A descriptive analysis of the Fire service Organizational Culture of Safety (FOCUS) survey: FOCUS 3.0 survey wave

Abstract Background The Fire service Organizational Culture of Safety (FOCUS) survey, is an industry-specific assessment tool used to examine aspects of safety climate and leadership, safety behaviors, organizational outcomes, and mental health outcomes. The FOCUS survey provides participating U.S. fire departments with critical information to improve their work environment. The current iteration of the survey (FOCUS 3.0) includes expanded leadership and mental health modules. Methods This study consisted of a convenience sample of 9,078 firefighters nested within 89 fire departments (career, combination, volunteer) who assessed with the FOCUS 3.0 survey wave. A descriptive epidemiologic analysis of the FOCUS 3.0 survey metrics was conducted. We examined individual-level and department-level characteristics for the participating departments as well as average department scores. Pearson correlation matrices identified potential relationships between the survey metrics. Results Of the 9,078 individuals included in our analysis, the majority were male (88.3%), straight (89.7%), non-officers (66.1%), and non-veterans (83.4%). Our sample consisted of majority career departments (67.4%), with an average of 11 stations, and more than 5,000 calls per year (67.4%). Supervisor support for safety scores were on average 14-points higher than management commitment to safety scores. On average, 12% of respondents endorsed depression symptoms, 10% of respondents reported having anxiety symptoms, and 9% of respondents reported having suicidal ideations within the past month. We observed high positive correlations between management commitment to safety and four leadership metrics (participation in decision making, leadership communication, safety-specific transformational leadership, team psychological safety). Additionally, management commitment to safety was highly negatively correlated with emotional exhaustion (burnout), intent to leave the profession, and mental health metrics. Conclusions The findings from this study of FOCUS 3.0 departments are consistent with prior FOCUS waves (beta-test, 1.0, and 2.0). This study identified that the newly added leadership metrics are highly correlated with safety climate metrics. Thus, they may be avenues for departments to improve their organizational safety climate. This study provides an important first look into the proportion of firefighters who participated in FOCUS 3.0 that experience mental health symptoms. Future research should further investigate the mental health metrics and relationships with safety climate.