Purpose The 2023 wildfires on Maui prompted response and resilience across multiple fronts through public, private and nonprofit involvement. This study addresses how response networks are compared within policies and plans and the actual response and how the actual response is perceived by network actors. Understanding the coordination from policy to practice and the insights from active organizations of the network can better inform how disaster response and emergency management can improve organizational mitigation and preparedness measures. Design/methodology/approach Disaster management literature has identified that documentary data and interviews provide critical context to relationships in practice. This study utilizes both to better understand the role of nonprofits within these disaster response networks. Using documentary data analysis, we examine policy and plan documents at the local, regional, state and national levels and then compare this to post-disaster reports and news articles to better understand how organizations were identified in the network with the government response. The study provides further context with semi-structured interview data to better understand how those collaborations were perceived by participants who were part of these networks. Findings Our findings have indicated that contextually, many of these collaborative relationships – while not indicative of the planned networks – provided effective disaster response because of various elements, such as existing ties and COVID-19 experiences. Originality/value This case is a unique example highlighting coordination networks from the local level because it was extremely successful in part by the community and local nonprofit actors.
The professional identity (PI) is an important psychological resource for prehospital emergency personnel (PEPs), yet existing instruments do not adequately capture the occupational realities of frontline prehospital work. This study aimed to develop and validate a context-specific measure, the Professional Identity Scale for Prehospital Emergency Personnel (PIS-PEPs). An initial 13-item pool was developed through ride-along observation, preliminary interviews, theory mapping and literature review, and was then administered to 894 frontline PEPs in Beijing. The sample was randomly split for cross-validation. Item analysis, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and exploratory graph analysis (EGA) were conducted in the training sample (N = 447), followed by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and gender invariance testing in the validation sample (N = 447). Additional reliability and construct-validity indices were examined using the full sample. The final PIS-PEPs retained 11 items across three dimensions: Survival and Social Relations Identity, Team Relations and Occupational Safety Identity, and Transcendental Identity. The three-factor structure was supported by both EFA and EGA and showed good fit in CFA (CFI = 0.946, TLI = 0.928, RMSEA = 0.055, 90% CI [0.041, 0.069]). In full-sample supplementary analyses, Cronbach's a ranged from 0.685 to 0.878 across subscales, McDonald's ω ranged from 0.715 to 0.881, composite reliability ranged from 0.711 to 0.882 and average variance extracted ranged from 0.454 to 0.714. This study presents, to our knowledge, the first multidimensional scale developed specifically for the professional identity of frontline PEPs. Rather than assuming direct transferability from general healthcare or nursing-focused instruments, the PIS-PEPs provides a context-sensitive tool for future research and for organizational assessment in emergency service settings.
Purpose This study systematically examines the intellectual structure, thematic development, collaborative patterns and current research trends in police emergency response systems research through a comprehensive bibliometric analysis. Design/methodology/approach A total of 510 Scopus-indexed publications were analysed using Bibliometrix (R-package) and VOS-viewer. To explore the field's knowledge structure, bibliometric performance analysis and science-mapping techniques are used, including citation analysis, co-citation analysis, bibliographic coupling, collaboration analysis, keyword co-occurrence, thematic mapping and thematic evolution. Findings Research output has grown considerably since 2015, with the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom as the top three contributors. The intellectual foundations of the field were identified through citation and co-citation analyses, and the transition from operational to multidisciplinary research, with a focus on inter-agency cooperation, psychological resilience, interoperability, and technological capacity for emergency response, was examined through thematic analyses. The future directions for research are highlighted, with AI-related concepts, smart cities, responder well-being, resilience and digital emergency management emerging as themes. Research limitations/implications The analysis was restricted to Scopus-indexed English-language publications and to bibliometric methods, which cannot assess the methodological quality of every study and may overlook relevant studies published in other bibliographic databases and languages. Practical implications The results offer policy recommendations and evidence-based insights for policymakers, police organisations and emergency management agencies to enhance inter-agency collaboration, technological integration, organisational resilience and evidence-informed emergency response systems. Originality/value In this study, performance analysis and science mapping were successfully complemented and combined with a framework of past, present, and future within the context of the systematic synthesis of the literature of police emergency response systems research to obtain a comprehensive synthesis of the literature that provides a structured understanding of the evolution of the research area, the state of the art, and its future research agenda.
Purpose This study estimated the 12-month prevalence of occupational injury among Bangladeshi firefighters and examined its independent occupational predictors, alongside concurrent musculoskeletal, sleep, psychological, and respiratory health outcomes. Design/methodology/approach A cross-sectional survey of 553 operational personnel across 55 fire stations in Dhaka and Chattogram divisions used the Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire, Insomnia Severity Index-7, PC-PTSD-5, and STOP-Bang. Multivariable logistic regression, adjusted for age group, rank, division, night-call frequency, and sleep duration, identified independent injury predictors. Findings In total, 243 respondents (43.9%; 95% CI 39.9–48.1%) reported at least one occupational injury in the preceding 12 months. Portable pump carrying (manual transport of pump assemblies exceeding 90 kg) was the sole independent predictor (adjusted odds ratio 1.68; 95% CI 1.22–2.49; p = 0.002), although the model explained only 6% of outcome variance. Musculoskeletal symptoms affected 49.0% of respondents, moderate-to-severe insomnia 31.0%, probable post-traumatic stress disorder 17.0%, and high-risk obstructive sleep apnea 11.0%. Full protective-equipment access (33.8%) and post-incident psychological support (9.0%) were limited. Research limitations/implications The cross-sectional, self-reported design and purposive sampling of high-incident stations limit causal inference and broader generalizability. Practical implications Findings support prospective evaluation of ergonomic alternatives to manual pump transport and expansion of protective-equipment and psychological-support infrastructure. Social implications Addressing these deficits could reduce firefighter injury and support workforce sustainability and community emergency-response capacity. Originality/value This provides a foundational epidemiological baseline of physical and psychological health outcomes among Bangladeshi firefighters, establishing a baseline for future research.
