Continuity of an essential service during the COVID-19 pandemic: A systematic review and meta-analysis of vaccine perceptions and hesitancy in the emergency medical services profession

Randy D. Kearns, Ginny R. Kaplan and Michael W. Hubble
Additional contact information
Randy D. Kearns: Department of Management and Marketing, College of Business Administration, USA
Ginny R. Kaplan: Department of Health Care Administration & Advanced Paramedicine, USA
Michael W. Hubble: Department of Emergency Medical Science, USA

Journal of Business Continuity & Emergency Planning, 2024, vol. 18, issue 1, 84-96

Abstract: During and subsequent to a natural disaster, there is an expectation that certain elements of society will continue to operate with a degree of normalcy. For example, it is expected that emergency medical services will continue to function and remain reliable for the community served. Expectations such as these are based on the presumed reliability of government and the assumption that those responsible for the relevant infrastructure will have made plans to ensure it remains functional and taken steps to mitigate known weaknesses. The COVID-19 pandemic provides a case in point. Specifically, data captured during the pandemic are now the subject of ongoing review and analysis, and the findings from such studies are being used to inform planning and preparedness for the next public health disaster. This particular study was conducted in response to circumstantial evidence indicating that frontline workers in the healthcare profession may share some of the same ambivalence towards transmission mitigation as seen in the general population when confronted with new and emerging communicable diseases. This is a concern, as when medical personnel are either unable or unwilling to take reasonable steps to protect themselves and their patients, it undermines the readiness of the essential service. To explore this situation in greater depth, the study examines the real-time responses from a sample of frontline personnel interviewed during the pandemic. The results indicate that there are a number of opportunities to improve workforce readiness to assure reliable continuity during the next outbreak, epidemic or pandemic.

Keywords: COVID-19; emergency medical service; mental health; vaccination; vaccine hesitancy; disaster planning; EMS; vaccine; vaccinations; COVID19; SARS-CoV2 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: M1 M10 M12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://hstalks.com/article/8662/download/ (application/pdf)
https://hstalks.com/article/8662/ (text/html)
Requires a paid subscription for full access.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aza:jbcep0:y:2024:v:18:i:1:p:84-96

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Journal of Business Continuity & Emergency Planning from Henry Stewart Publications
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Henry Stewart Talks ().