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Exploring Canadian Career Firefighters’ Understanding of the Return-to-Work Process After Musculoskeletal Injuries

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Abstract

Purpose

Firefighters perform dangerous and physically demanding work, increasing their risk of musculoskeletal injuries that can lead to work absences. Return-to-work procedures can help firefighters return-to-work sooner and safely. The purpose of this study was to explore what firefighters understand about return-to-work procedures in their workplaces, and what firefighters believe the facilitators and barriers to return-to-work are.

Methods

Thirty-eight Canadian career firefighters were recruited for semi-structured interviews. Qualitative descriptive methods were used to analyze the transcripts. Two researchers performed the inductive coding and thematic analysis.

Results

Five themes were identified: 1. Variation in the return-to-work process knowledge among firefighters based on their experiences; 2. Accessible medical resources and treatments to support injury recovery; 3. Light duties must be meaningful and suitable; 4. Pressures to return-to-work too soon may lead to negative consequences; and 5. Heavy physical demands of firefighting may become a barrier for return-to-work. ‘Factors affecting RTW depended on personal experiences and context’ was the overarching theme identified, as many reported facilitators for return-to-work were also reported as barriers in different contexts. There was a variation in the experiences and understanding of return-to-work.

Conclusion

There is a lack of knowledge of the return-to-work processes. Firefighters require access to clear return-to-work policies and procedures and treatments that are targeted to firefighting duties to support recovery from injuries and regain physical abilities after an injury. Firefighters must be able to perform all essential duties before returning to firefighting work, as returning to work too soon can lead to further injury.

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Data Availability

The codes generated and the direct quotes identified during the current study are not publicly available to protect the privacy of the participants, but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable requests. The original transcripts from the current study are not publicly available to protect the privacy of the participants.

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Acknowledgements

Thank you to our firefighter partner organizations and collaborators who supported our research. We also thank you Mostin Hu for assistance with data collection.

Funding

This research was funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR FRN HPW-146016) and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC FRN 890-2016- 3013). J.M. was supported by a Canada Research Chair in Musculoskeletal Health Outcomes and Knowledge Translation and the James Roth Chair in Musculoskeletal Measurement and Knowledge Translation.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Rehabilitation Science, McMaster University, 1400 Main Street West IAHS 403, Hamilton, ON, L8S 1C7, Canada

    Shannon C. Killip, Joy C. MacDermid, Margaret Lomotan & Rebecca E. Gewurtz

  2. Physical Therapy and Surgery, Western University, London, ON, Canada

    Joy C. MacDermid

  3. Clinical Research Lab, Hand and Upper Limb Centre, St. Joseph’s Health Centre, London, ON, Canada

    Joy C. MacDermid

  4. Department of Kinesiology, McMaster University, 1280 Main Street West Ivor Wynne Centre, Hamilton, ON, L8S 4K1, Canada

    Nijaanth Thayalan

  5. School of Kinesiology, Lakehead University, 955 Oliver Rd, Thunder Bay, ON, P7B 5E1, Canada

    Kathryn E. Sinden

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  1. Shannon C. Killip
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  6. Kathryn E. Sinden
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Contributions

JCM and ML contributed to the study conception and design. Interviews were performed by ML. Material preparation and analysis were performed by SCK, ML and NT. The first draft of the manuscript was written by SCK and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. Major edits of the manuscript were made by SCK. All authors approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Shannon C. Killip.

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Competing Interests

The authors Shannon Killip, Joy MacDermid, Nijaanth Thayalan, Margaret Lomotan, Rebecca Gewurtz and Kathryn Sinden declare that they have no conflicts of interest. The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose.

Ethical Approval

This study was performed in line with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. Ethics approval was approved by the Hamilton Integrated Research Ethics Board (Ethics project #3289).

Consent to Participate

All of the participants provided informed consent before participating in the interviews.

Consent for Publication

All of the participants provided informed consent before participating in the interviews.

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Killip, S.C., MacDermid, J.C., Thayalan, N. et al. Exploring Canadian Career Firefighters’ Understanding of the Return-to-Work Process After Musculoskeletal Injuries. J Occup Rehabil (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10926-023-10147-x

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