Santo Domingo is the largest city in the Dominican Republic. In recent years this city has experienced a significant increase in ambulance services.
Objective: To describe the current emergency medical services (EMS) workforce trends in Santo Domingo.
Methods: This was a cross-sectional descriptive study. Emergency medical services providers working within the city of Santo Domingo filled out a nine-item self-administered questionnaire.
Results: A total of 101 providers, 48 volunteer and 53 paid, returned the survey (response rates of 75% and 91.4%, respectively). The volunteers showed a mean of 7.48 +/- 2.02 years of involvement in EMS, whereas the paid providers had a mean of 3.58 +/- 2.91 years. When asked about planned long-term involvement in EMS, 93.8% of the volunteers responded positively, compared with 58.5% of the paid group. Nine (16.98%) of the paid providers were not satisfied with their jobs, whereas all the volunteers (100%) stated that they were satisfied; 46 (86.8%) and 27 (50.9%) of the paid providers agreed that better salary and better work hours, respectively, would influence their satisfaction. Among the volunteers, 40 (83.3%) stated that occupational health insurance would improve job satisfaction; and 39 (81.3%) stated that life insurance would bring satisfaction to their job. Logistic regression analysis showed no predictive association between job satisfaction and years of service (p = 0.342).
Conclusion: Volunteers appeared to be less educated but with a higher long-term interest in EMS. Salary and better work hours seem to be important factors affecting satisfaction of paid providers, whereas occupational health and life insurance appear to affect the satisfaction of volunteers.