Quality of working life and organizational commitment of Iranian pre-hospital paramedic employees during the 2019 novel coronavirus outbreak

The present study aims to examine the relationship between the quality of working life and organizational commitment of prehospital paramedic personnel in Emergency Medical Systems affiliated to the Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Iran during the COVID-19 pandemic. A cross-sectional study was conducted in 2020, in 12 emergency bases supervised by Kerman University of Medical Sciences and 200 participants were randomly selected according to the table of Morgan. Meyer and Allen's organizational commitment questionnaires and Bolton's quality of working life questionnaire were used in the study. Normative commitment component among other organizational commitment components had the highest mean score, 3.51 +/- 1.06 and emotional commitment component had the lowest average, 3.31 +/- 0.83. Among the factors of working life quality, the skill development opportunities and continuous learning had the highest mean score, 3.37 +/- 0.87 and the wage and material benefits component had the lowest average, 1.65 +/- 1.08. There was a significant relationship between the organizational commitment and quality of working life P = 0.01, r = 0.45. According to the results of the present research, to increase the quality of working life and organizational commitment of Emergency Medical personnel, more emphasis should be placed on the employee participation in terms of decision-making, skill development opportunities, continuous learning and job security.