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For frontline ambulance personnel, moral virtues support meaning and purpose.

Among London paramedics, positive core values aid in navigating job challenges.

Leadership plays an essential role in maintaining positive moral values in such in extremis occupations.

Paramedics face daily challenges in their profession. Shiftwork, physical workload, and dealing with life-and-death situations are often exceedingly stressful. Paramedics must cope with traumatic and morally challenging situations while making fast decisions that have significant outcomes for patients. The London Ambulance Service, for example, responds to thousands of calls for service each day. Many are routine and not life-threatening, but more serious situations occur regularly.

Meaning and purpose are essential for nearly all occupations. This is perhaps especially true for paramedics. Responding to emergencies and saving lives is intrinsically rewarding.

However, the daily grind of seeing others in dire need of help, combined with the organizational stress inherent in such occupations, may erode the idealistic core values that motivated joining the ambulance service in the first place. All too often, paramedics experience job burnout that may in turn lead to poor job performance, a cynical attitude, or leaving the ambulance service altogether.

An Empirical Study of Moral Values Among Paramedics

Understanding the role of meaning and purpose in such in extremis occupations may prove useful in recruiting and retaining skilled paramedics. London Ambulance Service training officer and paramedic Nicholas Kilpatrick recently completed his Master’s degree research project, which addressed the question of the role of meaning and purpose among London Ambulance Service front-line personnel.[1] These are the service members responsible for responding to over two million emergencies in London each year. Ranging from........

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