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Attitudes towards protecting Emergency Medical Services (EMS) staff from violence and aggression: a survey of adults in Wales

Nigel Rees Orcid Logo, Daniel Tod, Francesca Fiorentino Orcid Logo, Peter O’Meara Orcid Logo, Lauren Williams, Julia Williams Orcid Logo, Claire Hawkes Orcid Logo

BMJ Open, Volume: 15, Issue: 4, Start page: e092949

Swansea University Author: Daniel Tod

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DOI (Published version): 10.1136/bmjopen-2024-092949

Abstract

Objective: To explore the Welsh public’s views of violence and aggression (V&A) directed at EMS (emergency medical services) staff, awareness of policy changes and the reach of media campaigns. Design/setting/participants: Survey involving non-probabilistic purposive sampling of 1010 Wales adult...

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Published in: BMJ Open
ISSN: 2044-6055 2044-6055
Published: BMJ Publishing Group 2025
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URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa69365
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Design/setting/participants: Survey involving non-probabilistic purposive sampling of 1010 Wales adults (aged 18+) from a matched panel, representative of the population, derived from a UK YouGov panel of &gt;360 000 adults registered. Results: Most (62.5%) participants had heard of V&amp;A directed towards EMS staff; 81.1% had heard about it through the media. 21.0% of participants had witnessed V&amp;A towards EMS staff; younger participants were more likely to have witnessed an incident 18.7% via a social setting and 81.1% through the media. 90.4% disagreed with the statement that V&amp;A towards EMS staff can be acceptable in some cases, and 53.3% were not aware of related media campaigns. Participants thought intoxication with alcohol (92.4%), drugs (90.5%) and altered mental status following illness and/or injury (84.3%) would likely contribute to V&amp;A towards EMS staff. 22.0% of participants were aware of the Assaults on Emergency Workers Act. Although I thought the act was unlikely to deter perpetrators who were intoxicated with drugs (75.2%), alcohol (75.2%), with altered mental status following illness and/or injury (75.6%) or other member of the public (42.4%). Younger participants were more likely to think the act would deter those intoxicated with drugs, alcohol, with altered mental status following illness and/or injury and other members of the public. Those with social grades of C2/D/E thought the act was likely to deter those intoxicated with drugs. Conclusion: There is good public awareness of V&amp;A directed towards EMS staff in Wales who find it unacceptable. Our survey found limited awareness and perceived effectiveness of related legislation and media campaigns in the last 2 years. Participants thought legislation would not deter those intoxicated with drugs, alcohol or altered mental status. 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spelling 2025-04-28T11:25:33.0853515 v2 69365 2025-04-28 Attitudes towards protecting Emergency Medical Services (EMS) staff from violence and aggression: a survey of adults in Wales fbb6764a346f9e12b7978d67130240f7 Daniel Tod Daniel Tod true false 2025-04-28 MEDS Objective: To explore the Welsh public’s views of violence and aggression (V&A) directed at EMS (emergency medical services) staff, awareness of policy changes and the reach of media campaigns. Design/setting/participants: Survey involving non-probabilistic purposive sampling of 1010 Wales adults (aged 18+) from a matched panel, representative of the population, derived from a UK YouGov panel of >360 000 adults registered. Results: Most (62.5%) participants had heard of V&A directed towards EMS staff; 81.1% had heard about it through the media. 21.0% of participants had witnessed V&A towards EMS staff; younger participants were more likely to have witnessed an incident 18.7% via a social setting and 81.1% through the media. 90.4% disagreed with the statement that V&A towards EMS staff can be acceptable in some cases, and 53.3% were not aware of related media campaigns. Participants thought intoxication with alcohol (92.4%), drugs (90.5%) and altered mental status following illness and/or injury (84.3%) would likely contribute to V&A towards EMS staff. 22.0% of participants were aware of the Assaults on Emergency Workers Act. Although I thought the act was unlikely to deter perpetrators who were intoxicated with drugs (75.2%), alcohol (75.2%), with altered mental status following illness and/or injury (75.6%) or other member of the public (42.4%). Younger participants were more likely to think the act would deter those intoxicated with drugs, alcohol, with altered mental status following illness and/or injury and other members of the public. Those with social grades of C2/D/E thought the act was likely to deter those intoxicated with drugs. Conclusion: There is good public awareness of V&A directed towards EMS staff in Wales who find it unacceptable. Our survey found limited awareness and perceived effectiveness of related legislation and media campaigns in the last 2 years. Participants thought legislation would not deter those intoxicated with drugs, alcohol or altered mental status. Therefore, we recommend further research to understand and develop evidence-based interventions for these groups of people. We also recommend amplifying messages targeted towards young people and through social settings where V&A may be encountered. Journal Article BMJ Open 15 4 e092949 BMJ Publishing Group 2044-6055 2044-6055 25 4 2025 2025-04-25 10.1136/bmjopen-2024-092949 COLLEGE NANME Medical School COLLEGE CODE MEDS Swansea University Another institution paid the OA fee The study was funded by Wesh Ambulance Services pathway to portfolio funding. 