The Root Cause Analysis Of A Paramedic Field Training Officer

Work Conflict

I work as a Paramedic Field Training Officer for a busy municipal emergency services agency. My duties are focused primarily on training our newly hired employees so as they can become fully functional independently practicing Paramedics. They have been to Paramedic school, they have attended our classroom academy and now they have several months of field training to learn and to show that they can perform the tasks.

Today I am going to focus on one area of conflict that I encountered with a trainee; it was in the domain of the positive affect (or lack thereof). The trainee was young and inexperienced; however, this was countered by a staggeringly high level of arrogance in his interpersonal dealings. The issues gradually came
I will apply the root cause analysis method to look into this incident.

The Root Cause Analysis method appeals to me because it is very straightforward and easy to use and I even downloaded a template where I could plug the date into the various boxes which was a great experience as it laid out the entire issue in a big chart that was easily understood.

1. What happened? – a reliable source with a witness related the above version of events. The Nurse, who is known to me as a very polite level headed person, is very upset.

2. Collection of data- I get statements from the Nurse and the witness. I also look at my own data of ever increasing levels of inappropriate behavior from the trainee and formulate a timeline of related incidents based on my prior documentation.

I interviewed the trainee, he states that he did make the comment and did get angry but he claims that the nurses here are always rude to him and she was making him wait for no reason and he got annoyed\- “but she started
Root cause- it is my personal opinion that the trainee lacks emotional maturity and lacks basic judgement skills.

5. Recommendation- Immediately the trainee must apologize for his actions to the Nurse and patient.

I also recommend that the trainee be returned to the academy classroom environment for intensive remediation in the area of the “positive affect” and developing emotional maturity before any further attempt at field training be undertaken.

I am responsible to ensure that he immediately apologizes to the Nurse. My supervisor, the training Director, decides whether to accept my recommendation or not, and also whether further disciplinary action is needed.

This was a real incident and it was handled in this fashion- although I wasn’t aware at the time that I was using the “Root Cause Analysis” method. The behavior had been escalating since the beginning of his employment with our organization. We do pre-screen people with psychological exams and they have to be interviewed by our staff psychologist as part of the hiring process. This Root Cause Analysis method is something that I may introduce as an evaluation tool on a daily basis with trainees and I may even have them evaluate themselves with