Edmonton Metro EMS - Disabling Injury Rate
How dangerous is it to work as a paramedic?
Through FOIP requests, we have been tracking disabling injury rates that clearly show EMS is an outlier when compared to the provincial average. Any physical or psychological injury that results in a worker missing at least one day of work is considered a disabling injury. The data shows EMS services have a higher disabling injury rate in general. However, Edmonton Metro EMS has consistently had a staggering rate higher than other industries and ambulance services. While this graph uses data from 2023, our most recent FOIP requests have shown the 2024/2025 AHS fiscal year had a disabling injury rate of 21.14 per 100 staff in Edmonton Metro EMS. This means roughly 1 in 5 Edmonton paramedics suffered a disabling injury in 2024/2025. Paramedics face several hazards on the job including traffic accidents, violent patients, lifting patients and psychological injury from exposure to traumatic incidents. Despite these hazards, every paramedic deserves to end their shift just as healthy as they were when they started it.
The consistently high disabling injury rate of Edmonton paramedics shows that EMS culture accepts high injury rates as "part of the job". This is unacceptable and is a direct contributor to paramedics leaving the profession in droves. It is possible to decrease our injury rate and we want to see change that prioritizes protecting paramedics. Unnecessary lights and sirens driving, increased workloads, decreased resources, lack of convenient reporting for violence against paramedics, lack of consequences for those who assault paramedics and lack of downtime to decompress and recover from the stress of the job are all areas that can see improvement.
Keeping paramedics healthy is what allows them to be available to serve the public. Investing in reducing and mitigating the hazards of EMS will result in better retention rates and a more robust workforce that is able to provide the pre-hospital care that the public deserves.
