Article Highlights
- The problem: Your EMS agency lacks comprehensive wellness resources
- The solution: PowerLine, wellness program software
- The benefits: Build a complete EMS wellness program, reduce burnout, and improve services
The problem: Building an EMS wellness program
It would be impossible to overstate the high pressures and demands of EMS work. EMS personnel make countless daily decisions that can forever change an individual’s life. The stress accompanying this responsibility can easily cause burnout and PTSD, particularly for employees who don’t have access to EMS mental health resources.
Unfortunately, many EMS districts lack sufficient time and resources to build an effective wellness program. Even agencies that do have wellness programs often lack a systematic way to measure their effectiveness in supporting EMS well-being. When agencies fail to provide effective and complete wellness solutions, EMS health and wellness suffer.
As EMS staff are left feeling burnt out and unsupported, they inevitably quit. Morale across your agency decreases, and the remaining staff must work longer, more frequent shifts. This negatively affects recruitment and retention, threatens EMS health and safety, and diminishes the quality of services your agency provides.
The solution: Wellness program software
Ensure EMS staff have access to the help they need with PowerLine by PowerDMS. This wellness program software offers a comprehensive support network and content library of resources to support EMS health and safety. PowerLine’s content library provides practical, customized wellness resources (including videos, articles, and audio content) that directly address the challenges EMS responders face in their professional and personal lives.
You can also upload existing agency wellness resources so employees don’t have to refer to multiple applications or websites to obtain support. For example, you can include contact information for local peer supporters, clergy, vetted therapists, and other services you’ve already established. PowerDMS also partners with professional clinicians to provide peer volunteer training and access to clinicians in case volunteers encounter the warning signs of suicide with your EMS personnel.
In addition, PowerLine offers:
- A nationwide peer volunteer network: EMS personnel can match with peer volunteers outside their agency for anonymous, one-on-one support from peers who get it because they’ve been there.
- Wellness support group sessions: Staff can anonymously access topic-specific discussion groups with other EMS personnel.
- Complete anonymity: There is never a risk of public disclosure or activity being reported to supervisors. Confidential screen names and videos keep users anonymous during peer discussions, group sessions, and app usage.
Finally, your agency can use PowerLine’s dashboard to track usage data and better understand how employees at your EMS agency use the app’s resources. This data includes anonymous tracking of downloads, logins, feature usage, engagement, and user-rated scores of resources and peer volunteers. You will be able to see the most-engaged topics, content, and tools, and gain a better understanding of your employees’ wellness needs – and whether you’re meeting them.
The benefits of the PowerLine wellness app
PowerLine helps you build an organized, all-encompassing EMS wellness program that supports EMS mental health, safety, and public services. This results in:
- Fewer sick days and field errors
- Higher morale
- Less exhaustion and burnout in EMS
- Greater retention and recruitment
This one-stop mobile app ensures no investment is wasted since you can upload your agency’s existing resources into the app. PowerLine improves your staff’s ability to easily access wellness support by reducing the time employees must spend tracking down resources from multiple locations.
Plus, you can rely on PowerLine’s data to gain critical insights into program effectiveness and ROI that drive your future wellness initiatives and investments. In the end, all these benefits mean that your agency is better equipped to provide the best emergency medical services possible to citizens.
Get started
Schedule a demo today to learn more about how PowerLine can help your agency provide complete wellness solutions for EMS employees.