The Job Satisfaction and Turnover Intention of Emergency Medical Technician in the Private Ambulance Service

Purpose: The objective of this study was to assess the job satisfaction and turnover intention of the emergency medical technicians (EMT) in the private ambulance service, to examine their job satisfaction and turnover intention, and to provide the solution for the management of the private ambulance service. Methods: The survey was conducted with 121 EMTs (73 paramedics, 36 basic EMTs and 12 nurses) in the private ambulance service in Korea from September 15 to October 14, 2011. In the reliability of the questionnaire, Cronbach's ${\alpha}$ was 0.790 for job satisfaction and 0.796 for turnover intention. Using SPSS 18.0, we obtained Cronbach's ${\alpha}$, frequencies, percentages, means, and standard deviations, and performed independent t-tests, ANOVA, and Pearson's correlation analysis. Results: 1) The mean score with regard to job satisfaction was 2.94 and that of their turnover intention was 4.23. In the area of job satisfaction, the mean score of the job demand area was 4.23; 3.97 for the job itself; 3.07 for the area of interaction; 2.98 for the area of autonomy: 2.67 for the organizational demand area; 2.67 for working conditions area; and 1.73 for the wage area. 2) Statistically significant difference was observed in job satisfaction according to age (F=3.819, p=.006), wages (t=-4.640, p=.000), terms of incumbency (F=3.868, p=.011), and in turnover intention it was according to sex (t=-1.995 p=.048), age (F=9.611, p=.000), education levels (F=6.974, p=.002), marital status (t=4.393, p=.000), wages (t=5.515, p=.000), license types (F=8.481, p=.001), and terms of incumbency ( F=14.115, p=.000). 3) The job satisfaction and the turnover intention had a negative correlation to each other (r=-.56, p<.000) in general, and in the sub-7 areas of job satisfaction, the correlation with turnover intention was high in order of the wage area (r=-.61, p=.000), working conditions area (r=-.52, p=.000), the area of autonomy (r=-.49, p=.000), the area of interaction (r=-.45, p=.000), the organizational demand area (r=-.40, p=.000), the job itself (r=-.24, p=.007) and the job demand area (r=-.24, p=.009). Conclusion: The government must take the charge of lowering the turnover intention among paramedics in the private ambulance service by providing the advantage in wages and fringe benefits. Ultimately, this would bring an improvement in the quality of medical emergency services to hospitals especially in the area of patient transfer and transportation.

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