtime, and the mean mandatory overtime was 7.51 ( SD = 12.78) hours in the past month. 58.3% reported working voluntary overtime, and the mean voluntary overtime was 11.63 ( SD = 17.48) hours. This study found that mandatory overtime hours were associated with an increase in self-reported stress symptoms (β = 0.30, p = .002), whereas no significant association was found between voluntary overtime and the level of stress symptoms (β = -0.01, p = .885)., Conclusion/application to Practice: Study results highlight the importance of reducing mandatory overtime in call centers as one possible strategy for reducing stress levels among this critical workforce., Competing Interests: Conflict of InterestThe author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.