OBJECTIVES : Dispatchers and Call Takers are among the most highly skilled of Emergency Medical Services who deal with the medical emergencies outside of a hospital. Their job is thankless as they deal with the people at their time of distress. Hence the study is one of the first attempt to identify the factors influencing the quality of life among the surveyed population of Dispatchers and Call takers.

METHODS : The study is a cross sectional prospective observational study carried out among a sample size of 100 in and around Greater Vancouver Area (GVA) among paramedical staff , to obtain an insight pertaining to Socioeconomic, demographics, lifestyle factors, behavioral changes and health related quality of life (HRQoL) using EuroQol EQ-5D-5L. A questionnaire is framed comprising of almost 35 questions revolving around the above mentioned criteria. Ethical consent was obtained from Ambulance Paramedics of BC (APBC). Data analysis is done using SPSS version 16.0. The data was analysed to determine the factors affecting the quality of lives of the paramedics and suitable recommendations would be given to overcome the hardships along with unfolding of any knowledge gap existence.

RESULTS : Data was collected and had been analyzed for 55 samples and further analysis is underway. Interim analysis demonstrated that more than half of the paramedics were seldom involved in physical exercise . 52 percent of the call takers were smokers and suffered at least from one of the chronic lifestyle diseases. Lack of Involvement in Exercise and witnessing traumatic incidents at the work place has been affecting the physical and mental health of Paramedics coupled with the workload in the field.

CONCLUSIONS : Interim analysis demonstrated that lack of physical activity, OSI coupled with burnout witnessing traumatic incidents at the work place has been affecting the physical and mental health thus affecting the overall performance of the Paramedics.