Firefighters may have multiple job duties including fighting fires and over-haul, rescue, providing emergency medical services (EMS), being members of the HAZMAT (hazardous materials) team, providing technical services, and responding to non-medical or non-emergency situations. Every year, tens of thousands of firefighters are injured on the job while performing the job duties listed above, during training sessions, and when involved in motor vehicle crashes during response to emergency and non-emergency situations (Karter, 2008). In 2007, there were an estimated 80,100 recorded firefighter injuries (Karter & Molis, 2008) and 79,700 recorded injuries in 2008 (Karter & Molis, 2009) that occurred on duty nation-wide.
This research study analyzes the effect on the number of injuries, days absent from work, and mean and median health care costs after altering the shift schedule at the Sycamore Township Fire Department in Cincinnati, OH. The following variables are analyzed: age at time of injury, experience (in years) at time of injury, gender, benefit type, days absent from work, injury group classification, and health care costs.
The results from the statistical analyses conclude that the pre- and post-shift change injury groups were similar in regards to age, experience level, gender and benefit type. The number of injuries and mean and median health care costs did not decrease after the shift change was implemented; however, the number of days absent from work did increase. Because other research studies involving the effects of injuries and altering shift schedules could be not be found in literature searches, additional research should be conducted on the effect of implementing a 24 hour on/72 hour off shift schedule.