A group of practitioners, researchers, and professors from the University of Winnipeg (Manitoba), MacEwan University (Alberta), and Memorial University (Newfoundland). The research team includes an instructor/practitioner with over 40 years of work experience in the communication sector.

No. Participation is voluntary. There will be no consequences if you do not want to participate.

No. Participation is fully voluntary. The study gives communicators the opportunity to teach the public about the challenges that they face and about this kind of work. The research team wants to use any knowledge created with this study to advocate for communicators to be recognized as first responders, get better work conditions, and receive enhanced training.

Communicators (911 operators, call takers, dispatchers, tactical radio operators) from Alberta and students from MacEwan University’s Emergency Communications & Response program.

Participation in this study involves answering an online survey and potentially giving the research team an interview.

No problem! You may take the survey but not give us an interview. The survey includes an invitation for the interview; you will only be contacted if you say “yes” to that invitation and provide your contact information through a separate, independent link.

No problem! Just contact us at ab-cares@macewan.ca

Employers will contribute to the study by sending all communicators on their payroll an invitation to participate in the study. This invitation will contain the survey link.

The survey contains questions about your job, stressors, coping mechanisms, wellness, and physical and mental health.

Up to 25-30 minutes.

The survey will include a question about whether you want to talk to the research team. If you answer “yes,” you will be asked to provide your contact information so the team can reach out to you to schedule a conversation at your preferred date and time; the research team can schedule the conversation for any time of the day or night. The research team can call you or you can call them. If you want to talk to the research team without doing the survey, you may contact them at ab-cares@macewan.ca

About 1 hour.

It depends on the employer. Some employers may let you do the survey and the interview during paid hours.  

Yes. The research team will record the call to facilitate analysis. They will transcribe your call and anonymize and de-identify the conversation so nobody outside the research team will know who you are.

No. Participation in the study is fully confidential. Also, the survey is anonymous. Nobody will know you are participating unless you tell them or if you request to do it during paid hours (for example: someone from work may see you taking the survey).  

Participation in the survey is fully anonymous, while participation in the interview is confidential.  This means the research team will replace your name with a participant number. The information you provide also will be de-identified. This means that the research team will remove or anonymize any reference you may make to situations, persons, or events that can reveal or provide hints about your identity.

If you regret your participation in the survey, you can close the browser and shut down the survey. The data you have already filled in will stay there and most likely will not be used in the analysis.  

No problem. You will have until March 30, 2025, to contact the research team at ab-cares@macewan.ca and request that your data be deleted.

All original data (survey and conversation information containing personally identifiable information) will be stored by the University of Winnipeg on a secured server (Microsoft Teams in a password-protected folder).

Yes. All procedures in this study have been approved by the institutional review board from three different universities, the University of Winnipeg, MacEwan University, and Memorial University.

You may contact the team at ab-cares@macewan.ca