2025-04-28T11:25:33.0853515 2025-04-28T11:13:04.9277244 Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences Swansea University Medical School - Health Data Science Nigel Rees 0000-0001-8799-5335 1 Daniel Tod 2 Francesca Fiorentino 0000-0001-9817-6634 3 Peter O’Meara 0000-0001-8657-5646 4 Lauren Williams 5 Julia Williams 0000-0003-0796-5465 6 Claire Hawkes 0000-0001-8236-3558 7 69365__34123__557c3c553e084ee49b6863517fb53bf3.pdf 69365.VOR.pdf 2025-04-28T11:20:41.1669299 Output 491351 application/pdf Version of Record true © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2025. This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license. true eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
title Attitudes towards protecting Emergency Medical Services (EMS) staff from violence and aggression: a survey of adults in Wales
spellingShingle Attitudes towards protecting Emergency Medical Services (EMS) staff from violence and aggression: a survey of adults in Wales
Daniel Tod
title_short Attitudes towards protecting Emergency Medical Services (EMS) staff from violence and aggression: a survey of adults in Wales
title_full Attitudes towards protecting Emergency Medical Services (EMS) staff from violence and aggression: a survey of adults in Wales
title_fullStr Attitudes towards protecting Emergency Medical Services (EMS) staff from violence and aggression: a survey of adults in Wales
title_full_unstemmed Attitudes towards protecting Emergency Medical Services (EMS) staff from violence and aggression: a survey of adults in Wales
title_sort Attitudes towards protecting Emergency Medical Services (EMS) staff from violence and aggression: a survey of adults in Wales
author_id_str_mv fbb6764a346f9e12b7978d67130240f7
author_id_fullname_str_mv fbb6764a346f9e12b7978d67130240f7_***_Daniel Tod
author Daniel Tod
author2 Nigel Rees
Daniel Tod
Francesca Fiorentino
Peter O’Meara
Lauren Williams
Julia Williams
Claire Hawkes
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container_title BMJ Open
container_volume 15
container_issue 4
container_start_page e092949
publishDate 2025
institution Swansea University
issn 2044-6055
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doi_str_mv 10.1136/bmjopen-2024-092949
publisher BMJ Publishing Group
college_str Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences
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hierarchy_top_id facultyofmedicinehealthandlifesciences
hierarchy_top_title Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences
hierarchy_parent_id facultyofmedicinehealthandlifesciences
hierarchy_parent_title Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences
department_str Swansea University Medical School - Health Data Science{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences{{{_:::_}}}Swansea University Medical School - Health Data Science
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description Objective: To explore the Welsh public’s views of violence and aggression (V&A) directed at EMS (emergency medical services) staff, awareness of policy changes and the reach of media campaigns. Design/setting/participants: Survey involving non-probabilistic purposive sampling of 1010 Wales adults (aged 18+) from a matched panel, representative of the population, derived from a UK YouGov panel of >360 000 adults registered. Results: Most (62.5%) participants had heard of V&A directed towards EMS staff; 81.1% had heard about it through the media. 21.0% of participants had witnessed V&A towards EMS staff; younger participants were more likely to have witnessed an incident 18.7% via a social setting and 81.1% through the media. 90.4% disagreed with the statement that V&A towards EMS staff can be acceptable in some cases, and 53.3% were not aware of related media campaigns. Participants thought intoxication with alcohol (92.4%), drugs (90.5%) and altered mental status following illness and/or injury (84.3%) would likely contribute to V&A towards EMS staff. 22.0% of participants were aware of the Assaults on Emergency Workers Act. Although I thought the act was unlikely to deter perpetrators who were intoxicated with drugs (75.2%), alcohol (75.2%), with altered mental status following illness and/or injury (75.6%) or other member of the public (42.4%). Younger participants were more likely to think the act would deter those intoxicated with drugs, alcohol, with altered mental status following illness and/or injury and other members of the public. Those with social grades of C2/D/E thought the act was likely to deter those intoxicated with drugs. Conclusion: There is good public awareness of V&A directed towards EMS staff in Wales who find it unacceptable. Our survey found limited awareness and perceived effectiveness of related legislation and media campaigns in the last 2 years. Participants thought legislation would not deter those intoxicated with drugs, alcohol or altered mental status. Therefore, we recommend further research to understand and develop evidence-based interventions for these groups of people. We also recommend amplifying messages targeted towards young people and through social settings where V&A may be encountered.
published_date 2025-04-25T05:27:59Z
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